BACKSLIDING, SECRET AND OPEN. 325 The ages, "choke the word, and they become unfruitful." fear of man insnares some; the love of gain entangles others; and worldly companions, and worldly marriages, draw multitudes away. § 3. Backsliding may properly be distinguished into secret and open. The former takes place in the case of those, who do not openly renounce religion; but who no longer feel its vital power, or on whom its influence is gradually declining. Such was the case of the church at Ephesus, when the Lord Jesus, after commending their labours, fidelity, and patience, added, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."d Such also was the case of many in the church at Sardis, when the Saviour said, “I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." Such also, in a still more deplorable degree, was their case at Laodicea, of whom he said, "Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." In none of these cases was the form of religion laid aside. But, alas! its life was going, or gone. They at Ephesus, who had fallen least, had left their first love. That they had dreadfully, though secretly, and inwardly, fallen, is evident from the admonition which the Lord addressed to them. They at Sardis had sunk still lower. All was not dead, but all was dying. They at Laodicea had sunk the lowest, and they were in a kind of middle state between the careless worldling and the zealous Christian. Not cold, as those who are dead to every religious feeling; not hot, as those who are pressing on to glory; but like lukewarm water, in a middle condition, between the cold and the hot. As some thus secretly backslide by losing love to the Saviour and religion, others do so by forsaking him as the ground of their hope. The apostle evidently represents the Galatians as falling away from Christ: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." The sin of those, who were thus addressed, c) Mark iv. 19. (d) Rev. ii. 4, 5. (e) Rev. iii. 1, 2. (f) Rev. iii. 15-17. 326 PROGRESS OF BACKSLIDING. appears to have been the uniting the works of the law with Christ, as the ground of their dependence. In doing so they are described as getting into a state, in which they would lose their interest in the Saviour, and thus in reality fall away from him. Secret backsliding is inexpressibly dangerous. Persons who have thus declined from religion, may yet maintain its outward forms, frequent the house of prayer occasionally, keep up some connexion with the church of Christ, and feel few or no suspicions respecting their real state. The Lord describes such as saying, That they are rich, and have need of nothing; but declares that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. How dreadful is their delusion! They think that all is well, when all is ill! and deem all safe for eternity, till they enter that solemn state, and find that their religion was delusion, and that they are lost for ever! How needful a duty is self-examination! how needful is it to watch the heart, and to keep the heart with all diligence, since out of it are the issues of life! Open backsliding takes place when they who have lost the life and power of religion, openly forsake their adherence to the Saviour, and return to the world, to folly, and sin. § 4. In both cases backsliding is an inexpressibly dreadful evil. No language can describe its mischief, and where wilful and continued, no words express its enormity. This dreadful evil is commonly a gradual evil. Few are backsliders all at once. Backsliders in turning from God and happiness, commonly go step by step, till they plunge into final apostasy, and eternal perdition. First, love to the Saviour and religion declines in their hearts. As this love lessens, their hatred to sin becomes weaker, and the world regains its influence. Some then give way to a spirit of pride, and vanity, and self-importance. Others yield their affections to the world. They allow this to be busy with them in their closets, and in the house of God. By degrees secret communion with God is neglected. Little delight is found in devotion, and private prayer is first occasionally, and then habitually, disregarded. If at the head of a family, family worship is dropped. Public duties are soon affected. They grow less attentive to the house of God. Its services are thought long and tedious; and first one is neglected and then another. PROGRESS OF BACKSLIDING. 327 The Lord's table is slighted. Social meetings for prayer and religious conversation are altogether abandoned. Their inclination is turned another way: they had rather spend two hours a-day in trifling tittle-tattle, than half an hour a-week in seeking spiritual benefit. They grow more and more wearied of the strictness of religion. Their taste for its pleasures gradually dies. Their Christian friends are forsaken. They grow tired of true friends, and pleased with false ones; like the Israelites who were pleased with the spies, but thought Joshua and Moses their enemies. They form new intimacies, or revive old ones, with those that are strangers to the path of peace. At length they become again mere followers of the world; and their conduct and deportment are commonly suited to their fallen condition. Do Christian friends endeavour to stop them in their progress to destruction, in some a few painful feelings are excited, some half-formed resolutions are made; but all soon vanishes, and again they pursue their declining path. Others receive with disgust the warnings of Christian friendship; and go on without perceiving their folly and insensible of their guilt. "I do not perceive that I am fallen," says