The recovery of a backslider usually begins at the remembrance of former things--(Bunyan's Holy Life, vol.
The backslider is attended with fears and doubts such a he felt not before, built on the vileness of his backsliding; more dreadful scriptures look him in the face, with their dreadful physiognomy.
An example that every backslider should remember with astonishment (Luke 17:32).
And therefore you shall find, that the recovering of a backslider usually begins at the remembrance of former things.
The returning again of the backslider gives a second testimony to the truth of man's state being by nature miserable, of the vanity of this world, of the severity of the law, certainty of death, and terribleness of judgment to come.
The poor backslider "is blind and cannot see afar off"; this does not affect his title, but is fatal to any present prospect of the enjoyment of his inheritance.
But where doth Jesus Christ, in all the word of the New Testament, expressly speak to a returning backslider with words of grace and peace?
Thou sayest, Where doth Jesus Christ, in all the words of the New Testament, speak to a returning backslider with words of grace and peace, that is under the name of a backslider?
Then here you may see the reason why one backslider is recovered, and another left to perish in his backsliding.
A returningbackslider is a great blessing, I mean intended to be so, to two sorts of men--1.
To draw back from, or in, our dependence upon Christ for salvation, is a distinction which every despairing backslider should strive to understand.
There are two things remarkable in the returning of a backslider to God by Christ.
The backslider in heart shall be sated from his own ways, and the good man from himself.
The former shows us the backslider in heart as filled 'with his own ways.
And it is a pitiful sight to see that oldbackslider going through the streets of Sodom at midnight, after he has warned his children, and they have turned a deaf ear.
Before closing, let me say that I trust God will restore somebackslider reading these pages, who may in the future become a useful member of society and a bright ornament of the Church.
He was a backslider without power or asceticism, who couldn't even raise a table by force of volition, much less project an army of kittens through space.
It is well known that the recovery of the backslider is one of the hardest problems in spiritual work.
Taking the law of God for my rule, backslider is my name; yet peace I have found, and on the best Security; this blessed Bible is my charter.
It is in our nature to backslide for ever: and whenever we see a backslider restored, or a rebel lay down the weapons of rebellion, there we may trace thy footsteps, O God of grace.
He was a backslider without Power or Asceticism, who couldn't even raise a table by force of volition, much less project an army of kittens through space.
Truly that saying of the wise man is solemn and weighty,--"The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.
If a sinner, newly awakened, be in danger of this species of despondency, a backslideris still more so.
It is an awful thing for a man who has been a backslider to have his children mock him.
A backsliderin heart, even though a real Christian, is not prepared to partake of this spiritual feast, without renewing his repentance and faith.
If it is the duty of a backslider to return and humble himself before God, it is his duty to do it now; and every moment he delays, he is going farther from God, and rendering his return more difficult.
It says the wicked are "like the troubled sea," the backslider like the dog "turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
No you are not a saint, but a backslider from God, a heretic and an evildoer!
