BY REV. L. S. BOARDMAN This the third in a series of three stories. It shows the disaster which can result when born again Christians fail to go on and get a sanctified heart.

Anna Fields was hurrying by the dark alley in a drizzling rain when she heard a faint moan, paused, and saw an old drunk sprawled out, face down on the muddy concrete. Pity brought her to the stranger’s side but she felt she could not spare the time to aid him. Her proposed visit at Leo’s “Little Brown Jug” must not be delayed. Had she not heard that her beloved Jim spends a lot of time at Leo’s? What else but her desperate search for her long lost husband could have brought her out on such a night as this? Pity for this stranger was strong within her, but love for her husband, mingled with loneliness and remorse over the way she had hurt him, were stronger. She must hurry on.

Presently, the lights of a car making a U-turn lighted the dismal alley for a moment and Jim’s face came into full view.

Anna screamed! and losing all awareness of the filth of the alley, the putrid odors and the rain, she fell upon him. She pressed her soft cheek against his unshaven face, screamed into his ear as if he were a mile away, showered him with kisses, not even realizing her lips were becoming mingled with dirt and vomit.

Jim rallied for a moment. “Anna! Anna!” he blubbered in response to that familiar voice; then blacked out. Five long wretched years ago he last heard that voice. Anna tried, but could not further arouse him. Five years of dissipation and debauchery had brought Jim Fields to this regrettable state.

For hours he’d lain in that filthy alley between high walls, amid beer cans, whiskey bottles and garbage. His ragged clothes were soiled and rain soaked. The stench was sickening. His life was ebbing away. The end seemed near.

Anna finally came to her senses and ran screaming from the alley. Help came running.

Only a few years back Jim and Anna were as happily married as any young couple could hope to be. Jim, a hard-working and frugal man in those days, scrimped, and paid for the mortgage on their little, two -room home. They were intensely happy with each other and with what scant possessions they had.

Jim and Anna were quite different in their makeup but what one lacked the other seemed to provide. Anna, the stronger personality of the two, was the leader and usually made the important decisions. Jim, more quiet and retiring would rather leave things up to Anna than to bother with them himself. Jim worked hard, turned every paycheck over to Anna and she did most of the planning.

Both husband and wife were wonderfully converted in the little community church nearby, but they did not go on to holiness. Naturally, both of them were carnal; Anna in her way; Jim in his. Anna was inclined to suspicion and jealousy even though her husband, up until this time, had never given her the slightest reason to mistrust his love or faithfulness. Jim on the other hand, leaned so explicitly upon his wife that were she ever to be taken away, his stabilizer and balance -wheel would be gone. Before their marriage he was given to excessive drinking, but when Anna complained, Jim dropped the habit. Both of them worshipped their little home, their garden plot, and each other. Anna especially, under rugged preaching at the little church, fell under deep conviction for a pure heart, came to grips with her carnal nature and her life full of worldly idols, but she would not die out and pay the price for heart-cleansing through the establishing grace of holiness. Naturally, Jim didn’t either. And time rocked on.

Little by little they lost interest in the church and finally dropped out altogether. All efforts on the part of the devoted pastor and his faithful wife to recover them failed. They desired only to wrap their little self-centered world around themselves and be content. They did not dream that such sad days lay ahead as they soon would encounter. They forgot that the Bible says, “The way of the transgressor is hard.” They were so deeply in love and so intensely happy that their life seemed full without God.

Suddenly the unexpected happened! A letter from a lawyer in a distant city brought startling news. Jim had inherited a modest fortune. Concealing the exciting development from Anna, Jim struck up a correspondence with the attorney; while at the same time planned for his beloved wife the greatest surprise that could possibly have entered his mind. This was the time when it seemed that their wildest dreams would come true!

Never before, however, had Jim taken a solitary initiative like this. Never before had he concealed from Anna a thing that was on his mind. Never for a moment did he imagine anything could go wrong in his plans.

Stealthily he purchased a few choice acres under towering maples, near a restful stream; a spot which Anna had admired as they occasionally drove by. Its being overpriced did not matter. Jim had plenty now and he would have only that which would bring the greatest joy to his beloved.

An architect soon had the plans for their lovely dream-home drawn. Jim aided in capturing the style and general layout which he knew would best suit Anna’s taste. A contractor was engaged and week by week the beautiful home was taking shape. No touch of extravagance was neglected.

The oriental carpets, pleated drapes, elaborately carved furniture and well-chosen paintings were exquisitely blended by the best decorator Jim could locate. Night after night on his way home Jim would oversee the progress of construction. He dare not terminate his regular job for that would give away his secret. He came home as usual every evening with his soiled clothes and his old model car. But he was habitually late to supper — sometimes very late, until Anna knew that something was wrong.

When she interrogated her husband he made excuses and seemed strangely evasive as though he were hiding something from her. Anna buried her fears and suspicions in a silence which never before had existed between them. Jim read her mind and was uneasy. But the work was progressing nicely. The exterior was complete and the new grass was nearly tall enough to mow The interior lacked only a few finishing touches.

Apprehensions, tensions and silence, Jim realized, had created a barrier between them. “Surely,” he reasoned, “only a few more days of the hovering of that dark, mysterious cloud and the sun of their former devotion to each other would shine again.” Anna remained cold and sullen; Jim preoccupied!

