REPENTANCE
UNTO LIFE
A
Sermon Delivered On Sunday, September 23, 1855
BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT
NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK.
“Then
hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”-Acts
11:18.
ONE
of the greatest obstacles which the
Christian religion ever overcame, was the inveterate prejudice which
possessed the minds of its earliest followers. The Jewish believers,
the twelve apostles, and those whom Jesus Christ had called from the
dispersed of Israel, were so attached to the idea that salvation was
of the Jews, and that none but the disciples of Abraham, or, at any
rate, the circumcised ones, could be saved, that they could not bring
themselves to the thought that Jesus had come to be the Savior of all
nations, and that in him should all the people of the earth be
blessed. It was with difficulty they could allow the supposition; it
was so opposite to all their Jewish education, that we find them
summoning Peter before a council of Christians, and saving to him,
“thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them.”
Nor could Peter exonerate himself until he had rehearsed the matter
fully, and said that God had appeared unto him in a vision, declaring,
“What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common,” and that the
Lord had bidden him preach the gospel to Cornelius and his household,
inasmuch as they were believers. After this the power of grace was so
mighty that these Jews could no longer withstand it: and in the teeth
of all their previous education, they at once assumed the broad
principle of Christianity,” and glorified God, saying, Then hath God
also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” Let us bless God
that now we are free from the trammels of Judaism, and that we are not
under those of a Gentilism which has in its turn excluded the Jew, but
that we live so near the blessed time that is coming, when Jew and
Gentile, bond and free, shall feel themselves one in Jesus Christ our
Head. I am not now, however, about to
enlarge upon this, but my subject this morning is “Repentance unto
life.” May God give me grace so to speak to you that his word may be
as a sharp sword, “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow.”
By “Repentance unto life,” I
think we are to understand that repentance which is accompanied
by spiritual life in the soul, and ensures eternal life to every one
who possesses it. “Repentance unto life,” I say, brings with it
spiritual life, or rather, is the first consequent thereof. There are
repentances which are not signs of life, except of natural life,
because they are only effected by the power of the conscience and the
voice of nature speaking in men; but the repentance here spoken of is
produced by the Author of life, and when it comes, it begets such life
in the soul, that he who was “dead in trespasses and sins,” is
quickened together with Christ; he who had no spiritual
susceptibilities, now “receives with meekness the engrafted word;”
he who slumbered in the very center of corruption, receives power to
become one of the sons of God, and to be near his throne. This I think
is “repentance unto life,”-that which gives life unto a dead
spirit. I have said also, this repentance ensures eternal life; for
there are repentances of which you hear men speaks which do not secure
the salvation of the soul. Some preachers will affirm that men may
repent, and may believe, and yet may fall away and perish. We will not
consume our time by stopping to expose their error this morning; we
have often considered it before, and have refuted all that they could
say in defense of their dogma.
Let us think of an infinitely
better repentance. The repentance of our test is not their repentance,
but it is a “repentance unto life;” a repentance which is a true
sign of eternal salvation in Christ; a repentance which preserves us
through this temporary state in Jesus, and which when we are passed
into eternity, gives us a bliss which cannot be destroyed.
“Repentance unto life “is the act of salvation of the soul, the
germ which contains all the essentials of salvation, which secures
them to us, and prepares us for them.
We are this morning to give a
very careful and prayerful attention to the “repentance” which is
“unto life.” First, I shall devote a few minutes to the
consideration of false repentance; secondly, I shall consider the
signs that mark true repentance; and after that, I shall extol the
divine beneficence, of which it is written, “Then hath God
also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”
I.
First, then, we will consider
certain FALSE REPENTANCES.
