Turn, O ye backsliding children; for I am married to you, saith the Lord.- Jeremiah 3:14.
When a child departs from an indulgent father, or a wife forsakes an affectionate husband, they, in effect, say, they have other objects with whom they are more delighted, and from whom they expect greater happiness. O backsliding soul! is such thy conduct towards the best of Fathers, the most affectionate bridegroom? Thy present practice loudly speaks this language, ’I have other lovers, and after them I will go.’ Monstrous ingratitude! a child of special grace, and yet fly from thy most loving Father! a spouse of the most affectionate bridegroom, and yet be unchaste to thy rightful husband! Shocking carriage! Yet, O soul, hear and wonder, hear and love, love and be ashamed, be ashamed and return; for, marvellous grace! though thou hast broken thy marriage contract, forfeited the privileges of children, yet the relation continues. "I am married to you," (children, still, notwithstanding all their unkind carriage), "saith the Lord." Amazing love! instead of ’I will pursue with vengeance, overtake with destruction,’ it is, ’I intreat with love, expostulate with kindness, invite with affection.’
Who are thy present lovers? remember, the rivals of thy Lord are thy greatest foes, and seek thy present misery and eternal destruction. Dost thou "live after the flesh?" have Satan’s wiles and the snares of the world prevailed over thee? the world, the flesh, and the devil! Poor soul! canst thou be happy in their friendship and embraces? O no! thou art got into bad, yea the worst company. O what leanness of soul is brought upon thee? Thy love to Jesus is grown cold; thy faith in him weak; zeal for him and his truth have forsaken thee; the way of sin and folly pleaseth thee; sweet intercourse in private prayer; communion with thy God in public ordinances, is gone; thou neglectest thy duty; art grown shy of thy Father and his children. But still thy father calls, thy husband woos thee again and again to turn, to return. Love, the bond of relation, never alters on God’s part, notwithstanding base, backsliding, and monstrous ingratitude on thine. Special grace makes love-calls effectual. Such shall one day call to mind "the love of their espousals;" be ashamed and confounded for all they have done, and take up this language, "I come unto thee, for thou art my Father. I will go and return unto my first husband, for then it was better with me than now."- Hosea 2:7.
Better! yea, best of all those times
When I to Jesus cleav’d:
Return unto thy rest, my soul,
No longer be deceiv’d.
Thy Father stands with open arms;
Thy bridegroom calls in love,
"Return, thou wand’ring soul, to ME,
And my affections prove."
He who is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean. John 13:10.
How precious is the word of the Lord! being in great disorder of body and heaviness of soul, our Lord refreshed and comforted me with these words. Here, Christ most plainly teaches us these blessed truths: (1st.) That every believer is washed by him from the filth of all his sins. (2nd.) That each and every one are equally and alike perfectly clean from all sin, in God’s sight; “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” (Ephesians 5:27.)-“Justified from all things before God.” (Acts 13:39.) There is not one condemnation against them from God. (Romans 8:1.) Therefore, (3d.) They need no other cleansing to make them acceptable to God, pure in his sight, meet to come into his presence now, and to enjoy him to all eternity. Rejoice, O my fellow-sinners! and thou, too, my soul! in a lowly, self-abasing, disciple washing, sin-cleansing Jesus. He says, (let carnal reason, legal spirits, and lying Satan suggest what they may) “Clean every whit: ye are clean.” Blessed Spirit! thou, who brought us into this precious state- O! cause this glorious truth to shine in our hearts this night, in all its glory and comfort. Eternal thanks to thee, for faith to receive it! Glory to the Son of God, whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin. (1 John 1:7.) But though every whit clean; though perfectly cleansed by Christ, yet he knows and we find, that we are daily prone to defile our feet. To him we must come for cleansing from the pollution of our daily walk and conversation. Faith has daily to do with a purifying Saviour. But beware that we ascribe not that cleansing virtue to the grace of faith, which is only in the blood of Christ. See what blessed news, Peter’s mistaken humility, in refusing Christ to wash his feet, brought from our Lord’s lips to our hearts. View the love of a gracious, condescending Lord. Did he stoop so low as to wash his disciples’ feet? and will he ever be above washing [will it now be beneath him to wash] the fresh-contracted guilt of his dear members, who come unto him? No: harbor not such a dishonorable thought of his love. He knows, he tells us, we need washing of our feet, that we may walk clean and comfortable before him. O! let us come humbly to him, and rejoice that Christ is that fountain opened, and that his precious blood has a continual virtue to cleanse from all sin and uncleanness. Zechariah 13:1.
The fountain of Christ,
Assist me to sing,
The blood of our Priest,
Our crucify’d King;
Which perfectly cleanses
From sin and from filth,
And richly dispenses
Salvation and health.
This fountain from guilt
Not only makes pure,
And gives, soon as felt,
Infallible cure:
But if guilt, removed,
Return and remain,
Its pow’r may be proved,
Again and again.