02.06. Chapter 06. Prayer for Backsliders

Prayer for Backsliders

(5) The fifth matter that James puts in connection with prayer is the recovery of backsliding saints. "My brethren" (the family relationship is asserted), "if any among you" (not the outside, unregenerate men of the world) "do err from the truth" (there’ fore the one contemplated had walked in the ways of the truth and had wandered therefrom), "and one turn him back" (the simple force of to convert,"3 and therefore applied not only to the unregenerate turning to God for the first time,4 hut equally to the recovery of an apostle from a dreadful lapse’) ; "let him know that he who turneth back a sinner from the error of his way" (a "sinner" is one who misses the mark or the road, the one who in the former and parallel phrase "errs from the truth," and so the cognate noun and verb are applied to wrong conduct by saints) "shall save a soul from death"7 (for grievous sin by His children God not seldom visits with premature death ; as witness Ananias and Sapphira cut off in the very assembling place of the church,’ or the danger in which the incestuous Christian at Corinth stood of the destruction of the flesh,9 but which he escaped through prompt contrition,10 and the weakness and sickness and death of others in that church because of gross misconduct. 11 And therefore, as a sample case for prayer, the apostle John says"12 "If any man see his brother sinning sin’13 not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request. All unrighteousness is sin ; and there is sin not unto death." The judgment of worldlings is, in general, deferred to the great final assize of the universe, but God in mercy chastens His children now14) : "and shall cover a multitude of sins" (for if a believer be thus cut off in an erring, unrepentant state, then must he give account of the evil at the judgment seat of Christ,15 and much shame will he then feel;16 whereas repentance and confession lead to pardon and restoration, and his sins are thus covered up by the atoning blood of Christ, and will no more be remembered by God).

How exceedingly blessed, therefore, shall they be who find grace to recover a wandering brother! But this holy service requires an uncommon measure of prayerfulness. For the heart of the wanderer oft becomes proud and hard, and evil spirits labour zealously for his complete overthrow, and prayer alone has energy to defeat this combined opposition.

1 Jeremiah 46:17. 2 Isaiah 55:6. 3 Matthew 9:22; Matthew 24:18. 4 Acts 11:21. 5 Luke 22:32. 6 Romans 14:23; 1 Corinthians 8:12. 7 N.B.—It does not say that it is eternal death that is here in view. 8 Acts 5:1-42 9 1 Corinthians 5:3-5. 10 2 Corinthians 2:6-8. 11 1 Corinthians 11:29-30. 12 1 John 5:16-17 13 The indefinite article of our versions is here really equivalent to the definite article, and is better omitted, as in Greek. It is not some one particular sin only that is in question. Three immoralities are covered by the cases mentioned above: lying, incest, and gluttony. 14 1 Corinthians 11:32; 1 Peter 4:17. 15 2 Corinthians 5:10. 16 1 John 2:28. But persistent, and especially united, prayer has such energy. It works grandly in this sphere. At a prayer conference the case was mentioned of a young man then dying in a neighboring city. The son of truly godly parents, he was himself drawn to Christ when eleven years of age, and until his eighteenth year had made quite distinct progress in the Divine life and service. An unbelieving relative then led him astray, filling his mind with doubts concerning all things sacred, until he seemed wholly blinded by the agnostic fog into which he had wandered.

I was greatly struck by the general, maintained, and intense prayer to God that this case called forth, and my heart was conscious of a distinct intimation that I was to visit this young friend. At the first interview, though we were entire strangers, his heart was opened, and it became evident that the gracious Spirit was rendering him dissatisfied with his state. (What honest heart can repose on negations? How can one rest on nothing?) But his mind was simply interpenetrated in all its processes by suspicions and uncertainty. The inspiration of Holy Scripture, its teaching of eternal judgment, the need or value of the atonement, the idea of a triune Deity—these, and very other item of the Bible scheme of truth, had become as unimaginable to him as T. H. Huxley declared them to be to himself. The simple suggestion was made that he should leave alone all the accessory detail, and. confine his attention to the one central problem, namely, whether Christ is indeed a living Person, and is accessible. That point settled in the negative would necessarily dispose of all the rest; that settled in the affirmative, the secondary questions would be illuminated. This course he took with an honest and good heart; and the immediate and expected issue was the fulfillment of the assurance that whensoever [the veiled and blinded heart] shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away,"1 and he passed the remaining weeks of his, life in a frame of mind as peaceful and joyful in the Lord as the former darkness had been miserable. When sitting with him at that first interview one was conscious that the difficulties lay wholly in himself, and that the enveloping spiritual atmosphere had been relieved from the oppressing influence of wicked spirits. Their obstructing efforts being restrained, it was comparatively easy to help their captive and for him to accept help. To gain this relief is all important2 and this prayer effects of which the following is a further instance, only concerning an ungodly man rather than a backslider.