William Bridge
What shall we do that God may return again? I will carry it on in answer to two cases.
(1.) If this question relates to your own souls; if you say, God is now gone from me, what shall I do that God may return to my soul? I answer briefly: Be sure of this, that you keep your door – the door of your hearts – open for Christ’s return. When the master is away, the servant sits up to keep the door open for him to come in.
Be sure that, in the time of Christ’s absence, you neglect no duty, though very unsavoury to you. The more unsavoury the duty is to you now through the absence of Christ, the more acceptable it is to Christ.
Be sure that you go and stand where Christ normally is. And let me tell you this: if you cannot find Him where He normally is, you shall find Him where He normally is not, as you read in Song of Solomon 3. Then be sure that you are not foolish with other lovers in the time of His absence, lest He hear of it and come home no more. Be sure also that you come to Christ through all those words whereby He seems to put you away from Him. Say to Him as the woman of Canaan said, “Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs”. Which made Christ turn in again to say, “O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt”.
But then, be sure that you send unto Him one way or other and tell Him that you are sick of love to His Person. Then He returns. And then say, Lord, though Thou killest me, yet will I trust in Thee. Friends, it was faith that brought Christ and your souls together at the first, and it is faith that must bring Christ and your souls together after a desertion. However therefore the
1The fifth point, as edited, from a sermon on Psalm 90:13: “Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.” Taken from Bridge’s Works, vol 3.
Lord is displeased with you, say, Lord, though Thou killest me, I will trust in Thee; though I cannot see Thee, yet I will trust in Thee and wait upon Thee.
(2.) Suppose it is the case of the nation. God is departed in a great measure; who does not see it? What shall we therefore do now, so that God may return unto us? Truly it is not an easy thing to bring God back, when He is in a way of displeasure towards a people. The Lord was angry and sorely displeased with Jonah; the mariners prayed; Jonah confessed his sin, and yet the storm did not cease; God went on. I say it is not an easy thing to bring God back to a nation, when He is once in a way of displeasure against a people.
And sometimes the Lord will never return unto a people. Note the case of the Gaderenes in the matter of their hogs. The whole city came to Christ and besought Him to go. Away He went, and we do not read that He ever came there again.
Sometimes He will return, but with reserves of after-judgements. In Exodus 32, Moses prayed, and “the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do to His people” (v14). But He says, “Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them” (v34). In other words, Nevertheless, for all I thus repent, and for all I do thus return unto them, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Sometimes, I say, He returns with reserves of after-judgments; yet if you look into Deuteronomy, the thing is expressed: “The Lord will judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone”.
But what shall we do then? It is too manifest that God has in a great measure departed from us; what shall we do now, so that God may return again unto this nation? Be sure that you make your peace with Christ. He is this day offended; His gospel and institutions are trampled on. A prophet will the Lord your God raise up among you; hear Him. If not, He – that is, Christ – will not pardon you. He that sins against the great remedy shall be judged without remedy. Christ is the great remedy; it is a dangerous thing to sin against Christ. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” says Christ, “how often would I have gathered” you, and you would not be gathered; your house is left unto you desolate.
And in Matthew 22, you read that, after the great invitation to the supper, those that were invited refused; “they made light of it, and went their ways . . . and the remnant took his servants, entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth; and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.” It is a gospel quarrel. Therefore, I say, Has the Lord departed from us? Make your peace with Christ; it is Christ that is offended. Make your peace with Christ, or else never look for the Father to return again.
But then, if you desire that God may return to you, let us all return to the Lord with our whole heart. “Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. . . . Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him?” Who knows if you will turn to Him with all your heart, and He will return to you and leave a blessing behind Him? But look into Hosea 6:1,2: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.” God will return.
But what assurance have we of it? Are we certain that God will return? Yes, “His going forth is prepared as the morning” (v3). As sure as a morning is after a night, so sure will God return. His going forth is prepared as the morning; it is as certain He will return as the morning does. Yes, but when will God return? In due season: “He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth”. That is, He will return in due season; His return of love shall be as the rain, as the former and the latter rain in their season. Do you now therefore wish that God should return to you? Return unto God now. And that you may do so, only be sure that you pray and believe, believe and pray. Some pray, but do not believe; some say they believe, but they do not pray. What prayer cannot do, nothing can do; and what faith will not do, prayer cannot do. The prayer of faith shall heal the sick, and who knows but it may heal a poor sick nation also? And therefore, I say, pray and believe, and believe and pray.
Be sure that, in all your addresses to God in prayer, you come to the bottom in the matter of your confession. If you have days of fasting and prayer and humiliation, be sure that you come to the bottom in the matter of your confession, to confess the fundamental sin behind all the displeasure that has come upon us. Otherwise, though you fast and pray and confess, yet if you do not confess and bewail the sin which is fundamental to all our miseries, you do but cry a lapwing cry, farthest off from the nest, it will do you no good.
Be sure also that you put away the evil of your doings and do the opposite good; put away the evil of your doings, especially your Ashtaroth. Friends, though you fast and pray and humble yourselves; if you will not reform, none of your fasting and prayer will bring God back again. None of the days of fasting and prayer that you keep will do anything unless there is reformation. Yet I confess still, God must have freedom: He will sometimes deliver before we are prepared for it; but, I say, ordinarily, though you fast and pray and cry never so much, yet if you do not reform, none of your prayers will do
anything. And though you do reform, yet if you do not reform and put away your Ashtaroth, that sin that has brought this displeasure, your reformation will not be sufficient. And though you do this also, yet if you do not do the opposite good, it will not serve. Look to that therefore.
Be sure that you go out of yourselves and lay down all your worldly interests at the feet of the Lord, saying, Come, Lord, return – not: Return, O my trade; not: Return, O our ships; not: Return, O our peace; but: Return, O Lord. The more you go out of yourselves, the more fit you are for God to return to you.
To conclude, If you desire that God should return to you and that you may return to God, then go to God and pray and say, Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be turned.
Yet there is one thing more. It is tedious to lie under God’s departure. There may be hopes that God may return, but what shall we do in the interim till God returns again? I will briefly speak to this and conclude.
If your question relates to your particular souls, and you say, God has now gone from my soul; what shall I do till God returns? Be sure that you act as the afflicted spouse of Christ in the absence of your husband; and you may read of this at large in the Song of Solomon. Be sure that you maintain your interest, and do not let the sense of your interest in God and Christ be dissolved. “Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.” Thy servants still keep their interest. And so the spouse says, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine”.
Be sure you never say, God will never return again. Though you say, Lord, how long? yet never say, God is gone and will return no more. Poor, drooping, afflicted and deserted soul, be sure that you never say, God will never return. Lo, He cometh leaping over the mountains, over difficulties, to you; only be willing to go leaping over the mountains of difficulties to meet with Him.
And if your question concerns the public or the nation, What shall we do till God returns again? I answer, Go and lament after God. Has God gone? Has God departed in a great measure from this nation? Now go and lament after God. Twenty years, when the ark was taken, the Children of Israel lamented after God and the ark. Only God knows how long He may stay at a distance from us. Let us all now go and lament after God.
Be sure that you keep His ambassadors with you. When He calls home His ambassadors, He proclaims war against a nation; but as long as He has any agents among you, He is not quite gone.
And if ever God begins to return to us again, be thankful for the beginnings of His return. He that is thankful for little shall have much; and he that
is thankful for the beginnings of a return shall have a whole return. Do thus then, and who knows but that the Lord may yet return and leave a blessing behind Him? That He may do so, let us now pray and say with the Psalmist: “Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.”