One  great  cause  of  backsliding  is  the  uncertainty  which
many  of  the  serious  allow  to  rest  upon  the  question  of  their
own  faith  in  Christ.  They  never  were  sure  that  they  were
believers.  They  wished  to  be  so — tried  to  be  so,  and
hoped  that,  eventually,  they  should  prove  to  be  so.  This
may  be  your  case.  You  were  quite  sure,  when  you  began
to  follow  Christ,  that  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in
your  heart  and  habits,  and  in  your  views  and  feelings  ; — so


CAUSES    OF   BACKSLIDING.  107

great,  that  you  could  not  but  regard  it,  then,  as  the  begin-
ning of  that  "  good  work"  which  God  has  promised  to  carry
on.  Accordingly,  under  this  sweet  persuasion,  you  began
to  act  as  a  believer,  and  to  apply  to  yourself  all  the  com-
mands which  are  enjoined  upon  believers.  Thus,  in  refer-
ence to  duty,  you  cast  in  your  lot  with  the  people  of  God,
and  willingly  came  under  all  their  peculiar  obligations ;  and
the  readiness  with  which  you  did  so,  at  that  time,  was  no
small  proof  to  yourself,  and  others,  that  you  were  the  sub-
ject of  a  divine  charge.  You  were  even  glad  to  find  that
you  were  no  longer  unwilling  to  follow  holiness,  nor  averse
to  devotion.  You  wondered  and  wept  that  you  had  ever
neglected  them — and  adored  the  grace  which  had  put  an
end  to  that  criminal  negligence.  Accordingly,  you  often
felt  sure  that  you  could  never  relapse  into  your  old  state  of
mind  ;  the  bare  idea  of  going  back  from  the  "  narrow  way"
into  the  "  broad  way"  again,  was  abhorrent  to  you.  You
could  not  believe  that  it  was  possible  after  all  that  you  had
seen  and  felt,  to  forsake  the  fountain  of  living  waters,  and
return  to  the  broken  cisterns  of  sin  or  folly.  But  you  have
done  so,  and  left  both  your  "  first  love,"  and  your  "  first
work."  You  are  now  a  backslider,  and  feel  and  confess
that  you  are  so.
