No one believes a backslider. Let him talk about his enjoyment with
God, nobody believes it. Oh, poor backslider, I pity you! You had
better come home again. Well, at last the poor prodigal comes to
himself, and he says, "I will arise and go to my father," and now he
starts. Look at him as he goes along, pale and hungry, with his head
down; his strength is exhausted, and perhaps disease in his frame, and
so shattered that no one would know him but his father. Love is keen
to detect its object. The old man has often been longing for his
return. I can see him many a night up on the house-top looking out to
catch a glimpse of him. Many a long night he has wrestled with God
that his prodigal son might come back. Everything he had heard from
that far country told him his boy was going to ruin as fast as he
could go. The old man spent much time in prayer for him, and at last
faith begins to arise, and he says, "I believe God will send back my
boy"; and one day the old man sees afar off that long-lost boy. He
does not know him by his dress, but he detected the gait of him, and
he says to himself, "Yes, that's my boy." I see him now pass down the
stairs; he rushes along the highway; he is running. Ah! that is just
like God. Many a time in the Bible God is represented as running; He
is in great haste to meet the backslider. Yes, the old man is running;
he sees him afar off, and he has compassion on him. The boy wanted to
tell him his story what he had done, and where he had been, but the
old man could not wait to hear him; his heart was filled with
compassion, and he took him to his loving bosom. The boy wanted to go
down into the kitchen, but the old man would not let him. No, but he
bade the servants put shoes on his feet, and a ring on his finger, and
kill the fatted calf, and make merry. The prodigal has come home, the
wanderer has returned, and the old man rejoices over the backslider's
return. Oh, backslider, come home, and there will be joy in your heart
and in the heart of God. May God bring the backsliders back
to-night--this very hour. Say as the poor prodigal did, "I will arise
and go to my father," and on the authority of God I tell you God will
receive you; He will blot out your sins, and restore you to His love,
and you shall walk again in the light of His reconciled countenance.