at 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