w any one come back to God who was content to remain
away from God, after having had the experience described in Heb. 6:4, 5?
We have seen some who exactly correspond to the description Paul gives
here, but we have never known any such to come back to the truth. May we
use this, as the apostle intended it, as a warning against unfaithfulness
to God.

In Heb. 10:26-29 the apostle makes mention of the same conditions, only in
a different way. Here he speaks of _sinning wilfully_ "after that we have
received the knowledge of the truth." Of course, all sin, to be sin, is
done more or less wilfully; but the apostle can not have reference to a
sin committed on account of a spiritual lack, while the soul meaningly
presses on in the race for God. We know that such a sin does not unfit one
to become pardoned again, the Holy Spirit is not blasphemed, and therefore
the sacrifice (Christ) still remains, to which the soul may flee. To "sin
wilfully" here means more, as is unmistakably implied in verses
twenty-eight and twenty-nine. He illustrates by one who despised Moses'
law, as though he now means one who is despising the law of Christ; and he
explains himself in verse twenty-nine, where we see he has reference to
one "who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the
blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." Here "sin wilfully"
comprehends the blasphemy of the Spirit, and he evidently means, by the
term, a wilful turning again to a life of sin, a deliberate giving up of
the faith, and choosing sin instead. This is also used as a stimulus to
the saints to exhort one another, and neglect not the assembling of
themselves together, or the provoking unto love and good works, etc.

From these two places in the Hebrews it might be supposed that to be in an
unpardonable condition a person must have once been saved. But the apostle
in both places is necessarily addressing saved people, and holds up such a
condition as a warning against unfaithfulness. He deals in what is
applicable to them. But this does not prove that a man who has never known
the way of truth may not also place himself where he is unpardonable.

It is safe and Scriptural to take the stand that a person is pardonable so
long as he is capable of being sorry for his sin, for God's sake, or of
having a real desire to love and serve God. The promise and privilege is
to "whosoever wil