Finally the long-dreamed-of hour arrived. Jim told his boss, “Don’t expect me tomorrow. Wife and I are launching on a second honeymoon.” He then related the whole exciting adventure. That evening the contractor handed Jim the keys and Jim made the final payment and the deal was closed. A more excited man never headed his car toward home!

Upon pulling into the driveway the house seemed strangely deserted. The sun had long since set but the lights were not burning. The door was locked. He entered and a note in that very familiar hand greeted him as he approached the table. It read: “Jim, I’ve left. I could not bear this strain any longer. I have known for some time that you were seeing someone. You never hurry home as you used to do and it is apparent that you have lost interest in everything here at home, including me. Even the smallest repair jobs which you started weeks ago, are unfinished. Several times I tried to get to your heart but struck only a wall of evasiveness and weak excuses. One time you loved me so dearly I never dreamed you could look at another, or become so evasive. I fear my mind will snap. You will never see me again. I won’t stand in your way. I hope you will be happy. Good-bye forever. Anna.”

Jim turned white, staggered, and fell unconscious to the floor. Hours later a neighbor found the man lying where he had fallen, the note crumpled in his clenched fist. At the hospital he slowly mended in body, but not in spirit.

For days he lay in shock. Once on his feet again Jim recklessly auctioned the new home to the highest bidder and headed for old haunts on the Bowery of New York City’s slums. The next five tragic years were spent on the Bowery in drunkenness and dissipation — in and out of cheap rooming houses — in and out of jail. Anna was the chief motivation in Jim’s life and when he lost her he went to pieces.

Anna, meantime, had withdrawn to a distant city, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. Clerking in a department store and severing all connections with the sickening past, she meant to let time heal the wound as best it could. For five long, lonely years her life was no more interesting than a matter of shuttling back and forth between the store and her lonely apartment.

Providentially, a companion clerk invited her to a holiness revival meeting and that night under pungent conviction she repented of willful wandering from God, was genuinely reclaimed and was joyfully reinstated in Christ and salvation. This marvelous transformation added zest to her stalemated existence. She became a faithful attender at the modest, little church on Green Street. The continued revival spirit in the church soon brought Anna face to face again with her old carnal nature and she prayed and died out to old self for days and nights, until that never-to-be-forgotten night when she prayed all day and all night, coming to the end of carnal Anna, and was sanctified wholly.

From that time on Anna’s life became meaningful again. She and Hilda, the clerk who had befriended her, had long vigils in prayer together. Days turned into weeks. More and more (Anna did not know why) she found herself wondering about Jim and the new love which apparently had stolen his heart from her. She wondered if he were as happy as he had been with her in the early years of their marriage. Then unexpectedly it happened!

It was a beautiful morning in early spring. The air was at its balmy best and the customers seemed unusually cheerful. Anna and Hilda were in prayer together for an hour before coming to work that morning and Anna’s heart was bubbling with the joy of the Lord. Suddenly she heard her name literally screamed from across the store. “Anna! Anna!” and a sweet-faced lady came rushing to greet her. Her old pastor’s wife! Like an avalanche came a flood of memories from the past. There was the happy associations, the deserted little cottage, the church they had forsaken, and last of all — Jim. In each other’s arms, amid tears, the story of Jim quickly unfolded. Anna stood pale and stunned. But where was Jim now? The lady did not know, except that is was reported he was somewhere on the Bowery in New York. Within moments Anna walked to the main office and gave her notice. Two weeks later she boarded a plane for New York. It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack but she meant at any cost, by the help of God, to find him.

For days Anna walked the Bowery and prayed, visiting saloons, taverns and cheap rooming houses, inquiring for anyone who might know Jim Fields, ever disappointed, yet never despairing. Were he yet alive, she must find him. Two drunks assured her they knew a man by that name and they seemed to think he frequented Leo’s on the east side. This clue led to the rainy-night-episode in the dismal alley which first we mentioned in this account. There she found him.

During the weeks following, Anna sat reassuringly by his hospital bedside day after day and night after night to the point of near exhaustion, reading to him from the Bible, and faithfully praying with her husband until he, too, had passed from death unto life and became a new creature in Christ Jesus. Only when her strength was spent would she take food and rest.

She then led him also into the experience of perfect love.

A phone call to the parsonage revealed that their little cottage -home, much more dilapidated now, was to be sold for delinquent taxes. Anna promptly took steps to redeem it, for she had accumulated considerable savings.

Upon instructions and the supervision of old friends, the little house was neatly redecorated. It was soon ready with used furniture, curtains at the windows and Scripture mottoes on the walls. Bushes and tall weeds which had sprung up around the place were destroyed and a few outside repairs were completed.

In a honeymoon atmosphere Jim and Anna walked arm-in-arm down the long corridor to the elevator and stepped into a new world which proved to be the happiest they had ever known. “Jim, dear,” and she was brushing away tears of rapturous joy, “at last we are going home.” Sadness stole over the man’s countenance. “But Anna,” he objected, “we have no home to go to.” “That’s where you are mistaken my dear,” she smilingly assured him. “I have a little surprise awaiting you.” With that she hailed a cab which hurried them to the airport.

When comfortably seated on the plane she assured him, “I’ll tell you all about it. I have made plans. Hope you will not be disappointed. And I propose to spend the rest of my life as best I can to make amends for all the suffering you have endured because I mistrusted you. The suspicious and insanely jealous nature within me has been crucified with Christ. My heart is cleansed in the blood of Jesus and the precious Holy Spirit abides.