the lukewarm professor. Unhappy man! why then do all else perceive it? Why is your place at the house of God so often empty? Why are all religious exercises with your Christian friends neglected? Why is the table of the Lord slighted? Why is the prosperity of the Saviour's cause a matter of no concern to you? Why so different from what you once were? "Oh," replies the self-deceiver, "I am dissatisfied. The minister does not preach as he used to do, nor friends behave as they formerly did." Such are the excuses and complaints of many backsliders. Unhappy creatures! they are like a man that having lost his sight, finds fault with the sun instead of his eyes, and says of that bright luminary at noon-day, "It does not shine as it used to do." § 5. On the guilt and mischiefs of backsliding, the writer will insert with some small alterations a letter, written several years ago to a young female, who had fallen from religion, but of whose restoration there appeared some flattering, though alas! delusive hope. "My dear friend, "Allow me by writing a few lines to you, to give you 328 LETTER TO A BACKSLIDER. another expression of my anxious concern for your eternal welfare; yes, your eternal welfare; for what will long seem worth a single thought, except the blessings of eternity! Soon, Sarah, will you find that nothing else was worth one. "I would hope, that the repentance and grief for your conduct, which you expressed last sabbath but one, have not again vanished, like the morning cloud or the early dew. I prayed for you, not merely at that time, but often before, and if you truly return to the paths of peace, shall think these prayers answered. "And what, Sarah, is now the state of your heart? Is it again thoughtless? again hardened? God forbid! and grant that it may be tender, humble, and penitent! My dear friend, you have need of repentance. I do not wish to upbraid you with any thing that is passed; yet love to your soul makes it needful to say to you-You have need of repentance, of deep repentance. Surely you must have fallen away far from God. But are you penitent? If you are, I would not break the bruised reed. Rather would I direct you to the promises of your loving, though lately forsaken, God. Then hear him saying in his word, Return unto me, and I will return unto you. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.' 'I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely.' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all uurighteousness.' The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' To you these promises are made; let them not be made in vain. Still God is willing to receive you; still Jesus is willing to welcome you. His blood may yet cleanse you from your sins, and his kind hand support your feeble steps. Behold backsliding Peter. He found mercy; and, gone from this world, joins in the songs of the redeemed above. Oh, Sarah, seek the Saviour's grace afresh: you will not seek in vain : His bleeding heart will make you room, Yet he would give you peace, give you pardon, give you heaven, and join you soon to his redeemed above. And does it not melt your heart to think-And would my injured Saviour again receive me? and would my forsaken God again welcome me? He would, indeed he would.-And may I sit EVILS OF BACKSLIDING. 329 down with his saints above? and may my happy spirit adore his love, when this now healthful body is a lifeless corpse, and this cold heart is colder in the grave? O may eternal blessedness then be mine? It may. And shall I slight it longer? Shall I turn from the way of life? Shall I forsake my kind Redeemer? Break, O my God! the hard heart that has deceived me, and let it never deceive me more! "But, my dear friend, while the promises of grace should encourage your return; to strengthen your earnestness, you may profitably unite with the motives they furnish, the consideration of what you were doing. You had, I am persuaded, nearly given up religion altogether. If you had done so quite, think what you would have done. Where would have been your hopes, your friends, your comforts, and where ere long your soul? In such a state, if turning your eyes to heaven, you might have said, There dwells the Lord: once I could say, There dwells my God; but alas! no longer mine. Once he was my friend; but now I have made him my enemy. His love was my portion; but it is mine no more. There dwells the Saviour, once my Saviour; but now I have no interest in him. Others are happy in his love; but I have lost that happiness: others are safe under his care; but I am out of his protection: others have their sins blotted out in his blood; once I thought mine were; but I have crucified him afresh, and brought a double load of guilt upon my own soul. There dwell also his faithful friends. They toiled and suffered here, but rest in heaven; and once I hoped to partake of their joys; but now that hope is gone. God is my God no longer: Christ is my Saviour no longer: heaven my hopedfor home no longer. "I do not say, Sarah, that these should be your melancholy reflections now. I pray that this letter may find you returning to God. But they might have been so, if you had continued backsliding; and should be so, if you ever fall from Christ. And let the thought of the dreadful danger you have been in, fill you with watchfulness and humility, and lead you to prayer. Great has been your danger; for, oh! it is beyond human power to describe the evils of backsliding from the living God. To backslide altogether, is to give up God; to give up Christ; to give up hope, comfort, and heaven; to make yourself the slave of Satan; to prepare your |