The Lord, the Restorer of His People

“He restoreth my soul.” — Psalm xxiii. 3.

Throughout the discussion of our subject, we have endeavored to keep distinctly and prominently before the mind of the reader, the indestructible nature of the Divine life in the soul, the stability of the covenant of grace, and the imchangeableness of God’s love towards his people. The proper unfolding of our theme, demanded more than a bare recognition of these glorious Gospel truths: apart from them, upon what an uncertain tenure would the final salvation of the believer rest! When we are led to consider the uncertainty of the creature, — when we take the history of a child of God, compressed within the short period of a single day, — mark what flaws, what imperfections, what fickleness, what startings aside, what dereliction in principle, what flaws in practice, what errors in judgment, and what wanderings of heart, make up that brief history, — how are we led to thank God for the stability of the covenant! that covenant which provides for the full redempiion of all believers, which from eternity secures the efl’ectual calling, the perfect keeping, and the certain salvation of every chosen vessel of mercy. With what distinctness and sweetness is this truth thus

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unfolded by God himself: “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their inicjuity with stripes. Xcvertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail: my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Ps. lxxxix. 30 — 31.

It will be seen, that two most solemn and affecting truths are recognised in this passage, — the backslidings of a child of the covenant, and the certainty of his restoration. It is more especially with the latter truth that we have to do in the present chapter.

Of the necessity that exists for the restorings of the Lord, we need not here say much; the preceding pages having gone at some length into this point; and yet it forms the basis of our present subject, and is too important to be dismissed with a simple allusion. That there exists a necessity for the Divine restorings, who can doubt, that remembers that the Divine life of a believer has its residence in a heart but partially renewed and sanctified? In the case of Adam before he fell, this was not so; there was nothing in his heart opposed to the life of God within him. The mind, the will, the affections, yea, the whole soul, were one glorious orb of perfect light and holiness: not a shadow dinuued its lustre, not a speck marred its beauty. Every faculty of the mind, every bias of the will, every emotion of the heart, every breathing of desire, were in agreement with its nature, and were favorable to its growth.

But not so is it now. Adam fell, and in his fall transmitted to his posterity a nature totally corrupt in every part; and although Divine and sovereign grace has undertaken to renew that nature, and does so in part, yet it is but in part renewed and restored to its original glory. The Divine life has its dwelling-place in a fallen, fleshly nature. One sentence of the apostle’s explains and confirms this truth, — “The life which I now live in the flesh,” Gal. ii. 20: the Divine life which he lived, was in the flesh. It was encompassed by all the corruptions, weaknesses, infirmities, and assaults of the flesh; there was not a moment that it was not exposed to assaults from within; there was not a natural faculty of the mind, or throb of the heart, that was favorable to its prosperity, but all were contrary to its nature, and hostile to its advance. Let every believer remember, liiat the Divine life which he lives, he lives in the flesh; and that there exists not a day that he stands not in need of the reslorings of the Lord.

Connect with this the many external influences which are hostile to the Divine life in the soul. As there is nothing internal that is favorable to a state of grace, so there is nothing external that assists it forward. It has its many and violent enemies: Satan is ever on the watch to assault it, — the world is ever presenting itself in some new form of fascination and power to weaken it, — a thousand temptations are peipetually striving to ensnare it; thus its internal and external enemies are leagued against it. Is it, then, any wonder, that faith should sometimes tremble, that grace should sometimes decline, and that the pulse of the Divine life should often beat faintly and feebly?

The saints in every age, have felt and lamented this. Hence the prayer of David, which is the prayer of all true believers: “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe;” implying the greatest weakness in himself, and his perpetual exposure to the greatest falls; “Hold thou me up, for only as I arn upheld by thee, am I safe.” Again he prays: “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me;” implying that a believer left to the tendencies of his fallen nature, might become a prey to the worst sins; “Keep back thy servant also from j)resumptuons sins.” In addressing himself to the converted Hebrews, the apostle seizes the occasion thus to exhort them: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” “In departuig-,^’ — implying a constant tendency to depart from God. And what does God himself say of his people? “My people are bent to backsliding from me.” And again, “Why is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a 2^e?7?e//<a backsliding?” Yes, it is a perpetual proneness to declehsion. The sun rises but to set, the clock is wound up but to run down; and not more natural is it for them thus to obey the laws that govern them, than for the heart of a child of God to follow the promptings of its corrupt and wayward nature.