I
will begin with this remark-that trembling beneath the sound of the
gospel is not “repentance.” There are many men who when they
hear a faithful gospel sermon, are exceedingly stirred and moved by
it. By a certain power which accompanies the Word, God testifies that
it is his own Word, and he causes those who hear it involuntarily to
tremble. I have seen some men, while the truths of Scripture have been
sounded from this pulpit, whose knees have knocked together, whose
eyes have flowed with tears as if they had been fountains of water. I
have witnessed the deep dejection of their spirit, when-as some of
them have told me-they have been shaken until they knew not how to
abide the sound of the voice, for it seemed like the terrible trumpet
of Sinai thundering only their destruction. Well, my hearers, you may
be very much disturbed under the preaching of the gospel, and yet you
shall not have that “repentance unto life.” You may know what it
is to be very seriously and very solemnly affected when you go to
God’s house, and yet you may be hardened sinners. Let me confirm the
remark by an instance:-Paul stood before Felix with the chains upon
his hands, and as he preached of “righteousness, temperance, and of
judgment to come,” it is written, “Felix trembled,’’ and yet
procrastinating Felix is in perdition, among the rest of those who
have said, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient
season I will call for thee.” There are many of you who cannot
attend the house of God without being alarmed; you know what it is
often to stand aghast at the thought that God will punish you; you may
often have been moved to sincere emotion under God’s minister; but,
let me tell you, you may be after all a castaway, because you have not
repented of your sins, neither have you turned to God. Further still.
It is quite possible that you may not only tremble before God’s
Word, but you may become a sort of amiable Agrippa, and be
“almost persuaded” to turn to Jesus Christ, and yet have no
“repentance;” you may go further and even desire the gospel;
you may say: “Oh! this gospel is such a goodly thing I would I had
it. It ensures so much happiness here, and so much joy hereafter, I
wish I might call it mine.” Oh! it is good, thus to hear this voice
of God! but you may sit, and, while some powerful text is being well
handled, you may say, “I think it is true;” but it must enter the
heart before you can repent. You may even go upon your knees in prayer
and you may ask with a terrified lip that this may be blessed to your
soul; and after all you may be no child of God. You may say as Agrippa
said unto Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a
Christian;” yet, like Agrippa, you
may never proceed beyond the “almost.” He was “almost persuaded
to be a Christian,” but not “altogether.” Now, how many of you
here have been; almost persuaded” and yet you are not really in the
way of eternal life. How often has conviction brought you on your
knees and you have “almost” repented, but you have remained there,
without actually repenting. See that corpse? It is lately dead. It has
scarcely acquired the ghastliness of death, the color is still
life-like. Its hand is still warm; you may fancy it is alive, and it
seems almost to breathe. Every thing is there-the worm hath scarcely
touched it dissolution hath scarcely approached; life is gone; life is
not there. So it is with you: you are almost alive; you have almost
every external organ of religion which the Christian has; but you have
not life. You may have repentance, but not sincere repentance. O
hypocrite! I warn you this morning, you may not only tremble but feel
a complacency towards the Word of God, and yet after all not have
“repentance unto life.” You may sink down into the pit that is
bottomless, and hear it said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Yet, again, it is possible for
men to progress even further than this, and positively to humble
themselves under the hand of God, and yet they may be total strangers
to repentance. Their goodness is not like the morning cloud and
the early dew that passeth away, but when the sermon is heard they go
home and commence what they conceive to be the work of repentance,
they renounce certain vices and follies, they clothe themselves in
sack-cloth, their tears flow very freely on account of what they have
done; they weep before God; and yet with all that, their repentance is
but a temporary repentance, and they go back to their sins again. Do
you deny that such a penitence can exist? Let me tell you of a case. A
certain man named Ahab coveted the vineyard of his neighbor Naboth,
who would not sell it for a price, nor make an exchange. He consulted
with his wife Jezebel, who contrived to put Naboth to death, and thus
secure the vineyard to the king. After Naboth was put to death, and
Ahab had taken possession of the vineyard, the servant of the Lord met
Ahab, and said to him, “Hast thou killed, and also taken possession.
Thus saith the Lord, in the place where the dogs licked the blood of
Naboth shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine. Behold, I will bring
evil upon thee, and will take away thy prosperity “We read that Ahab
went awe, and humbled himself; and the Lord said, “Because Ahab
humbleth himself before me I will not bring evil in his days.” He
had granted him some kind of mercy; but we read in the
very next chapter that Ahab rebelled,
and in a battle in Ramoth-gilead, according to the servant of the
Lord, he was slain there; so that “the dogs licked his blood “in
the very vineyard of Naboth. You, too, I tell you, may humble
yourselves before God for a time, and yet remain the slaves of your
transgressions. You are afraid of damnation, but you are not afraid of
sinning: you are afraid of hell, but you are not afraid of your
iniquities; you are afraid of being cast into the pit, but not afraid
to harden your hearts against his commands. Is it not true, O sinner,
that you are trembling at hell? It is not the soul’s state that
troubles you, but hell. If hell were extinguished, your repentance
would be extinguished; if the terrors awaiting you were withdrawn, you
would sin with a higher hand than before, and your soul would be
hardened, and would rebel against its sovereign. Be not deceived, my
brethren, here; examine yourselves whether you are in the faith; ask
yourselves if you have that which is “repentance unto life;” for
you may humble yourselves for a time, and yet never repent before God.
