Backsliders Returning
By Octavius
Winslow, D.D.
“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.”—Jeremiah. 3:22.
There
are some unvailings of God’s heart, which can only be understood and met by
responsive unfoldings of ours. It is not the flinty, impervious rock that
welcomes and absorbs the heaven-distilling dew. Upon such an object in nature,
beautiful and grand though it may be, the life-quickening moisture, thus
descending, is a thankless and fruitless offering—a useless expenditure of one
of nature’s richest treasures. But let that dew, noiseless and unseen, fall
upon the flower, the herb, the tree,—the earth which the ploughshare has
upturned and the furrow has broken,—and how refreshing the boon, and how rich
the return! Thus is it with such an exhibition of the heart of God as that
which we have just presented—inimitable in its tenderness, unsurpassed in its
condescension and grace. Let these words distil upon any other than a heart
humbled, softened, lying low in a low place, in the consciousness of its sinful
departure, its sad backsliding from God, and they awake no tender, holy,
grateful response. How beautiful are the reciprocal influences of the human and
the divine, as presented in the narrative! “A voice was heard upon the high
places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have
perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God.” That voice of
weeping entered into the ears of God, and lo! the gracious invitation—“Return,
ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” And then follows
the instant and grateful response—“Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the
Lord our God.” Mark, how divine and restoring grace gently falls upon the
lowly, penitent, returning soul; and then how the sin-contrite heart of the
child goes forth to meet and embrace the sin-forgiving heart of the Father. Few
will read the pages of a work designed to proffer a helping hand to Zion’s travellers
to whom that hand will be more needful and acceptable than the awakened,
returning backslider. To such, languid and fainting, depressed and despairing,
hesitating to return, doubting God’s welcome,—evidences lost, soul-beclouded,
fears rising, hope vailed,—the strongest cordials of God’s most gracious, full,
and free promises are needful to rouse, revive, and reassure the wanderer that
the Lord invites, receives, and welcomes the returning backslider—the child
retracing his way back to his forsaken Father.
God addresses them as backsliding CHILDREN. He can never forget His parental
relation to them, though they may forget or abuse their filial relation to Him.
Children though we are, adopted, sealed, and inalienably entitled to all the
covenant blessings of adoption, we are yet backsliding children. The heart is
ever swerving from God. The renewed soul possesses the principle of its own
departure, contains the elements of its own declension, and but for the
electing love, the restraining grace, the illimitable power of God, would
destroy itself entirely and forever. Having in a former treatise (Personal
Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul) gone somewhat at length into
the nature, causes, symptoms, and recovery of spiritual declension, my object
now is specifically to meet that state of lukewarmness, tenderness, and
hesitancy which marks the tremulousness of the contrite heart returning to God.
The language in which God addresses you is most reassuring. He calls you
“children;” though a backslider, yet a child. Can the human parent ever forget,
in the deepest provocation of his offspring, that still he is his child? God
here meets His wanderer just where that wanderer stands most in need of a
Divine assurance. What relation is it which spiritual backsliding the most
contravenes, which sin the most obscures, and of which unbelief and Satan,
presuming upon that backsliding, would suggest to the mind the strongest
suspicion and doubt? We answer—the relation of Divine sonship. The backslider
reasons thus—“Is my adoption real? Can I be a child of God, and prove so base,
sin so deeply, and depart so far from my God? If a son, why am I so rebellious,
disobedient, and unfaithful? Surely I cannot belong to the adoption of God, and
grieve and wound the Spirit of adoption thus?” Now God meets the wanderer just
at this critical juncture. He declares that though a backslider, yet he is
still His child, and that no departure however distant, and that no sin however
aggravated, has impaired the strength or lessened the tenderness, tarnished or
shaded the lustre of that relation. If God, then, comes forth, and, despite our
backsliding, recognizes our son-ship, and acknowledges us as His children, who
shall dispute or contravene the fact? “Let God be true, and every man a liar.”
Such, beloved, is the first consolation I suggest to your sad and depressed
soul. Could it be surpassed by anything else I may offer? What! does God still
call you His child? Does He not disown and disinherit you as a son of God and
an heir of glory? Ah, no! He cannot forget that He has predestinated you to the
adoption of children, that His Spirit has been sent into your heart, and that
in happier days gone by you have often called Him “Abba, Father.” And although
you have been rebellious, backsliding, and stiffnecked, yet, taking with you
words and turning to the Lord your God, He meets you as once He met His
repenting, mourning Ephraim— “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself . .
