This reaches no farther than
the physical condition and moral nature, and can therefore be only
temporary in its influence. We must awaken the spiritual
consciousness, and lead a man too weak to stand in his own strength
when appetite, held only in abeyance, springs back upon him to trust
in God as his only hope of permanent reformation. First we must help
him physically, we must take him out of his debasement, his foulness
and his discomfort, and surround him with the influences of a home.
Must get him clothed and in his right mind, and make him feel once
more that he has sympathy--is regarded as a man full of the noblest
possibilities--and so be stimulated to personal effort. But this is
only preliminary work, such as any hospital may do. The real work of
salvation goes far beyond this; it must be wrought in a higher
degree of the soul--even that which we call spiritual. The man must
be taught that only in Heaven-given strength is there any safety. He
must be led, in his weakness and sense of degradation, to God as the
only one who can lift him up and set his feet in a safe place. Not
taught this as from pulpit and platform, but by earnest,
self-denying, sympathizing Christian men and women standing face to
face with the poor repentant brother, and holding him tightly by the
hand lest he stumble and fall in his first weak efforts to walk in a
better way. And this is just the work that is now being done in our
city by a Heaven-inspired institution not a year old, but with
accomplished results that are a matter of wonder to all who are
familiar with its operations.
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