Beyond this many advance, and yet
fall short of grace. It is possible that you may confess your sins,
and yet may not repent. You may approach God, and tell him you are
a wretch indeed; you may enumerate a long list of your transgressions
and of the sins that you have committed, without a sense of the heinousness
of your guilt, without a spark of real hatred of your deeds. You may
confess and acknowledge your transgressions, and yet have no
abhorrence of sin; and if you do not in the strength of God resist
sin, if you do not turn from it, this fancied repentance shall be but
the guilding which displays the paint which decorates; it is not the
grace which transforms into gold, which will abide the fire. You may
even, I say confess your faults, and yet have not repentance.
Once more, and then I have gone
to the farthest thought I have to give on this point. You may do
some work meet for repentance, and yet you may be impenitent. Let
me give you a proof of this in a fact authenticated by inspiration.
Judas betrayed his Master; and
after having done so, an overwhelming sense of the enormous evil he
had committed seized upon him. His guilt buried all hope of
repentance, and in the misery of desperation, not the grief of true
regret, he confessed his sin to the high priests, crying, “I have
sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood.” They said, “What
is that to us, see thou to that.” Whereupon he cast down the pieces
of silver in the.
temple, to show that he could not
bear to carry the price of guilt upon him; and left them there. He
went out, and -was he saved? No. “He went out and hanged himself.”
And even then the vengeance of God followed him: for when he had
hanged himself he fell from the height where he was suspended, and was
dashed to pieces; he was lost, and his soul perished. Yet see what
this man did. He had sinned, he confessed his wrong, he returned the
gold; still after all that, he was a castaway. Does not this make us
tremble? You see how possible it is to be the ape of the Christian so
nearly, that wisdom itself, if it be only mortal, may be deceived.
II.
Now, having thus warned you that
there are many false kinds of repentance, I propose to occupy a short
time by some remarks on TRUE REPENTANCE,
and the signs whereby we may discern whether we have that
“repentance” which is “unto life.”
First of all, let me correct one
or two mistakes which those who are coming to Jesus Christ very often
make. One is, they frequently think they must have deep, horrible, and
awful manifestations of the terrors of law and of hell before they can
be said to repent. How many have I conversed with, who have said to me
what I can only translate into English to you this morning something
in this way: “I do not repent enough, I do not feel myself enough of
a sinner I have not been so gross and wicked a transgressor as many-I
could almost wish I had; not because I love sin, but because then I
think I should have deeper convictions of my guilt, and feel more sure
that I had truly come to Jesus Christ.”
Now it is a great mistake to
imagine that these terrible and horrible thoughts of a coming judgment
have anything to do with the validity of “repentance.” They are
very often not the gift of God at all, but the insinuations of the
devil; and even where the law worketh and produceth these thoughts,
you must not regard them as being part and parcel of “repentance.”
They do not enter into the essence of repentance. “Repentance” is
a hatred of sin; it is a turning from sin and a determination in the
strength of God to forsake it. “Repentance” is a hatred of sin,
and a forsaking it. It is possible for a man to repent without any
terrific display of the terrors of the law; he may repent without
having heard the trumpet sounds of Sinai, without having heard more
than a distant rumble of its thunder. A man may repent entirely
through the power of the voice of mercy. Some hearts God opens to
faith, as in the case of Lydia. Others he assaults with the sledge
hammer of the wrath to come; some he opens with the picklock of grace,
and some with the crowbar of the law. There may be different ways of
getting there, but the.
question is, has he got there? Is he
there? It often happens that the Lord is not in the tempest or in the
earthquake, but in the “still small voice.”