. Is Ephraim my dear SON? is he a pleasant CHILD? for since I spake against
him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for
him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord,” (Jer. 31:18, 20.)
Clear is it, then, that God’s children do backslide; that it is no strange
thing that their love to Him should wax cold, their faith decline, their
strength decay, their zeal slacken, their godly frames grow sleepy and inert,
the spirit of prayer be restrained, the means of grace be neglected; and, as a
consequence of all this inward declension, the world should have an ascendancy,
Satan prevail, and the sin that does most easily beset them attain a momentary
triumph. But still they are God’s children,—O wondrous grace! O changeless
love!—and chastened, corrected, rebuked, and humbled, their heavenly Father
will restore them to His pardoning love and gracious favour, and they shall
again walk with Him filially, humbly, softly, as His dear children, “when He is
pacified towards them for all that they have done.”
What an invitation! “RETURN!” It is GOD who speaks it—the God from whom we have
revolted, departed, and gone so far astray. It is the word of our Father,
against whom we have rebelled, so deeply, so grievously sinned. He trammels His
invitation with no conditions. His simple word is—“Return unto me!” And more
than this,—He has placed before us an open door of return through Jesus His
beloved Son. The covenant of works provided no restoration for the soul that
departed from God under the first testament. But the covenant of grace has this
distinction, this glorious feature—it places before the penitent backslider,
the contrite child, an open door of return, a way of restored pardon, joy, and
peace, and bids him enter. The Lord Jesus is this open door. The blood of
Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus, the intercession of Jesus, the grace of
Jesus, the quenchless love of Jesus, the outstretched hand of Jesus, unite in
guiding the trembling footstep of the returning soul back to its Father. The
present efficacy and the continuous presentation of the Lord’s sacrifice in
heaven, blended with His intercessory work, personally and constantly
prosecuted before the throne, are a warrant that this door to God shall never
be closed while there lives a penitent sinner to enter it. Beware of shading the
lustre of this truth—the present efficacy of the blood. “The blood of Jesus
Christ CLEANSETH”—it is in the form of the present tense the great truth is
put. The past is gone, the future all to us unknown—it is with the present we
have to deal. A present sorrow needing comfort, a present perplexity needing
guidance, a present burden demanding support, a present sin asking forgiveness,
with a present Saviour prepared to meet and supply it all. Grasp this truth
with all the intensity of your faith under present circumstances. Brood not
over what is past, yield to no forebodings and fears as to what may be the
future—grapple with the present. For it you have a door, which God Himself has
opened and which neither man, nor Satan, nor sin, shall shut. You have a throne
of grace now inviting your approach; and you have the blood of Jesus with which
to enter, as new, as efficacious, as prevalent, and as free as when it streamed
from His sacred body on the cross. Let there be no postponement, then, of your
return to God. Tarry for no more favourable moment, wait not for a better
frame, dream not that Christ will be more willing to present, or that God will
be more ready to receive you at any future time than now; or, that by delaying
you will be more worthy of His acceptance. Vain reasoning! God says, “Return
unto me, and He means by this, “Return NOW!”
And what is the promise? “I will heal your backslidings.” Backsliding from the
Lord involves wounds, bruises, dislocation. It wounds the conscience, it
bruises the soul, it breaks the bones of our strength, and causeth us to travel
in pain and halting many a weary step. Ah, there is nothing so wounding as
departure from God! Nothing so bruising of the soul’s peace and joy and hope as
sin! Who can heal, who can bind up, who can mollify, who can reset these broken
bones so that they shall rejoice again, but our sin-pardoning God? We have no
self-power in this great matter of restoration. All that we can do is to make
burdens, forge chains, carve crosses, inflict wounds,—in a word, destroy our
own selves. Listen to David’s experience—“I have gone astray like a lost
sheep.” This is all that he could do. But mark his conscious
helplessness,—“seek thy servant;” and then observe the imperishable nature of
the grace of God in his soul,—“for I do not forget thy commandments,” (Ps.
