The saddest mistake a good man can make is to follow the allurements of evil under the impression that he will be able to straighten it all out and lose nothing by it in the end; thinking he can follow his carnal desire and yet not surrender his highest aims and hopes. At the parting of the ways he stands, not quite willing to deny the sweet enticement of the flesh or the world, not at all willing to give up God and his own high ideals and plans. Then very softly the tempter suggests, "Take both." So, glad of this solution, he takes the wrong road, but with his eye fixed on the goal of the right and his face yet turned toward the light. Ah, but you can not have both. In choosing the one you surely renounce the other. Do you [261] think, deluded one, that you can ever repent and return and be reinstated without having lost something irrevocably and permanently? Little do you know the awful forces with which you have trifled, and bitter experience will teach you what before you had not realized. Yes, God is merciful; he meets the prodigal afar off and presses him to a Father's heart, and forgives, and puts new robes on him. Yet the wayward son has lost something irreparably--his years, his strength, his squandered portion of the Father's substance; and his higher nature has been irremediably thwarted. He has gained nothing; he has lost much; and if now he is safely back in the Father's home and love, it is because of God's exceeding grace. And not every wanderer gets even such a chance to come back; be it for one cause or another, because of outward hindrance, or inward disinclination, many a prodigal son perishes among the pigsties in the far country. My brother, if you have made that awful mistake, return to God today. There will never be a better time. And if you come, there is no telling what great things God will do for you today which he could not do tomorrow.

[TAG 261-262]