THE BACKSLIDER IN HEART.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 665, 23 April 1870, Page 4

THE BACKSLIDER IN HEART.

(By the Late Rev. William Hill.) [A mournful interest attaches to this solemn sermon, from the fact that it was the last the lamented author preached. It was delivered on Sabbath evening, May 9th, in the Weslcyan Church, Brunswick, , The preacher uttered his message as if determined to be pure from the blood of all men, and a mighty power from God applied it to many hearts.] Prov. xiv. 14. "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." The influences at work to destroy life are almost innumerable ; sometimes by the fury of the storm hundreds of our fellow-creatures find a watery grave; at other times some fatal disease ravages a country, and sweeps away thousands of its inhabitants. But often, again, the approach of death is scarcely perceptible; it gives no warning ;no premouitory symptoms are seen; its victim bids fair to live for many years, and while every eye is watching with interest the loved one's progress, his light is suddenly extinguished in the darkness of the tomb. There is a striking analogy existing between the dangers which attack the body and the evils which affect the soul. Sometimes those distinguished for goodness have suddenly fallen into the grossest sin 3, and " made shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience;" but there is also a form of evil, equally fatal to the soul, which produces no observations —it may be preying upon our vitals, aacl yet no symptoms of the presence may be perceived by others; it may be fast bringing us to destruction, and yet our nearest friends may nob be aware of its existence. There is such a thing as "backsliding in heart;" inwardly losing the Spirit wMlo we retain the profession of Christianity ; turning traitors to Christ while we hold our places among his disciples; and we have reason to fear that this state is by no meaus uncommon. It is hot a rare disease, to be met with only occasionally—a sort of religious phenomenon; the cases are almost inumerable iv which men begin a religious life, but their love grows cold, and they are brought into condemnation. And this state of things is not peculiar to our times or peculiar to our Church. Iv Christ's own time, and uuder the ministry ot the most eminent of the Apostles, Christian discipleship was subject to changes and backsliding?. Longfellow, in one of his sweetest lyrics, sings : — "There is no flock however watch'd and tended, But one dead lamb is there ; There is no fireside howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair. 1' And so if we looked into the best spiritual fold we should find "backsliders in heart;" men dead to God, who have lost nothing of piety but its power. My friends, is this your case ? If your hearts were now exposed to view, would they be found withered and dead? If -mow weighed in the balances, would you be found wanting ? I know you can evade my question, you can challenge my criticism. You can wrap up your exjierience in language so negative and ambiguous that no spiritual guide could exactly^ tell what you meant; but there is one Being who exactly knows your state. One of the most solemn passages in the Bible runs thus: "And all the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts." Rev. ii. 23. God, then, is in your secret, and knows all about you, and, let me tell you, it is much more important that you should be right with God than stand well with the Church. Let us examine — I. —Some of the symptoms of backsliding in heart. The most hidden diseases have some outward maxifestation, even though they be not recognised by the public eye. The tongue, the pulse, the skin, the eye, sometimes one and sometimes all, will reveal- the nature anil extent of the mischief which is going on inside the body ; and so with the soul, there are outward signs of inward and spiritual decay. 1. Want of sympathy with the more spiritual exercises of religion is a sure sign of "backsliding in heart." There was a time when you really enjoyed the more private means of grace. Fellowship with God's people, no matter how poor and despised, you looked upon as a sacred privilege. But in these respects you have greatly changed. It is a long time since some of you felt a longing desire to tell what

God had dove for your soul. Perhaps you o.ro even glad to find excuses for absence from the weekly meetings, and little matters connected with business and company pleasure, which at one time would have been readily adjusted, are allowed to stand as insuperable obstacles go your attendance. In the case of a Methodist, this is a sure mark of spiritual decay. And how is it with you, my friends, in the important duty of prayer ? I do not ask, how is it with you in the church or at the family altar ? but how is it with you in private prayer ? Do you there pour out your soul before God with fervour and faith ? or are your devotions disposed of in a cold and. careless style ; Some persons ask God for spiritual blessings in a style so slovenly that they would not think of adopting were they ordering goods at a shop. Is this your case ? Is the closet become dull ? and does the allotted hour for devotion appear long and wearisome ? Ah ! then, believe me, there is something wrong. Religion is decliuing, the world is creeping in, Satan is gaining the ascendency, and you are " backsliding in heart." . 