119:176.) Of how many who bend over these pages will this be a faithful
portrait! Lord! I can leave Thy fold, can willfully depart from Thy ways, can
basely turn my back upon Thyself; but Thou must go in quest of me, seek and
restore my soul; and this I may venture to ask, since I have not forgotten the
happy days when Thy candle shone upon my head, when Thy light guided me through
darkness, when the name of Jesus was as ointment poured forth, when I walked in
sweet and holy communion with Thee, and fed with the flock beside the
Shepherd’s tent. “I do not forget thy commandments.” God will forgive! Christ
will bind up the broken heart! The Comforter will restore joy to the soul!
There is still balm in Gilead, and a Physician there. The healing balsam still
bleeds from the wounded, stricken Tree of Life. The gate of paradise is yet
unclosed, its portal garlanded with a thousand exceeding great and precious
promises, all inviting your entrance and insuring you a welcome to its sunny
banks, its shaded bowers, its peaceful quiet streams. “Who is a God like unto
thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our
iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,”
(Micah 7:18, 19.) What glad tidings these astounding words contain to repentant
back-sliders! What a bow of promise and of hope do they paint upon the dark
cloud of despair which enshrouds the soul! “He will turn again.” Though He has
turned a thousand times before, yet, “He will turn AGAIN;” not “seven times”
only, but “seventy times seven.”
And what is the response of the returning soul? “Behold, we come unto thee; for
thou art the Lord our God.” Behold, we come! just as we are. We come from the
swine’s trough; we come from feeding upon husks, upon ashes, and upon the wind.
We come with the bruise, the wound, the dislocated limb. We come deploring our
fall, confessing our departure, mourning over our sin; receive us graciously,
love us freely, and turn thine anger away from us. “I will arise and go unto my
Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned.” What! after all that I
have done—in the face of my willful transgression, of my base ingratitude, of
my abused mercies, of my past restorings, of my aggravated departures, of all
the past of Thy mercy, Thy goodness, Thy faithfulness, Thy love, dost Thou
still bid me return? Does the overture, the outstretched hand, the first step,
come from Thee? Then, behold, I come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord my God!
Thy power draws, Thy goodness dissolves, Thy faithfulness binds my heart, and,
lo! I come. Thy grace restores, Thy love pardons, Thy blood heals my soul, and,
behold! I come. Thy voice, so kind, invites me; Thy feet, so unwearied, seek
me; Thy hand, so gentle, leads me; Thy look, so loving, so melting, so
forgiving, wins me: and, Lord, I must not, I dare not, I cannot stay away.
Behold! I come unto Thee.
“Jesus, let Thy pitying eye
Call back a wandering sheep;
False to Thee like Peter, I
Would fain like Peter weep.
Let me be by grace restored;
On me be all long-suffering shown;
Turn and look upon me, Lord,
And break this heart of stone.
“Look as when Thy grace beheld
The harlot in distress,
Dried her tears, her pardon seal’d,
And bade her go in peace;
Foul, like her, and self-abhorr’d,
I at Thy feet for mercy groan:
Turn and look upon me, Lord,
And break this heart of stone.
“Look as when, condemn’d for them,
Thou didst Thy followers see;
‘Daughters of Jerusalem!
Weep for yourselves, not me.’
And am I by my God deplored,
And shall I not myself bemoan?
Turn and look upon me, Lord,
And break this heart of stone.
“Look as when Thy languid eye
Was closed that we might live:
‘Father,’ (at the point to die
My Saviour cried,) ‘forgive;’
Surely with that dying word,
He turns, and looks, and cries, ‘’Tis done!’
O my gracious, bleeding Lord,
Thou break’st my heart of stone!”
Thus have we sought to win back to Christ the strayed one, and to help the
returning wanderer heavenward. If the Lord has graciously given you to
experience His restoring mercy, forget not one great reason why you are
restored—that you might hate and forsake the cause of your departure. If we
have succumbed to temptation, it is not enough that we have broken from its
snare; if we have fallen into sin, it is not enough that we have escaped from
its power. God would have you learn thereby one of your holiest lessons—the
deeper knowledge of that which tempted and overcame you, that you might go and
sin no more. Restored yourself, seek the restoration of others. Hear the
injunction of Christ to Peter in view of his recovery,—“When thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Seek to bring souls to Jesus. Let this be
an object of life. Be especially tender, gentle, and kind to Christians who
have fallen into sin, and are thereby wounded, distressed, and despairing.
