CHAPTER IX.02

I remember being engaged in conversation some years ago, till past midnight, with an old man. He had been for years wandering on the barren mountains of sin. That night he wanted to get back. We prayed, and prayed, and prayed, till light broke in upon him; and he went away rejoicing. The next night he sat in front of me when I was preaching, and I think that I never saw any one look so sad and wretched in all my life. He followed me into the enquiry-room. “What is the trouble?” I asked. “Is your eye off the Saviour? Have your doubts come back?” “No; it is not that,” he said. “I did not go to business, but spent all this day in visiting my children. They are all married and in this city. I went from house to house, but there was not one but mocked me. It is the darkest day of my life. I have awoke up to what I have done. I have taken my children into the world; and now I cannot get them out.” The Lord had restored unto him the joy of His salvation; yet there was the bitter consequence of his transgression. You can run through your experience; and you can find just such instances repeated again and again. Many who came to your city years ago serving God, in their prosperity have forgotten Him: and where are their sons and daughters? Show me the father and mother who have deserted the Lord and gone back to the beggarly elements of the world; and I am mistaken if their children are not on the high road to ruin.

As we desire to be faithful we warn these backsliders. It is a sign of love to warn of danger. We may be looked upon as enemies for a while; but the truest friends are those who lift up the voice of warning. Israel had no truer friend than Moses. In Jeremiah God gave His people a weeping prophet to bring them back to Him; but they cast off God. They forgot the God who brought them out of Egypt, and who led them through the desert into the promised land. In their prosperity they forget Him and turned away. The Lord had told them what would happen.  (Deut. xxviii.) And see what did happen. The king who make light of the word of God was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and his children brought up in front of him and every one slain: his eyes were put out of his head; and he was bound in fetters of brass and cast into a dungeon in Babylon.  (2 Kings xxv. 7.) That is the way he reaped what he had sown. Surely it is an evil and a bitter thing to backslide, but the Lord would win you back with the message of His Work.

In Jeremiah viii. 5, we read: “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit; They refuse to return.” That is what the Lord brings against them. “They refuse to return.” “I hearkened and heard; but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord.”

Now look: “I hearkened and heard; but they spake not aright.” No family altar! No reading the Bible! No closet devotion! God stoops to hear; but His people have turned away! If there be a penitent backslider, one who is anxious for pardon and restoration, you will find no words more tender than are to be found in Jeremiah iii. 12: “Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.” Now notice: “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the stranger under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you”—think of God coming and saying, “I am married unto you!—and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.”

“Only acknowledge thine iniquity.” How many times have I held that passage up to a backslider! “Acknowledge” it; and God says I will forgive you. I remember a man asking, “Who said that? Is that there?” And I held up to him the passage, “Only acknowledge thine iniquity;” and the man went down on his knees, and cried, “My God, I have sinned”; and the Lord restored him there and then. If you have wandered, He wants you to come back.

He says in another place, “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away”  (Hosea vi. 4). His compassion and His love is wonderful!

In Jeremiah iii. 22; “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto Thee; Thou art the Lord our God.” He just puts words into the mouth of the backslider. Only come; and, if you will come, He will receive you graciously and love you freely.

In Hosea xiv. 1, 2, 4: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord (He puts words into your mouth): say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips . . . I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for Mine auger is turned away from him.” Just observe that, Turn! Turn!! Turn!!! rings all through these passages.

Now, if you have wandered, remember that you left Him, and not He you. You have to get out of the backslider’s pit just in the same way you got in. And if you take the same road as when you left the Master you will find Him now, just where you are.

If we were to treat Christ as any earthly friend we should never leave Him; and there would never be a backslider. If I were in a town for a single week I should not think of going away without shaking hands with the friends I had made, and saying “Good bye” to them. I should be justly blamed if I took the train and left without saying a word to any one. The cry would be, “What’s the matter?” But did you ever hear of a backslider bidding the Lord Jesus Christ “Good bye”; going into his closet and saying “Lord Jesus, I have known Thee ten, twenty, or thirty years: but I am tired of Thy service; Thy yoke is not easy, nor Thy burden light; so I am going back to the world, to the flesh-pots of Egypt. Good bye, Lord Jesus! Farewell”? Did you ever hear that? No; you never did, and you never will. I tell you, if you get into the closet and shut out the world and hold communion with the Master you cannot leave Him. The language of your heart will be, “To whom shall we go,” but unto Thee? “Thou hast the words of eternal life”  (John vi. 68). You could not go back to the world if you treated Him in that way. But you left Him and ran away. You have forgotten Him days without number. Come back to-day; just as you are! Make up your mind that you will not rest until God has restored unto you the joy of His salvation.

A gentleman in Cornwall once met a Christian in the street whom he knew to be a backslider. He went up to him, and said: “Tell me, is there not some estrangement between you and the Lord Jesus?” The man hung his head, and said, “Yes.” “Well,” said the gentleman, “what has He done to you?” The answer to which was a flood of tears.