"Will you come in and rest while you listen?" I said this to a lonely-looking man. He was standing just outside the door of a room where one of God's servants was speaking. The address we had been hearing was on "Man's Ruin and God's Remedy.”
"No, thank you," was the reply. "I have heard the message the preacher gave, but I am a backslider. For many months I have gone my own way, and I fear I cannot be restored.”
In an instant a text of Scripture flashed into my mind. Turning over the leaves of my Bible I found it and read to him these words: "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." Hos. 14:44I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. (Hosea 14:4).
"This verse," I said, "must have been sent straight from God to you. It is a verse that is not familiar to me, yet it came to me immediately when you told me your difficulty.”
"It must be so," he said. "Where is it?" He took out his own small pocket Bible and handed it to me to mark the verse. Then he read the words himself.
I touched his arm and asked him to come in and meet the preacher. "No! no need," said he; "I have found what I wanted—the way back to Christ!" Grasping my hand for a moment, he turned and was gone; but his face now bore a smile of joy instead of sadness.
My reader, if you are one of those who have known the love of Jesus, and yet have got away from Him in heart, you need to be restored. David said: "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.” Psa. 51:1212Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. (Psalm 51:12). The Lord Jesus says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6).