Extend a helping hand to lead them back to Christ. Your deep abhorrence of the
sin must not be allowed to lessen your compassion and sympathy for the sinning
one. This did not Jesus. If the Church has vindicated her purity and allegiance
to Christ by a wise and holy discipline of the offender, “sufficient to such a
man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye
ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be
swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would
confirm your love toward him,” (2 Cor. 2:6-8.) Thus charged Paul the church to
which he wrote, and in so doing he but imitates his Lord and Master, who, with
a look of forgiving love, could comfort and restore his fallen apostle Peter.
“Be ye imitators of God, as dear children.”
It is no uncommon thing for the Lord’s backsliding children to be sadly and
sorely distressed and cast down by certain portions of God’s Word, containing
delineations of character and denunciations of woe which they suppose
applicable to themselves; and which, so applied, inconceivably aggravate their
soul distress, their mental anguish, and incapacitate them from receiving the
promises and accepting the comfort which God, in His Word, so profusely and so
graciously extends to His children, returning from their backslidings, with
weeping and mourning, confession and prayer. Among the declarations thus
referred to, which are supposed to have, the most direct application, and to
wear the most threatening aspect, are those, so frequently quoted and as
frequently misinterpreted and misapplied, found in the 6th chapter of the
Epistle to the Hebrews from the 4th to the 6th verse:—“For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the
powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put
him to an open shame.” Such are the solemn words, often perused and pondered
with terror and despair by the child of God, which we now propose briefly to
consider and explain. But before venturing upon their exposition let me, in the
outset, distinctly and emphatically give it as my judgment that they in nowise
refer to the case of the regenerate, and that by no ingenuity of criticism, and
by no perversion of error, can they be made to bear strictly upon a state of
real grace, or to invalidate in the slightest degree the revealed doctrine of
the final salvation of the elect of God. Thus affirming our belief that the
persons referred to by the apostle were not true converts to Christianity, had
never passed into a state of spiritual regeneration, let us take each separate
clause of these remarkable passages, and endeavour, in the fear of God, rightly
to explain, and properly to apply His own truth.
“Those who were once enlightened.” Not spiritually or savingly enlightened. The
persons to whom these passages refer had some perception of the doctrines and
principles of Christianity,—the mind was intelligent, the judgment
informed,—but nothing more. They had received the knowledge of the truth in the
intellect, but not the quickening, sanctifying power of the truth in the heart.
It was an illumination of the mind only. They were so enlightened as to “see
the evil effects of sin, but not the evil that is in sin; to see the good
things which come from Christ, but not the goodness that is in Christ; so as to
reform externally, but not to be sanctified internally; to have knowledge of
the gospel doctrinally, but not experimentally; yea, to have such light into it
as to be able to preach it to others, and yet be destitute of the grace of
God.” This is the enlightenment of which the apostle speaks, and nothing more.
Their religion would, in modern terms, be denominated the religion of the
intellect—a religion which, however sound in its orthodoxy and logical in its
reasoning, is but as a palace of ice floating amid the snows and gloom of the
polar seas. But this description cannot apply to you, penitent child of God!
The truth as it is in Jesus has enlightened your judgment, and from thence has
penetrated your heart, and in its light you see the sinfulness of your
backslidings, the consciousness of which has brought you in sorrow and
confession to the Saviour’s feet. It is safe, therefore, to conclude that you
are not one of those persons whom the apostle describes as being once
enlightened, as having swerved from the truth, whom it was impossible again to
recover, seeing they had rejected the evidence upon which they avowed their
belief in, and their attachment to, Christianity—the only evidence Christianity
offers in proof of its divinity.