There is another mistake many
poor people make when they are thinking about salvation, and that is
that they cannot repent enough; they imagine that were they to repent
up to a certain degree, they would be saved. “Oh, sir!” some of
you will say, “I have not penitence enough.” Beloved, let me tell
you that there is not any eminent degree of “repentance” which is
necessary to salvation. You know there are degrees of faith, and yet
the least faith saves; so there are degrees of repentance, and the
least repentance will save the soul if it is sincere. The Bible says,
“He that believeth shall be saved,” and when it says that, it
includes the very smallest degree of faith. So when it says, “Repent
and be saved,” it includes the man who has the lowest degree of real
repentance. Repentance, moreover, is never perfect in any man in this
mortal state. We never get perfect faith so as to be entirely free
from doubting; and we never get repentance which is free from some
hardness of heart. The most sincere penitent that you know will feel
himself to be partially impenitent. Repentance is also a continual
life-long act. It will grow continually. I believe a Christian on his
death-bed will more bitterly repent than ever he did before. It is a
thing to be done all your life long. Sinning and repenting-sinning and
repenting, make up a Christian’s life. Repenting and believing in
Jesus-repenting and believing in Jesus, make up the consummation of
his happiness. You must not expect that you will be perfect in
“repentance” before you are saved. No Christian can be perfect.
“Repentance” is a grace. Some people preach it as a condition of
salvation. Condition of nonsense! There are no conditions of
salvation. God gives the salvation himself; and he only gives it to
those to whom he will. He says, “I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy “If, then, God has given you the least repentance, if it
be sincere repentance, praise him for it, and expect that repentance
will grow deeper and deeper as you go further on. Then this remark I
think, ought to be applied to all Christians. Christian men and women,
you feel that you have not deep enough repentance. You feel that you
have not faith large enough. What are you to do? Ask for an increase
of faith, and it will grow. So with repentance. Have you ever tried to
get deep repentance? My friends, if you have failed therein, still
trust in Jesus, and try every day to get a penitential spirit, Do not
expect, I say again, to have perfect repentance at first; sincere
penitence you must have, and then under divine grace you will go on
from strength to strength, until at last you shall hate.
and abhor sin as a serpent or a
viper, and then shall you be near, very near, the perfection of
repentance. These few thoughts, then, in opening the subject. And now
you say, what are the signs of true “repentance” in the sight of
God?
First, I tell you, there is
always sorrow with it. No man ever repents of sin without
having some kind of sorrow with it. More or less intense, it may be,
according to the way in which God calls him, and his previous manner
of life, but there must be some sorrow. We do not care when it comes,
but at some time or other it must come, or it is not the repentance of
the Christian. I knew a man once who professed that he had repented,
and he certainly was a changed character, so far as the external was
concerned, but I never could see that he had any real sorrow for sin,
neither when he professed to believe in Jesus did I ever see any marks
of penitence in him. I considered in that man it was a kind of
ecstatic jump into grace; and I found afterwards he had just as
ecstatic a jump into guilt again He was not a sheep of God, for he had
not been washed in penitence: for all God’s people have to be washed
there when converted from their sins. No man can come to Christ and
know his pardon without feeling that sin is a hateful thing, for it
put Jesus to death. Ye who have tearless eyes, unbended knees,
unbroken hearts, how can ye think ye are saved? The gospel promised
salvation only to those who really repent. Lest, however, I should
hurt some of you, and make you feel what I do not intend, let me
remark that I do not mean to say that you must shed actual tears. Some
men are so hard in constitution that they could not shed a tear. I
have known some who have been able to sigh and to groan, but tears
would not come. Well, I say, that though the tear often affords
evidence of penitence, you may have “repentance unto life” without
it. What I would have you understand is, that there must be some real
sorrow. If the prayer may not be vocal, it must be secret. There must
be a groan if there is no word; there must be a sigh if there be no
tear, to show the repentance, even though it be but small.
There must be in this repentance,
I think, not only sorrow, but there must be practice-practical
repentance.
