XX evtl y purpose, and to carry it forward, through all the opposition of sin and of Satan, into accomplishment. This is the grand revolution in the state of the mind which repentance brings along with it. To grieve because this work is not done, is a very different thing from the doing of it. A deathbed is the very best scene for acting the first; but it is the very worst for acting the second. The repentance of Judas has often been acted there. We ought to think of the work in all its magnitude, and not to put it off to that awful period when the soul is crowded with other things, and has to maintain its weary struggle with the pains, and the distresses, and the shiverings, and the breathless agonies of a deathbed. 2. There are two views that may be taken of the way in which repentance is brought about, and whichever of them is adopted, delay carries along with it the saddest infa.tuation. It may be looked upon as a step taken by man as a voluntary agent, and we would ask you, upon your experience of the powers and the performances of humanity, if a deathbed is the time for taking such a step? Is this a time for a voluntary being exercising a vigorous control over his own movements? When racked with pain, and borne down by the pressure of a sore and overwhelming calamity? Surely the greater the work of repentance is, the more ease, the more time, the more freedom from suffering, is necessary for carrying it on; and, therefore, adcliessing you as voluntary beings, as beings who will and who do, we call upon you to seek God early that you may find him-to haste, and make no delay in ·keeping his commandments. The other view is, that repentance is not a selforiginating work in man, but the work of the Holy Spirit in him as the subject of its influences. This view is not Qpposite to the former. It is true that man wills and does at every step in the business of his salvation; and it is as true that God works in "' him so to will and to do. Take this last view of it then. Look on repentance as the work of God'~
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