The method of love which Jesus adopted towards the forsakers received the
sanction of success, _for they all came back_. In spite of their
shame and their fears, they returned to their allegiance, with, I think,
much more than their old faith and love. Judas was the only exception, and
even he sought a place of repentance, and, but for his horrid league with
the jealous and cruel religionists, would, I think, have found one.
You see the lesson? If you go on with your work for God, and finish it,
paying no heed to those who, having put their hand to the plough, look
back; and if, in spite of your sorrow, you will struggle steadily forward
in the face of the coldness and carelessness of those between whom and you
there was once the tenderest love, God will not only carry you through
your appointed labour for the world, but He will restore many of those
others to their allegiance to Him and His.
Will they ever be quite the same? Will they not have lost something? Yes,
they will indeed have lost; but, if they come back, in reality they will
gain more. The new union will be more divine than the former one. They
will not merely
. . . rise on stepping stones
Of their dead selves to higher things;
but the beauty, and excellence, and glory of love, the exceeding
profitableness of enduring grace, and the sweet aroma of faithfulness,
will be the more clearly manifest to the sons of men by reason of the
weakness and breakableness of the human vessel.
Let us, then, press forward, without one backward glance, until we finish
our work. Let us thank God for those who are faithful; let us love and
pray for those who fail, expecting to see them restored, healed, and
purified.