Not in scorn, but in sober seriousness, in Christian affection and fidelity, we ask, "_Where is now thy God?_" "Ye _did_ run well; who hath hindered you?" What is the guilty cause, the lurking evil, that has dragged you imperceptibly down from weakness to weakness, and has left you a poor, baffled thing, with the finger of irreligious scorn pointed at you, and whose truthfulness is echoed back from the lonely voids of your desolate heart? Return, O backsliding children! Remain no longer as you are, at this guilty distance from that God who, amid all the fitfulness of your love to _Him_, remains unaltered and unalterable in His love to _you_. Be not absorbed in tears, ringing your hands in moping melancholy--abandoning yourself to unavailing remorse and despair. The past may be bad enough! You may have done foul dishonour to your God. By some sad and fatal inconsistency, you may have given occasion to the ungodly to point at you the finger of scorn. The fair alabaster pillar may be stained with some crimson transgression. Or if there be no special blot to which they can point, there may be a lamentable spiritual deterioration in your daily walk. They may have observed your love to God waxing cold--your love of the world waxing strong. They may have heard you murmur at your Lord's dealings, question His faithfulness, and refuse to hear and to bear the rod--manifesting tempers, or indulging in pursuits sadly and strangely unlike what would be sanctioned by the example of your Divine Redeemer. Up! and with determined energy resolve henceforth to repair the breach,--henceforth to make a new start in the heavenly life. The shrill trumpet sounds--"_Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life_!" We cannot say, like the King of Nineveh, "_Who can tell if God will turn and repent?_" _He_ has never turned! _You_ have turned from Him, not He from _you_. "_Where is now thy God?_" He is the same as ever He was;--boundless in His compassion--true to His covenant--faithful to His promises; "_the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever_!"