00.02 Authors Preface

AUTHOR’S PREFACE. The following pages were occasioned by the writer’s observing several persons of whom he had formerly entertained a favourable opinion, and with whom he had walked in Christian fellowship, having fallen, either from the doctrine, or practice of pure religion. A view of their unhappy condition made a deep impression upon his mind. If he has been enabled to describe the case of a backslider to any good purpose, it has been chiefly owing to this circumstance. He hopes that, though it was written with a special eye to a few, it may yet be useful to many.

Whether the present age be worse than others which have preceded it, I shall not determine; but this is manifest, that it abounds not only in infidelity and profligacy, but with great numbers of loose characters among professing Christians. It is true there are some eminently zealous and spiritual, perhaps as much so as at almost any former period; the disinterested concern which has appeared for the diffusion of evangelical religion is doubtless a hopeful feature of our times: yet it is no less evident that others are in a sad degree conformed to this world, instead of being transformed by the renewing of their minds. Even of those who retain a decency of character, many are sunk into a Laodicean lukewarmness. Professors are continually falling away from Christ; either totally, so as to walk no more with him, or partially, so as greatly to dishonor his name. Alas, how many characters of this description are to be found in our congregations! If we only review the progress of things for twenty or thirty years past, we shall perceive many who once bid fair for the kingdom of heaven, now fallen a prey to the temptations of the world. Like the blossoms of the spring, they for a time excited our hopes: but a blight has succeeded: the blossom has gone up as the dust, and the root in many cases appears to be rottenness.

It is one important branch of the work of a faithful pastor to strengthen the diseased, to heal the sick, to bind up the broken, to bring again that which is driven away, and to seek that which is lost (Ezekiel 34:4). If these pages shall fall into the hands of but a few of the above description, and contribute in any degree to their recovery from the snare of the devil, the writer will be amply rewarded. It is a pleasure to recover any sinner from the error of his way; but much more those of whom we once thought favorably. The place which they formerly occupied in our esteem, our hopes, and our social exercises, now seems to be a kind of chasm, which can only be filled up by their return to God. If a child depart from his father’s house, and plunge into profligacy and ruin, the father may have other children, and may love them; but none of them can heal his wound, nor any thing satisfy him, but the return of him who was lost. In pursuit of this desirable object, I shall describe the nature and different species of backsliding from God - notice the symptoms of it - trace its injurious and dangerous effects - and point out the means of recovery.