2. A gradual extinction of deep feeling upon the subject of religion is a sure sign of a backsliding state. ' ' There is a warmth and tanderness of feeling in a real Christian towards the Saviour which is more like the pure affection of a loving wife than anything else. It is an affection that never tires of thinking of Christ, speaking of Christ, and acting for Christ ; it is a state of mind deeply concerned for God's honour, and most scrupulous to " abstain from all appearance of evil." Now, a backslider is a man who has "left his first love," and from whose heaib all tender susceptibility has passed away. Is this your case ? Can you remember a time when the name of Jesus fired you with ecstacy, or flooded you with grateful memories ? Can you remember a time when, like Isaiah's seraph, you stood with expanded wings ready to go anywhere and to do anything for God ? Can you remember a time when your soul recoiled from sin with indignant abhorrence ? when to every whispered suggestion your prompt reply was — . " Tempt as ye will, my soul repels, To Christ alone resolved to live." And now, has a change come over the spirit of your dream? Has the name of Jesus lost its music ? Aro the seraph's wings drooping? Can you sing without fervour, hear without feeling, aud pray without power ? Then, depend upon it, you are a backslider in heart. You may feel no alarm, but we tell you there is room for alarm; the . disease, has commenced at the heart, the very seat of life. The cheek may be fair and the eye brilliant, but disease is fast undermining the constitution. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." ll.— We notice some of the causes of backsliding in heart. 1. Foremost amongst the causes of backsliding is, inattention to the private means of grace. What we have mentioned as a symptom may also be regarded as a cause of this spiritual decline. Widely as the experience of God's people varies in some respects, in this respect it is invariably the same— they give themselves to prayer. Hoaryheaded patriarchs, brave martyrs, eloqueut apostles, weak women, and little children, have all been distinguished by this ; and the more we grow in grace, the more will this family mark come out upon the surface of the soul. Bat if the Christian grows remiss in these spiritual exercises, easily satisfied with a reason for omitting them, and speedily wearied when he engages in their performances, he will soon be compelled to cry, " O my leanness ! my leanness ! " If the devil wanted lo prescribe a short and easy way to kill souls, he could recommend nothing so effectual as neglect of closet prayer— destruction is sure to follow sooner or later. It is like dividing the main artery, piercing the spinal marrow, cutting the taproot of the vine, or ringing the bark of the gum tree— death is inevitable. In travelling through the Australian bush you frequently meet with once noble trees now dead and dry, and you think, perhaps, that the lightning has been scathing these monarchs of the forest. Nothing of the sort ; the cause is very simple. Some boy, perhaps, with his hatchet cut a ling rcuid the trunk se\ered all the sap vessels, and now no moisture circulates through the branches, and the giant tree has died of thirst. Sometimes you meet with a tree only half dead and only half alive ; it has been stripped of its bark on one side, and there is enough left on the other to circulate a little sap and to maintain a feeble life. Does not this illustrate your state, my brethern? While there ate many quite dead, you are on'y half alive, dragging on a feeble spiritual e:dstence, as if you were I trying the expeiiment, with how little of a communion with God you can manage to exist. Ah ! here is the secret of your fallen state. You may be exemplary in observance of the Sabbath and of the sanctuary, but your neglect of closet duties is eating out ths core of life. „,..,. . , . 2. Another cause of backsliding m heart is, the divorcing of religion from the business of daily life. . A very popular maxim is, that "religion is religion," and that "business is business," and the result of this idea is, that many men have two codes of morality which by no means agree in principle ! there isthemorality of the church, and the morality of the market and the shop. No wonder that the charge of inconsistency is so frequently brought against religious men. No wonder that Sunday professions and Monday practices so flatly contradict one another. No wonder that so many, finding it difficult to make a business conscience and a religious conscience exactly agree, have given up the task and let go religion altogether. Now, a man can act two paris, but be can never be two men. He can never be an honest man in the church, and a dishonest man behind the counter. He can never be a good man