This leads us to touch upon the principle of all departure from God. We look at a believer’s lax practice, we mourn and weep over it. and we do well; we trace our own, and still deeper shame and confusion of face cover us: but we forget that the cause of our bitterest sorrow and humiliation should be, the concealed ])ri)iciple of evil from whence springs this unholy practice. How few among the called of God, are found confessing and mourning over flie sin of their nature — the impure fountain from whence flows the stream, the unmortified root from whence originates the branch, and from which both are fed and nourished i Tbis is what God looks at, — the sin of our fallen, unsanctified nature, — and this is what we should look at, and mourn over. Indeed, true mortification of sin consists in a knowledge of our sinful nature, and its subjection to the power of Divine grace. The reason why so few believers “through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body,” is. a forgetfulness that the work has to do first and nlainly with the root of sin in the soul: “Make the tree good, and the fruit will also be good;” purify the fountain, and the streams will be pure. Oh, were there a deeper acquaintance with the hidden iniquity of our fallen nature, — a more thorough learning out of the truth, that “in our flesh there dwelleth no good thing,” — a more heartfelt humihation on account of it, and more frequent confession of it before God, — how much higher than they now are would be the attainments in hoUness of many believers!

There is, then, in every child of God, the innate principle of departure. Notwithstanding the wondels of grace God has wrought for the soul, — though lie has elected, called, renewed, washed, and clothed the believer; yet if he did not check and rein him in, he would depart, and that for ever! — tliia unsanctified, unniortified principle would bear him away. Is there not in this aspect of our theme something truly heart-breaking? — the subject of a kind and benevolent government, and yet to be always rebelling against the Sovereign; dwelling under a kind and loving Fathers root and yet to be perpetually grieving him, and departing from him; to have received so many costly proofs of his love, and yet rendering the most ungrateful returns, — oh, it is enough to sink the soul in the deepest self-abasement before God! Reader, what has the Lord been to thee? Come, witness for him 5 has he ever been a wilderness to thee, a dry and barren land? — has there been aught in his dealings, in his conduct, in his way with thee, wherefore thou shouldst have turned thy back upon him? — has there been any harshness in his rebukes, any unkind severity in his corrections, anything judicial and vindictive in his dealings? Nay, on the con — trary, has he not been a fruitful garden, a pleasant land, a fountain of living waters to thee? Has he not blended kindness with all his rebukes, tender ness with all his chastisements, love with all his dealings, and has not his gentleness made thee great? Then why hast thou departed from him? What is there in God that thou shouldst leave him, what in Jesus that thou shouldst wound him, what in the blessed Spirit that thou shouldst grieve him?

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218 TIIK LORD, THE UEsTOKER

Is not the cause of all thy departure, declension, unkindness, unfruitfulness, in thyselj] and in thyself alone? But if this has been thy conduct towards God, not so has been his conduct towards thee. This brings us to the consideration of his restorhiif mercy.

