Concerning it we read nothing indeed in Scripture; but concerning it we
know enough to be able at least to determine what its outline must have
been. The silent and obscure years of compulsory inactivity had their
fruit, no doubt. There is only one road, with well-marked stages, by
which a backsliding or apostate Christian can return to his Master. And
that road has three halting-places upon it, through which the heart
must pass if it have wandered from its early faith, and falsified its
first professions. The first of them is the consciousness of the fall,
the second is the resort to the Master for forgiveness; and the last is
the deepened consecration to Him.
The patriarch Abraham, in a momentary lapse from faith to sense,
thought himself compelled to leave the land to which God had sent him,
because a famine threatened; and when he came back from Egypt, as the
narrative tells us with deep significance, he went to the 'place where
he had pitched his tent at the beginning; to the altar which lie had
reared at the first.' Yes, my friends, we must begin over again, tread
all the old path, enter by the old wicket-gate, once more take the
place of the penitent, once more make acquaintance with the pardoning
Christ, once more devote ourselves in renewed consecration to His
service. No man that wanders into the wilderness but comes back by the
King's highway, if he comes back at all.