Ver. 22.-" Backsliding Israel." "Backsliding" was the characteristic vice of the Jewish people throughout the whole course of their history. '!'heir career was one of perpetual sinning and repenting, until the great apostacy, the final "falling away." And in this we see what is too often a truthful reflection of the individual lifo of men. The Jews were emphatically a representative people. Not merely does their recorded history represent the method of God's ways, but it illustrates the folly and treacheryi the moral weakness and waywardness of our human nature. Dwell on the individua application of this passage, Consider- I. THE EVIL INDICATED. "Backsliding" is suggestive of a turning away from God, a departure from the path of truth aud righteousness, a fall from some higher state of spiritual consciousness or mora.l life. This evil may assume different forms. It may consist: 1. In the loss of the simplicity and integrity of religious faith. In an age of mental restlessness like the present, men too easily lose their hold of truth, which is the very hope and life of their souls. We may look with perfect composure upon the conflict between truth and error as regards its general and ultimate issues, but dare not forget how disastrous its bearings upon the individual life may be. T~ere _ar~ revol1;1- tions in the history of religious thought, as in the history of nations, wh!ch it 19 a_s v:am to think of arresting as it would be to attempt to turn back tho ocean tide; but it 1s a mournful thing when, under such conditions, the mind that once had a_ firm grasp of the vital elements of Christian truth has slipped from its moorings and dnftod out rnto the wild sea of doubt and uncertainty. 'l'o a really earnest spirit the recovery of a lost faith Oil, III. 1-25.] THE BOOK OJ.l' THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 61
is generally a painful process. How many have travelled back, as with wounded, bleeJin" feet, to positions of clearer vision and firmer standing which they once occupied, but i~ an evil JI.our had forsaken I As sometimes after a bright morning, which has been fol- lowed by a day of cloud and storm, there is again at sunset a glorious outbursting gleam of the radiance that had been obscured; so is it with their souls. They return to rest calmly in the truth that they had for a while lost sight of, and "at eventide," as in the morning, "it is light." 2. In the decline of religious feeling, the decay of those affections in which religious life consists. 'This is that secret spiritual "backsliding" that directly affects the soul's personal relation to God, and the consciousness of which sometimes extorts the bitter cry," Oh that l were as in months past!" etc. (Job xxix. 2-4). It may arise from no change in religious belief, While a departure from the simplicity of the faith is generally connected with a lowering of the tone of religious feeling, the converse of this is not always true. But the faith has lost its life-giving ·fiorce. The light it sheds has no warm, kindling glow. It is the light of the moon rather than the sun-clear and cold, having no power to quicken the frame of natll"e, to develop its beauty and fruitfulness, to awaken its music, and fill it with exu~ting joy. The carnalizing influences of the world, the wear and tear of daily life, inevitably lead to this internal spiritual decay, unless there is a perpetual renewal of the life "whose springs are hidden and Divine." 3. In practical departure from the standard of religioU8 duty. The backsliding of the heart cannot long be concealed. It betrays itself in many ways-in a forsaking of the paths of Christian service, in some manifest lack of moral integrity, in a relapse into some form of vicions habit, perhaps in a com- plete loosening of the bonds of religious restraint, and utter abandonment to the pursuits of an ungodly life. It is of such a case that our Lord says, "If the salt have lost bis savour," etc. (Matt. v.13); and again, "No man, having put his band to the ,plough," etc. (Luke ix. 62) ; and St. Peter afterwards affirms, "It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness," etc. (2 Pet. ii. 21). II. Gon's METHOD OF HEALING. "I will heal your backslidings." This is the gracious persuasion by which he seeks to reclaim his children from their guilty wan- derings. How may we expect him to fulfil the promise? 1. By awakening in us a vivid sense and penitent acknowledgment of the wrong. We can scarcely be delivered from it till we have seen all the sin and shame of it-its real meaning, the source from whence it springs, the end to which it leads. Until all this is deeply felt and freely ,confessed before God, the first step in the process of recovery has not been taken (seti Ps. li. 3, 4; xxx.ii. 6; 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11). 2. By moving us to trust simply in his for- giving and renewing mercy. Our only refuge is in the Divine mercy, and there is no other way of mercy than that which the gospel reveals. The guilt of our bnckslidings can alone be onneelled by the blood of Christ, and the secret cause of them removed by the grace of his Spirit (1 John.ii. 1, 2; iii. 5-9), "There is no prescript;ion for the sickness of the heart but that which is written in the Redeemer's blood," for in this alone have we both the pledge and the channel of the saving love of God. U. By creat- •ing in us the energy of a nobler life. "Return," etc. It is e. question, after all, of moral resolution and self-determining spiritual power. "Full seldom does o. mo.n repent, or use Both gro.ce and will to pick the vicious quitoh Of blood and custom wholly out of him, And make all clean, and plant himself afresh." But God gives this gracious energy to those who seek it, and such "repentance unto -life" is the true" healing,"-W. Ver. 1.-The offer of a great forgiveness. I. CONSIDER THE ILLUSTRATION DY WHICII 18 BROWN TIIE E.ltTENT OF JEHOVAil'S MERCY TO THE LOST. By nn illustration dmwn from the power allowed to the Israelite husband, Jehovah shows how great is his spirit of mercy and his desire that the deserting wife, so terribly described in the prccedin~ ·chapter, should return. 'l'hc reference is evidently to Deut. xxiv. 1-4. 'l'here the husband is invested with an authority which almost seems arbitrary, although from Numb. v. it also appears that an accused wifo had a right of appeal to ordenl, which vrde;\l would infallibly certify either im1occnce or guilt. The esseptial p<>int here, G2 TUE BOOK 01<' THB PROPHET JEHEMIAH. [on. m. l".'"""25.