Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.—Ps. 51:11.
Rev. STEVE P. HOLCOMBE
The founder of the Holcombe Mission of Louisville, Ky.
George Herr says that the old life, with its bondage in sin and its darkness of evil, is a thing of the eliminated past. Finding happiness in his new life, he has consecrated his time, energy, ability and talents to continuous devotion to the task of spreading the gospel among the fallen. Into the gloomiest recesses of penitentiaries, workhouses and jails, beyond portals where visitors are excluded, he has carried the message of Christ's saving grace into the darkness of despairing men's and women's lives.
God has blessed George L. Herr in many ways, giving him daily recompense for the days of misery, shame and degradation, giving him a happy home, glorified by the presence of a loving, devoted wife and the precious daughter, and this story is sent forth with the earnest prayer that God may use it, with its message of hope and cheer, for the salvation of many despairing, discouraged ones who are bound by the awful fetters of sin as he once was.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.—John 6:37.
One of the greatest privileges accorded man is to be a messenger for Christ. George Herr has tasted the sweets of liberty in Christ and he loves to tell those in the terrible bondage of sin that there is an avenue of escape. In his rescue work he has been able to take a great number of homeless, friendless and hopeless men and women by the hand.
Does it pay? The results of George Herr's labors among the unfortunates are a satisfactory answer to this question. It pays a hundredfold in the feeling of duty well done, in the knowledge of many useful lives saved. It pays in words of gratitude feelingly uttered by noble men and women, who, formerly sunk in the quicksands of despair, are now restored to a world of happiness and peace.
Jesus own words are: "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."—Matt. 9:12, 13.
It is our earnest prayer to the Father of all good, that this story of George Herr's redemption from the clutches of sin may, through his unfailing love for all suffering ones, carry its message of hope, its promise of salvation from eternal despair, into the hearts of many who are despondent, discouraged, despairing. May it instill into the hearts of the unfortunate a desire to come back into the fold of the Father's unending love, bringing with it the sweet conviction that no matter how far we have wandered from within the radius of his love, we are still his children, the erring ones for whose redemption he gave his Son to be offered upon the altar of human sacrifice that we, through the atonement of his innocent blood, should inherit the kingdom of heaven.