“And have tasted of the heavenly gift.” A slight difference of opinion has
existed as to the “gift” here referred to; some expositors, among whom is Owen,
make the next clause exegetical of the present one. Without, however,
perplexing the reader with needless criticism, we at once offer it as our opinion
that the “heavenly gift” is the same as the “unspeakable gift” referred to in
another place and by the same writer. It is quite possible for an apostate from
the truth, having the illumination we have spoken of, to have possessed a
certain knowledge of Christ, “the heavenly gift,” without being renewed,
sanctified, or saved. Does not Paul speak of his “no more knowing Christ after
the flesh,” as some still do, with a carnal, fleshly knowledge? Does he not, in
another place, describe the conduct of some who had so far tasted of the
heavenly gift as to “preach Christ,” but to preach Him with “envy and strife,
and contention, not sincerely?” And yet again, is it not true that the same
apostle warns certain individuals against the sin of “eating the bread and drinking
the cup of the Lord unworthily?” What does all this prove but that those who
have tasted of the heavenly gift have no other knowledge of Christ than that
which is natural, notional, and speculative? They have not Christ in their
affections,—Christ as the object of supreme delight and love,—nor Christ in
them the hope of glory. But you have not so learned Christ, O trembling
penitent! It has pleased God to reveal His Son in you. You have tasted, felt,
and handled, with a living, appropriating faith, the Lord Jesus. Your taste of
this heavenly gift has been a heart-experience of His preciousness and fulness.
And although you have gone astray like a lost sheep, yet you have not forgotten
the power and savour of His precious name, which is now more than ever to you
as ointment poured forth. And now your heart pines and your soul yearns to
retrace its steps, to walk once more with the Shepherd whom you have forsaken,
and to lie down again with the flock from whom you have strayed. What does this
stirring within you prove,—this contrition, self-abhorrence, and
sin-loathing,—but that you are not an apostate from the faith, a wanderer only
from the fold, back to whose pasture and repose the faithful Shepherd is gently
conducting you?
“And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.” This clause is more clear and
definite. How far an individual may be said to partake of the Holy Ghost, and
not be savingly converted, has been long a mooted question. These words,
however, place the matter beyond doubt. The unhappy persons to whom they refer
were undoubtedly partakers of the Holy Ghost, but in what sense? Let it be
remembered that it was a distinctive feature of the early Church that there
existed within its pale those who were endowed, some with ordinary, and others
with extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost; such as the power of working
miracles, of prophesying, and of speaking with tongues, and that these persons
were possessed of, and exercised in many instances these gifts, as instruments
of pride, covetousness, and ambition,—the works of the flesh in alliance with
the gifts of the Spirit! Such, for example, was Simon Magus, who sought these
supernatural endowments, not for the glory of God, but as sources of gain, and
as ministering to his carnal aspirations. In his famous letter on “charity,”
addressed to the Church at Corinth, Paul recognizes the fact, that he might be
so far a partaker of the Holy Ghost as to speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, and understand all prophecies, and all mysteries, and yet be destitute
of the Holy Spirit’s regenerating grace. And clearly it is to such individuals
our Lord so pointedly and solemnly refers in His awful description of the
judgment, when He says, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy
name done many wonderful works?” To whom He will say, “I never knew you; depart
from me, ye that work iniquity.” In the absence of the miraculous gifts of the
Spirit, which we believe to have ceased in the Church with the last of the
apostles, men may still be endowed with many ordinary spiritual gifts,
conferring upon them a name, placing them upon a pinnacle of the temple, and
winning for them the admiration and homage of their fellows, who yet are
destitute of the converting grace of the Spirit. This is all that is meant by
having been “made partakers of the Holy Ghost.” But your case, penitent
believer, bears no analogy to this. What does your present contrition, your
distress and anguish of soul prove, but that you are quickened with spiritual
life, and that the Holy Ghost dwells in you? that, despite your sinfulness,
waywardness, and follies,—the grieving and wounding and quenching He has
received at your hands,— the Spirit has not utterly departed from you, but that
still your body is His temple and your heart His home?
“And have tasted the good word of God.” The meaning of this clause is obvious.
The revealed word, more especially the gospel of God, is the only
interpretation it will admit. These false professors, these willful apostates,
of whom the apostle writes, had heard the word of God with the outward ear, and
had so far tasted its power as to yield an intellectual assent to its
doctrines, and even to have felt some transient emotion, some stirring of the
natural affections by the sublime and awful tenderness of its revelations. They
had marked, too, the extraordinary power and triumph of the truth in the souls
of others, and, moved by the law of sympathy, they were for a while the subjects
of a natural and evanescent joy. They had witnessed the power of Satan in the
human soul—how the gospel overcame it; the spell which the world wove around
the heart—how the gospel had broke it; the period of perplexity—how the gospel
had guided it; the season of sorrow—how the gospel had consoled it; the hour of
sickness—how the gospel had strengthened it; the bed of death—how the gospel
had smoothed it; the darkness of the sepulchre—how the gospel had illumined it;
the fear of perdition—how the gospel had quelled it; the hope of salvation—how
the gospel had confirmed it; the glory of immortality—how the gospel had
unvailed it;—and their hearts were thrilled with a transient glow of gladness.
