Restoring Spiritual Fervor: A Journey Back to God

"His soul was depressed he had lost the light of God's countenance his inward Comforts were declining his joy in the Lord was at a low ebb, this he regretted far more than anything besides, no doubt he deplored the departure of those prosperous days when as he words it his root was spread out by the waters and the Dew lay all night upon his branch, but much more did he bemoan that the lamp of the Lord no more Shone upon his head and the secret of God was not upon his Tabernacle." [00:67:55]

"It is a great thing for a man to be near to God, it is a very Choice privilege to be admitted into the inner circle of communion and to become God's familiar friend, great is the Privileges, so great is the loss of it, no darkness is so dark as that which falls on eyes accustomed to the light, the poor man who was always poor is scarcely poor, but he who has fallen from the summit of greatness into the depths of poverty is poor indeed." [00:164:64]

"Job had also lost Divine consolation for he looks back with lamentation to the time when God's candle shot upon his head, when the son of God's love was as it were in the Zenith and cast no shadow, when he rejoiced without ceasing and triumphed from morning to night in the god of his salvation, the joy of the Lord is our strength the joy of the Lord is Israel's Excellency, it is the heaven of Heaven it is heaven even upon Earth, and consequently to lose it is a Calamity indeed." [00:306:18]

"Moreover job deplored the loss of divine illumination, by his light he says I walked through Darkness, that is to say perplexity ceased to be perplexity, God shed such a light upon the mysteries of Providence that where others miss their path job made Wise by Heaven could find it, there have been times when to our patient Faith all things have been plain, If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine, but if we walk far off from God then straightway even the precious truth of God is no more clear to us." [00:396:18]

"These regrets are not inevitable, that is to say it is not absolutely necessary that a Christian man should ever feel them or be compelled to express them, it has grown to be a tradition Among Us that every Christian must backslide in a measure and that growth in Grace cannot be unbrokenly sustained, it is regarded by many as a law of nature that our first love must grow cold and our early Zeal must necessarily decline, I do not believe it for a moment." [00:673:68]

"Nor do outward circumstances ever furnish a justification to us if we decline in Grace, for under the worst conditions Believers have grown in Grace, deprived of the joys of Christian fellowship and denied the Comforts of the means of Grace Believers have nevertheless been known to attain to a high degree of lightness to Christ Jesus, thrown into the midst of wicked Companions and forced to hear like righteous lot the filthy conversation of the ungodly yet Christian men have shown all the brighter for the surrounding Darkness." [00:776:34]

"These regrets by themselves are useless, it is unprofitable to read these words of job and say just so that is how I feel and then continue in the same way, if a man has neglected his business and so has lost his trade it may Mark a turn in his Affairs when he says I wish I'd been more industrious, but if he abides in the same sloth as before, of what uses his regret, if he shall fold his arms and say oh that I had dug that plot of land oh that I had sown that field no Harvest will come because of his Lamentations." [00:2088:78]

"Inactive regrets are insincere if a man really did lament that he had lost communion with God he would seek to regain it, if he does not seek to be restored he is adding to all his former sins this of lying before God in uttering regrets that he does not feel in his soul, I've known some I fear who even satisfied themselves with expressions of regrets, oh say they I am a deep experienced man I can go where job went I can mourn and lament as job did." [00:2175:079]

"Let your previous failings teach you to walk cautiously for the future, be jealous for you serve a jealous God, since gray hairs may come upon you here and there and you may not know it, search watch try yourself day by day lest you relax yet more, this should teach us to live by faith, since our best attainments fail us, we Rejoice today but we may mourn tomorrow, what a mercy it is that our Salvation does not depend on what we are or what we feel." [00:2574:06]

"Let us keep to the Good Ship of free Grace, steered by immutable faithfulness for none other can bring us to the desired Haven, but oh let that free Grace fill us with Ardent gratitude, since Christ has kept us though we could not keep ourselves let us bless his name and overwhelmed with obligations let us rise with a solemn determination that we will still serve him better than we have ever done before, and may his blessed Spirit help us to make the determination a fact." [00:2637:96]

"Dear Brethren and sisters if any of you desire now to come into the higher life and to feel in you your first love what shall I say to you go back to where you started, do not stay discussing whether you are a Christian or not, go to Christ as a poor guilty sinner, when the door to Heaven seems shut to me as a saint I will get through it as a sinner trusting in the precious blood of Jesus." [00:2694:00]

"Begin life again, the best Heir for a man to breathe when he is sickly is said to be that of his birthplace, it was at Calvary we were born, it is only at Calvary we can be restored when we are declining, do the first works as a sinner repair to the Savior and asked to be restored, then is a further means of Health search out the cause of your declension, probably it was a neglect of private prayer, where the disease began there must the remedy be applied." [00:2759:40]