in the prayer meeting, and a godles3 man at home. No, if his private life is unsound — if his business conscience is rotten — he is rotten altogether. Let his religious profes- , sion be ever so loud, and his charities ever < so abundant ; and let him be regarded in the church as a thorough Christian man, his Bhop, his offics, or his house are swift witnesses against him. He has grieved the Holy Ghost by neglect of fervour of spirit in his worldly calling. God has withdrawn himself, and he is a backslider in heart. 3. Many backslide in heart from the corroding influence of little sins which have never been repented of or forgiven. A sudden chill or cold seldom proves fatal if promptly attended to ; but neglected, it lays the foundation of diseases the most obstinate and deadly. Many "backsliders in heart " can trace all their sorrows to some spiritual injury they received years ago, some temptation they yielded to, or some secret sia they indulged. They took no heed to the danger at the time, but faith began insensibly to decline, and love to wax feeble, till now disease has made fearful invasion on the spiritual constitution. Had they gone to God at once, and sought forgiveness through the atoning Saviour," they would still have been sound in the faith, and happy in the love of God. Oh, Christians, beware of little sins ! and if you are overtaken in a fault, fly at onoc to Him who delighteth in mercy, and rest not till you receive the sprinkling of the precious blood. : III.— We notice the fearful consequences of backsliding in heart. ■■ It is the unfailing tendency of sin to bring the soul to destruction. " The wages of sin is death." Now, all backsliding from God, whether secretly or openly, is sin— and sin of the worst kind, of the most aggravated and deadly type, singularly offensive in the sight of God. To every man whose conscience convicts him of secret backsliding^ wouH say, Beware ! you have a disease that will sink you into hell, unless you arrest its progress. You may feel secure and deem yourself free from danger, and so does the patient who is falliug a prey to one of the worst disorders. He feels buoyant and laughs at danger; but look at the unnatural lustre of his eye, look at the hectic flush v on the cheek, are not these signs of danger? do they not tell a tale of the enemy that lurks within ? Now, you are not disposed to suspect danger, yet we ask you to think of your disinclination to prayer— think of your loss of spiritual feeling— think of the worldliness that is diking hold of the affections ; and then remember that the first, step leads to the last. " Che backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." The result ., of your present course will be— The gradual extinction of all moral feeling. A man can so abuse an organ as gradually to destroy its susceptibilities. He can treat his eye in such a way that the optic nerve loses its force and he becomes blind. He can so abuse his sense of hearing and the faculty of taste as to be insensible to sound and incapable of appreciating flavour ; and this is just what thousands are doing with the tender sensibilities of the. soul — blunting aud destroying them by a process at once diabolical and suicidal. You will go on neglecting prayer until you cannot pray at all. You will. put off repentance until, like Esau, you will find no place for repentance though you seek it with tears. You will tamper wieh conscience uufcil conscience becomes seared ; and then, God-cursed and God-forsaken, you . will hasten rapidly to the end. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man;" and when that crisis of moral delinquency has come, and the backslider in heart is filled with his own ways, there may be no terror, no alarm, and, perhaps, no sorrow, the soul is past feeling, and so hurried to its doom. Look at yonder timebleached and bare and withered landmark, winter rains descend, summer suns come and go, the forest around flutters with leaves, but the grand old tree feels no change, its desolate boughs put forth no verdure, it is past all that, it is dead. I feel much better now, says the poor sufferer whose eyeballs death has already glazed; my agony has been frightful, but sweet relief is come at last, and pain is gone ; poor man ! mortification has set in, and it h death that has come. He will feel no more pain, because the power of feeling is gone— he. has passed beyond all that. And remember, poor backslider, when God has deserted you, you may feel much happier than you do now, if. happiness consists in deadness of conscience and insensibility to truth. When God has said, " Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone ;" and the Spirit, grieved and insulted, has taken His everlasting flight, you will be troubled with no more fears. Sermons will not alarm you, nor prayers disturb your deathly slumber; Jesus Christ, tired of knocking at the door of your dead heart, will say, " Sleep on now, and take your rest," as He retires for ever. The wicked have ""no bands iv their death." Gibbon, who cherished a bitter hatred of Christianity to the last, died tranquilly. Hume, the sceptic, conscious of approaching death, spent his last hours in jocular conversation. The Girondists, notable for their Deism, feasted like epicures, aud went to the scaffold singing. But their security was only fancied, their peace was false, and their enchanted slumber very brief. "There is no peace, saith my God. to the wicked." "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." It is only the lull that precedes the bursting storm— the strange calm that is the precursor of the fierce tornado— the still hour of night which is nearest to the glare of morning. And then will come the terrible awaking. Conscience will awake; memory will awake ; remorse will awake ; and Divine vengeance will awake to slumber no more. The Lord have mercy upon every backslider ri heart ! Read Psalm lxxiii. and Isaiah i., Psalm li, John xv. "