Basic HTML Version
130
Temperance
those who watch for souls as they that must give an account. They
have lost their manhood, and this they must win back. Many have
to battle against strong hereditary tendencies to evil. Unnatural
cravings, sensual impulses, were their inheritance from birth. These
must be carefully guarded against. Within and without, good and
evil are striving for the mastery. Those who have never passed
through such experiences cannot know the almost overmastering
power of appetite, or the fierceness of the conflict between habits of
self-indulgence and the determination to be temperate in all things.
Over and over again the battle must be fought.
Not to Be Discouraged by Backsliding
—Many who are drawn
to Christ will not have moral courage to continue the warfare against
appetite and passion. But the worker must not be discouraged by
[129]
this. Is it only those rescued from the lowest depths that backslide?
Remember that you do not work alone. Ministering angels unite
in service with every truehearted son and daughter of God. And
Christ is the Restorer. The Great Physician Himself stands beside
His faithful workers, saying to the repentant soul, “Child, thy sins
be forgiven thee.”
Mark 2:5
, and A.R.V. margin.
Many Will Enter Heaven
—Many are the outcasts who will
grasp the hope set before them in the gospel, and will enter the
kingdom of heaven, while others who were blessed with great op-
portunities and great light which they did not improve will be left in
outer darkness.
The Ministry of Healing, 171-174
.
Good Impulses Beneath a Forbidding Exterior
—We become
too easily discouraged over the souls who do not at once respond to
our efforts. Never should we cease to labor for a soul while there is
one gleam of hope. Precious souls cost our self-sacrificing Redeemer
too dear a price to be lightly given up to the tempter’s power.
We need to put ourselves in the place of the tempted ones. Con-
sider the power of heredity, the influence of evil associations and
surroundings, the power of wrong habits. Can we wonder that under
such influences many become degraded? Can we wonder that they
should be slow to respond to efforts for their uplifting?
Often, when won to the gospel, those who appeared coarse and
unpromising will be among its most loyal adherents and advocates.
They are not altogether corrupt. Beneath the forbidding exterior,
there are good impulses that might be reached. Without a helping