The lirst point we would look at is, the love of the Lord Jesus in restorino; a wanderinsf believer. Nothing but the most infinite, tender, unchanging love, could prompt him to such an act. There is so much of black ingratitude, so much of deep turpitude in the sin of a believer’s departure from the Lord, that but for the nature of Christ’s love, there could be no possible hope of his return. Now this costly love of Christ is principally seen in his taking the, first step in the restoring of the soul: the first advance is on the part of the Lord. This is too important a trulh to be lightly touched upon. There is no more self-recovery after, than there is before, conversion; it is entirely the Lord’s work. The same state of mind, the same principle that led to the first step in declension from God, leads on to each successive one: until, but for restraining and restoring grace, the soul would take an everlasting farewell of God. But mark the expression of David, — “He restoreth my soul.” Who? He of whom he speaks in the first verse as his Shepherd, — “The Lord is my Shepherd.” It is the Shepherd that takes the first step in the recovery of the wandering sheep. If there is one asj)ect in the view of this subject more touching than anotb.er, it is this, — that such should be the tender, unchanging love of Jesua towards his wandering child, he should take the first step in restoring- him. S’all an offended, insulted Sovereign make the ‘irst move towards conciliating a rebellious pec, ‘3? — that Sovereign is Jesus: shall an outraged I ther seek his wandering child, and restore him lo his affections and his house? — that father is God. Oh what love is that which leads Jesus in se:ach of his wandering child: love that will not let him quite depart; love that yearns after him, and ieks after him, and follows after him through all! is devious way, his intricate wanderings, and far-off departures; love that no unkindness has been able to cool, no forgeifulness has been able to weaken, no distance has been able to destroy!

Not less conspicuous is the power of J sus in the restoring of the soul: “He restoreth ny soul,” — he, the Onmipotent Shepherd. We want Omnipotence to bring us back when we have v.andered; nothing less can accomplish it. We want the same power that converted, to re-convert; the power that created, to re-create us: this power Jesus possesses. It was essential to the full salvation of 1 ‘3 church that he should have it; therefore, when tiraying to his Father, he says, “As thou hast tiiven him power over all flesh,” — why this power ] — “that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” It was necessary that he siould have power over all fleshy yea, over all the powe s leagued against the church, that he should bring. glory all that were given to him in the covenant o grace.

Now this power is gloriously exerted x the restoring of the soul. Jesus works iji the believer, in order to his recovery. He breaks down the hard heart, arrests the soul in its onward progress of departure, places upon it some powerful check, lays it low, humbles, abases it, and then draws from it the blessed acknowledgment, “Behold, I am vile; but. he restoreth my soul.”

There is infinite wisdoin, too, in the Lord’s restorings. This perfection of Jesus is clearly revealed here: in the itay he adopts to restore, we see it. That he should make, as he frequently does, our very afflictions the means of restoration to oiu’ souls, unfolds the profound depth of his wisdom. This was David’s prayer, — “Quicken me according to thy judgments:” and this was his testimony, — “Before I was afflicted I went astra)^, but now have I kept thy word;” “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me.” The season of trial is not imfrequently the sanctified season of revival. Who that has passed through the furnace has not found it so? Then the declension of the soul lias been discovered, — then the hidden cause of that declension has been brought to light, — then the spirit has bowed in contrition before the liOrd, — then grace has been stirred up in the heart, and a new sweetness has been given to prayer, and a new impulse to faith, and a new radiance to hope, and from the flame the gold and the silver have emerged, purified of their tin and dross. But for the production of eflTects like these, why the many peculiar and heavy afflictions that we sometimes see overtaking the child of God? Think not that our heavenly Father takes pleasure

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in chastening us; think not that it deliihts him to beholil the writhings the liiiocs. and the anguish of a woiuuled spirit; think not that he Idvgs to see our tears, and hear our sighs and our groans under the pressure of keen and crushing trial. No: lie is a tender, loving Father; so tender and so loving, that not one stroke, nor one cross, nor one trial more does he lay upon us, than is absolutely needful for our good; — not a single ingredient does he put in our bitter cup that is not essential to the perfection of the remedy. It is for our profit that he chastens, not for his pleasure; and that often to rouse us from our spiritual sleep, to recover us from our deep declension, and to impart new vigor, healthiness, and growth, to his own life in the soul.