Such were the emotions of Herod when he sent for John, did many things, and
heard him gladly. And such, too, was the case of the stony-ground hearers, who
heard the word, and anon received it with joy, but by and by they were
offended, and fell away, not having root in themselves. These are they who had
“tasted the good word of God,” and this is all that they had experienced of its
power. But not such is your experience, sorrowing soul! You have more than
tasted, you have eaten of the good word of God, and His word is unto you the
joy and the rejoicing of your heart. In that word your longing, sorrowful soul
now hopes,—upon it, weary and sad, your heart now rests, until God shall fulfil
its promise, and restore unto you the joy of His salvation.
“And the powers of the world to come.” The age to come, as the word has been,
and we think properly, rendered. Clearly the allusion is to the Messianic age,
or the time and dispensation of the Messiah. This was the age, or the “world to
come,” to which the apostle refers in another place: “The world to come,
whereof we speak.” He is clearly referring to the gospel, in contradistinction
to the legal dispensation; in the latter the word was spoken by angels, in the
former the word was spoken by Christ. This age, or gospel dispensation, was to
be ushered in and distinguished, “both by signs and wonders, and with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost.” Now, it will not be difficult to trace
the application of this to the apostates whom these passages describe. They had
lived in the early dawn of the gospel age, and amidst its most wondrous and
stirring scenes. They had beheld these signs, had marked these wonders, and
perchance had wrought these miracles. And so they had “tasted of the powers of
the world to come.” All this finds no application to your case, O backsliding yet
returning child of God!
Now follows the sentence of the Holy Ghost upon these apostates from the
profession of their faith. That sentence is the most solemn, the most terrible,
that ever lighted upon the human soul. “It is impossible, . . . if they shall
fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” The key to the
explanation of this awful mystery is found in the word “repentance.” Could they
become the subjects of true repentance there might be hope, but with them this
was impossible. For the fearful sin which they had committed, no repentance was
provided,—for the deep guilt which they had contracted, no sacrifice had been
offered,—from the apostasy into which they had plunged, no avenue of return had
been made,—in a word, for the crime with which they were charged, no remission
was given! Their salvation was IMPOSSIBLE! After having professed to believe
in, and to have received the Messiah as the Son of God, as the Saviour of men,
they had openly and willfully and utterly rejected Him. By so doing they had
repaired to Gethsemane, and justified the treacherous betrayal of Christ by
Judas; they had gone to Calvary, and ratified the cruel murder of Christ by the
Jews; they had fraternized with His enemies, and had joined their shout, “Away
with Him! away with Him! Crucify Him! crucify Him!” And so they had “crucified
the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.” After having passed
through all these stages of sin, of crime, and guilt,—having utterly abjured
and renounced the only means and object and grace of repentance,—it was
IMPOSSIBLE that they could be renewed, recovered, saved! For them “there
remained no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation, which should devour the adversaries.”
But, beloved child of God! we are persuaded better things of you, and things
that accompany salvation. The Holy Ghost has given you the truest, the
strongest evidence of spiritual life in your soul—a broken and a contrite
heart. Bring this sacrifice, and lay it upon Christ our “Altar,” and God will
accept it. Let the holy lessons we learn from the mournful, the irretrievable,
the hopeless case of the willful APOSTATE be—not to rest on spiritual
illumination, however great, nor on spiritual gifts, however eminent, nor on
religious feelings, however ecstatic, but seek after the mortification of sin,
a closer communion with the Lord, and still more to abound in those “fruits of
righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God.” Upon
you these awful words fling no darkling shadow, but your path is that of “the
just, which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the
perfect day.”
“Welcome, weeping penitent;
Grace has made thy heart relent:
Welcome, long-estranged child;
God in Christ is reconciled.
“Welcome to the cleansing fount,
Springing from the sacred mount;
Welcome to the feast divine,
Bread of life, and living wine.
“Oh, the virtue of that price,
That redeeming sacrifice!
Come, ye bought, but not with gold,
Welcome to the sacred fold.”