xix too closely and too urgently upon us, when, in the language of the Bible, he speaks of" to-day," while it is ca1Jed to-day, and will let us off with no other repentance than repentance "now,"-seeing that ngw only is the accepted time, and now only the day of salvation, which he has a warrant to proclaim to us. This dilatory way of it is very much favoured by the mistaken and very defective view of repentance which we have attempted to expose. We have some how or other got into the delusion, that repentance is sorrow, and little else; and were we called to fix upon the scene where this sorroW' is likel7 to be felt in the · degree that is deepest and most overwhelming, we would point to the chamber of the dying man. It is awful to think that, generally speaking, this repentance of mere sorrow is the only repentance of a deathbed. Yes! we will meet with sensibility deep enough and painful enough ther&-with regret in all its bitterness-with terror mustering up its images of despair, and dwelling upon them in all the gloom of an affrighted imagination; and this is mistaken, not merely for the drapery of repentance, but for the very substance of it. We look forward, and we count upon this-that the sins of a life are to be expunged by the sighing and the sorrowing of the last days of it. We should give up this wretchedly superficial notion of repentance, and cease, fi·om this moment, to be led astray by it, The mind may sorrow over its corruptions at the very time that it is under the power of them. To grieve because we are under the captivity of sin is one thing-to be r&- leased from that captivity is another. A man may weep most bitterly over the perversities of his moral constitution; but to change that constitution is a different affair. Now, this is the mighty work of repentance. He who has undergone it is no longer the servant of sin. lie dies unto sin, he lives unto God. A sense of the authority of God is ever present with him, to wield the ascendency of a great wa:;;ter.. principle over all his movements--to call forth
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=