iSor must we overlook the gentleness of the Lord’s restoring. We have a beautiful exhibition of this in the recovery of the stray sheep, as set forth by Jesus himself: “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it I And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” Luke XV. 4, 5. Here is the gentleness of the shepherd, — “he layeth it on his shoulders.” Too feeble itself to walk, too exhausted in its wanderings to return, the gentle shepherd having sought and found it, “lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” Touching picture of the Saviours gentleness in restoring a backsliding soul! What but infinite gentleness is seen in the restoring of Peter? It was but a look; -not a word fell from the lips cf the Saviour — not an unkind rebuke, not a harsh upbraiding- word did he breath’; yet tJtat look — what artist’s pencil has ever been nble to imitate it? — that look so full of love, so full of gentleness, so full of forgiveness, did seem to j “I am going to die for thee, Peter — all this and i ore I suffer for thee; wilt thou, canst thou deny me / ‘’ — that look, so touching, so melting, so eloquent, ‘id so forgiving, reached the heart of the backslidii; apostle, melted it, broke it, and sent him from the judgment-hall weeping bitterly. There was no e>; iression in the look which Jesus bent upon Peter, but ‘ove. Let this truth be fixed in the heart of every .acksliding believer. The Lord restores the soul ^jently. The moment he discovers to it its sin, he cc leys some token of his pardoning mercy: the bahii applied the moment the wound is given, the remec.,* is at hand the moment the distemper is discovered. There is a tenderness, an unutterable tenderne in the heart and hand, in the mercy and the methf, i of the Lord’s recovery of his child, which only he Cy i feel. See it in the case of David. How did God bring his sin to remembrance? By the chastening’ rod? by heavy judgment? by severe expressions of displeasure? Nay; none of these were his messengers: but he sent a kind, tender, faithful prophet, to discover to him his awful backsliding; and the astounding words, “Thou art the man,” had scarcely died away upon his ear, ere he pours iii this healing balm, ‘• The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.” Oh, what gentlenes ■■, what tenderness, are thus shown in the Lord’s restorings of his wandering child! From

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whom could this have been expecled but. from him whose ualure and whose name is locc, — from w liom, but him who could thus ipeak to his backsii(Hng Ej)hraim:” Is Ephraim ir.y dear son? is he a pleasant chikl? for since 1 spake against hiu), 1 do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord ‘’ ‘This is an outgushing’ of tenderness towards a poor, rclurning, backsliding soul, which could only have had its dwelling-place in the heart of Jehovah.

But we have yet to speak of the waij of a poor backslider’s return to the Lord. INLay the Spirit imjKirt wisdom and unction in unfolding this most important point! First, as touching the sjjirii with which he should return.

Looking at the case of the backsliding church of Ephesus, we find the nature of her sin, and the mode of her recovery, thus set forth: “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works.” The first exhortation addressed to her was, ‘-Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen.” She was first called to solenm reflection upon her former state of prosperity.

Let the backsliding believer be brought to this first step.” Remember from whence thou art fallen;’* — revert to thy past history, thy former spiritual state; — remember thy first sorrow for sin, the first joy of its pardon; — reniember the spring-tide of thy first love — how precious Jesus was, how glorious was his persoil, how sweet was his cross, Jiow fragrant was his name, how rich was his grace; — remember how dear to you was the throne of grace, how frequently you resorted to it, regarding it of all spots on earth the most blessed ‘^ remember how, under the anointings of adopting love, you walked with God as with a Father — how filial, how close, how holy was your communion with him; — remen)ber the seasons of refreshing in the sanctuary, in the social meeting, in the closet, how your soul did seem to dwell on the sunny sides of glory, and you longed for the wings of a dove that you might fly to your Lord; — remember how, publicly and before many witnesses, you put oir sin and put on Christ, and turning your back upon the world, took your place among the followers of the Lamb; — remember how holy, and circumspect, and spotless was yottr walk, how tender was your conscience, how guileless was your spirit, how humble and lowly your whole deportment. But what and where are you now? O remember /row* whence yon are fallen! Think from what a high profession, from what an elevated walk, from what holy employments, from what hallowed joys, from what sweet delights, and from what pleasant ways have you declined! May you not truly inquire with the sweet poet of Olney, —

“Where is the blcsseJness I knew
When first I saw the Lord 1
AVhere is the soul refreshing view
Of Jesus and his word 1

“What peaceful hours I once enjoyed S
How sweet their mem’ry still i

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But they have left an aching void,
The world can never fill.

“Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
And drove thee from my breast.”

In the exhortation given to the backsliding church at Ephesus, there is yet another instruction equally applicable to the case of all wanderers from the Lord: “Repent and do the first works.” How can a de- .parting soul return without repentance J by what other avenue can the prodigal reach his Father’s heart? Repentance implies the existence and conviction of sin. Ah! is it no sin, beloved reader, to have turned thy back upon God? is it no sin to have lost thy first love, to have backshdden from Jesus, to have translerred thy ailections from him to the world, or to the creature, or to thyself? is it no sin to go no more with the Shepherd, and to follow no more the footsteps of the flock, and to feed no more in the green pastures, or repose by the side of the still waters? O yes! it is a sin of peculiar magnitude; it is a sin against God in the character of a loving Father, against Jesus in the character of a tender Redeemer, against the Holy Spirit in the character of a faithful Indweller and a Sanctifier; it is a sin against the most precious experience of his grace, against the most melting exhibitions of his love, and against the most tender proofs of his covenant faithfulness.

Repent then, of this thy sin. Think how thou hast wounded Jesus afresh, and repent; think how thou hast requited thy Father’s love, and repent; think ho thou hast grieved the Spirit, and repetit. Humble t’lyself in dust and ashes before the cross, and through that cross, look up again to thy forgiving G; rl and Father. The sweet promise is, ‘• They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, rind shall mourn for him as one moiirneth for his on!- son.” This leads us to touch upon one more point, of vast moment in the way of a soul’s return to God. It is this:

All real return of a backsliding soul is through Jesns. J uis is God’s great Door of approach to his throne. “other entrance will conduct us to the golden Sl .ire; no other will bring luj into the holy of holies. Thus has the Holy Ghost unfolded this truth:” “ving, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and iiving way, which he hath consecrated for us throujh the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a:i High Priest over the house of God; let us draw !■ ar.” O blessed Door of return for a poor, backslidirs 4, heart-broken believer! — a crucified Saviour, in.’hom God is well pleased, and for whose sake he n receive the smner, and put away his sin, can welcome the backslider, and heal his backsliding.

Nor mi;-:i, we overlook the gracious work of the Spirit in the restoring of a backsliding soul; but for him, rot a step in the way of return would be taken on he part of the believer. The first solemn reflection, the first wistful glance of the eye towards the Father’s home, the first sigh that heaves the

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licail, the first tear that starts from (he foiiiitaiii of grii’f, the fust step bent towards a forsaken ( iod, is (he elfcct of his blessed operation, of Ids unchangeable love, and covenant faithfulness. What debtors are we to the blessed and Eternal Spirit! What reverential views should we cnterlain of his person, and what tender thoughts should we cherish of his work!

‘VUa euconragC7yyciUs to return to (he liord are many and great: in the first place, we have the gracious invilatioiis of (Jod InmselJ. How numerous and touching are these! W’hereisthe heart, deeply conscious of its Ijacksliding, that can resist the power of language like this: “Go, and proclaim ihesc words towards the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saiih the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fdl upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and will not keep anger for ever.” Ji-r. iii. 12. Here is the warrant for your return — God’s own free invitation! You want no more. What if Satan discourages, what if your sins plead against you, what if guilt and unbelief and shame combine to impede your way, if God says, “Return!” — that is sulficient for thee. Thou dost want no more; if he is willing to receive you back, to pardon your sins, to forget your base ingratitude, to heal your backslidings, and restore your soul, you have the liroad warrant to return, in the face of all ojiposition and discouragement. Yet again the cheering invitation runs, — “Otdy acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.” “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you.” “Return, ye backsliding- children, and 1 will heal your backslidings.” “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” Jer. iii.; Hosea xiv.

The character of God is such as encourages the return of a backsliding soul. In the invitations he has given, he urges them upon the ground of lohat he is: “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.” O touching, soul-subduing, heart-melting argument, — ‘Return unto me, for I a?n mercifull’’ Merciful to receive you, merciful to pardon you, merciful to heal you. O the boundless msrcy of God in Christ towards a soul returning from its wanderings! Will not this draw you? Again; “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy bins; return unto me, for I have redeemed theeP “Return, for I have blotted out thy transgressions: return, for I have put away thy sins: return, for I have redeemed thee. The work is already done, — the pardon has already gone forth, — the backsliding has already been forgiven; then linger not, but return, for I have redeemed thee.” Here, on the broad basis of the Lord’s free and full pardon, the wandering soul is urged to return. Truly may the apostle say. “If we confess our sins, he ls faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Thus is the character of God, as a merciful, sin-pardoning God, held out in the word as a motive and an encouragement to return. This is just the view of God, which, as a backsHding soul, you want. In yourself you see everything to discourage, everything to forbid your return; and even on awakening to a sense of your departure, your first thoughts of God are such as to repel you from his presence; you are ready to say, “I have wilfully departed from the Lord; I have gone after other lovers; I have hewn out other cisterns: now the Lord has given me up in his displeasure, and has forsaken me for ever in his wrath.” Hut God comes forth, and vindicates his own gracious character, unfolds his own love, and in accents most encouraging and persuasive, addresses himself to his wandering child, and says, “Return, thou backsliding Israel, for lammercifulP In the parable of the prodigal son, we have the character of God towards a returning soul truly and beautifully drawn. The single point we would now advert to is, the posture of the father on the approach of his child. AVhat was that posture? — the most expressive of undiminished love, of yearning tenderness, of eagerness to welcome his return. Thus is it described: ‘■ And when he was a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” All this is God to thee, dear returning soul! He is on the eager watch for thy first movement towards him; he is looking as with outstretched neck for the first sign of thy soul’s return, for the first sound of thy footsteps, for the first relentings of thy heart: yea, even more than this, or this were nothing, he sends his own Spirit to work that return in thy soul, to break thy heart, to rouse thy slumbering spirit, to draw thee, win thee to his arms. This is thy God; — the God whom thou hast forsaken, from whose ways thou hast declined, but who, in the very depth of thy declension and in the very extremity of thy departure, has never withdrawn his eye of love one moment from thee.

Nor must we overlook the grand source of encouragement to a returning soul, — that U)hich spring’s from the cross of Christ. But for a crucified Saviour, there couhl be no possible return to God; in no other way could lie, consistently with the holiness and rectitude of the Divine government, with what he owes to himself as a just, and holy God, receive a poor, wandering, returning sinner. Mere repentance and humiliation for, and confession of sin, could entitle the soul to no act of pardon. The obedience and death of the Lord Jesus, laid the foundation, and opened the way for the exercise of this great and sovereign act of grace. The cross of Jesus displays the most awful exhibition of God’s hatred of sin, and at the same time the most august manifestation of his readiness to pardon it. Pardon, full and free, is written out in every drop of blood that is seen, is proclaimed in every groan that is heard, and shines in the very prodigy of mercy that closes the solemn scene upon the cross. O blessed door of return, open and never shut, to the wanderej from God! how glorious, how free, how accessible! Hither the sinful, the vile, the guilty, the unworthy, the poor, the penniless, may come. Here, too, the weary spirit may bring its burthen, the broken spirit its sorrow, the guilty spirit its sin, the backsliding spirit its wandering. All are welcome here. The death of Jesus was the opening and the emptying of the full heart of God; it was the outgushing of that ocean of infinite mercy, that heaved and panted and longed for an outlet; it was God showing how he could love a poor, guilty sinner. What more could he have done than this I what stronger proof, what richer gift, what costlier boon, could he have given in attestation of that love? Now it is the simple belief o( this, that brings the tide of joy down into the soul. It is faith’s view of this that dissolves the adamant, rends asunder the flinty rock, smites down the pyramid of self-righteousness, lays the rebellious will in the dust, and cnfulds the repenting, believing soul in the very arms of free, rich, and sovereign love. Here, too, the believer is led to trace the sin of his backsliding in its darkest lines, and to mourn over it with his bitterest tears, —

“Then beneath the cross adoring.
Sin iloth like itself appear;
When the wounds of Christ exploring,
I can read my pardon there.”

If the Lord has restored thy soul, dear reader, remember why he has done it, — to make thee hate thy sins. He hates them, and he will make thee to hate them too: and this he does by pardoning them, by sprinkling the atoning blood upon the conscience, and by restoring unto you the joys of his salvation. And never is sin so sincerely hated, never is it so deeply deplored, so bitterly mourned over, and so utterly forsaken, as when he speaks to the heart, and says, “Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.” As though he did say, “I have blotted out thy transgressions, I have healed thy backslidings, 1 have restored thy soul; ‘that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.’” Ezek. xvi. 63.

Remember that, just inhere the departure co?nmenced. there should com7yience the return. Did it begin at the closet? — then at the closet let thy restoration commence. Return to the secret, closet prayer; build up the ruined altar, — rekindle the expiring flame; let that holy sanctuary once more witness to your confessions, your humiliations, your strong crying and tears, and your close, filial, and hallowed communion with God. O blessed moment that sees you there again, even though it be to smite in anguish on your breast, and to cover yourself with sackcloth and ashes before the Lord!

And do not overlook in this great business of restoration, the intercession of Jesus., the High Priest, at the right hand of God. If thy heavenly Father has restored thy soul, not only has he done it from the spring of his own unchangeable love, but that which has prevailed with him, was the power of the sweet incense of the Redeemer’s blood before the mercy-seat. Moment by moment does this fragrant cloud go up, bearing as it ascends all the circumstances of all the Israel of God. There is not only the blood already sprinkled on the

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mercy-scat, which has saiislied liviiic justice, hut there is the constant pUniding ot” th(? blood by Jesus, the Priest, before the tluone. O precious thought,

0 comforting, encouraging truth, for a soul retreading its steps hack to God! Of its own it hath nothing to plead but its folly, its ingratitude, its wretchedness, and its sin; but faith can lay its trembling hand upon this blessed truth, — faith can descry Jesus clothed in his priestly garments standing between the soul and God, spreading forth his hands, and pleading on l)ehalf of the returning believer the merits of his own precious obedience and death. And thus encouraged, he may draw nigh and touch the sceptre: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Hob. ix. 24.

In view of all these precious encouragements, persuasive motives, and earnest expostulations, will you, dear backsliding soul, still refuse to return?

1 entreat you, I implore you, I beseech you, to arise and go to your Father, and say unto him, ‘•’• Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight.” By all that is tender and forgiving in that Father’s heart, — by all that is melting, persuasive, and precious in the work of Jesus, — by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his death, burial, and resurrection, I beseech you to return! By the honor of that holy religion you have wounded, by all the hopes of glory you have in-

234 THE LURD, TilU KK^TORER, ETC.

diilged in, by all that is sacred and precious in the memory of the past, and by all that is solemn and real in the pro.^pect of the future, I implore you to return! By the faithful promises of God, by the tender yearnings of Jesus, by the gentle drawings of the Spirit, by all that you will experience in the joy and peace and assurance of a restored soul, by the glory of God. by the honor of Christ, by the nearness of death and the solemnity of the judgment, I entreat, I implore, I beseech you. wanderer, prodigal, to return!

“Return, O wanderer, return!
And seek an injured Father’s face;
Those warm desires that in thee burn,
Were kindled by reclaiming grace.

“Return, O wanderer, return!
Thy Saviour bids thy spirit live;
Go to his bleeding side, and learn
How /reeli, Jesus can forgive.

“Return, O wanderer, return!
Regain thy lost lamented rest;
Jehovah’s melting bowels yearn
To clasp his Ephraim to his breast.”