“‘Tis
not enough to say we’re sorry, and repent,
And then go on from day to day just as we always went”
Many
people are very sorry and very penitent for their past sins Hear them
talk. “Oh!” they say, “I deeply regret that ever I should have
been a drunkard; and I sincerely bemoan that I should have fallen into
that sin; I deeply lament that I should have done so.” Then they go
straight home; and when one; o’clock on Sunday comes you will find
them at it again. And yet such people say they have repented Do you
believe them when they say they are sinners, but do not love sin? They
may not love it for the time; but can they be sincerely penitent, and
then go and transgress again immediately, in the same way as they did
before? How can we believe you if you transgress again and again, and
do not forsake your sin? We know a tree by its fruit, and you who are
penitent will bring forth works of repentance. I have often thought it
was a very beautiful instance, showing the power of penitence which a
pious minister once related. He had been preaching on penitence, and
had in the course of his sermon spoke of the sin of stealing. On his
way home a laborer came alongside of him, and the minister observed
that he had something under his smock-frock. He told him he need not
accompany him farther; but the man persisted. At last he said, “I
have a spade under my arm which I stole up at that farm; I heard you
preaching about the sin of stealing, and I must go and put it there
again.” That was sincere penitence which caused him to go back and
replace the stolen article. It was like those South Sea Islanders, of
whom we read who stole the missionaries’ articles of apparel and
furniture, and everything out of their houses; but when they were
savingly converted they brought them all back. But many of you say you
repent, yet nothing comes of it; it is not worth the snap of the
finger. People sincerely repent, they say, that they should have
committed a robbery, or that they have kept a gambling-house; but they
are very careful that all the proceeds shall be laid out to their
hearts’ best comfort. True “repentance’’ will yield works meet
for repentance,” it will be practical repentance.
Yet farther. You may know whether
your repentance is practical by this test. Does it last or does it
not? Many of your repentances are like the hectic flush upon the cheek
of the consumptive person which is no sign of health. Many a time have
I seen a young man in a flow of newly acquired, but unsound godliness,
and he has thought he was about to repent of his sins. For some hours
such an one was deeply penitent before God, and for weeks he
relinquishes his follies. He attends the house of prayer, and
converses as a child of God. But back he goes to his sins as the dog
returns to his vomit. The evil spirit has gone “back to his house,
and has taken with him
seven others more wicked than himself; and the last state of that man
is worse than the first.” How long has your penitence lasted? Did it
continue for months? or did it come upon you and go away suddenly? You
said, “I will join the church-I will do this, that, and the other,
for God’s cause.” Are your works lasting? Do you believe your
repentance will last six months? Will it continue for twelve months?
Will it last until you are wrapped in your winding-sheet?
Yet again, I must ask you one
question more. Do you think you you’ll repent of your sins if no
punishment were placed before you? or do you repent because you know
you shall be punished for ever if you remain in your sins? Suppose I
tell you there is no hell at all; that, if you choose, you may swear;
and, if you will, you may live without God. Suppose there were no
reward for virtue, and no punishment for sin, which would you choose?.
Can you honestly say, this morning, “I think, I know, by the grace
of God, I would choose righteousness if there were no reward for it,
if there were nothing to be gained by righteousness, and nothing to be
lost by sin.” Every sinner hates his sin when he comes near to the
mouth of hell; every murderer hates his crime when he comes to the
gallows; I never found a child hate its fault so much as when it was
going to be punished for it. If you had no cause to dread the pit-if
you knew that you might give up your life to sin, and that you might
do so with impunity, would you still feel that you hated sin, and that
you could not, would not, commit sin, except through the infirmity of
the flesh? Would you still desire holiness? Would you still desire to
live like Christ? If so- if you can say this in sincerity-if you thus
turn to God and hate your sin with an everlasting hatred, you need not
fear but that you have a “repentance” which is “unto life.”
III.
Now comes the concluding and
third point, and that “THE BLESSED BENEFICENCE OF GOD”
in granting to men “repentance unto
life.”
“Repentance,” my dear
friends, is the gift of God. It is one of those spiritual favors which
ensure eternal life. It is the marvel of divine mercy that it not only
provides the way of salvation, that it not only invites men to receive
grace, but that it positively makes men willing to be saved. God
punished his Son Jesus Christ for our sins, and therein he provided
salvation for all his lost children. He sends his minister; the
minister bids men repent and believe, and he labors to bring them to
God. They will not listen to the call, and they despise the minister.
But then another messenger is sent, a heavenly ambassador who cannot
fail. He summons men to repent and turn to God. Their thoughts are a
little wayward, but after he, the Divine
Spirit, pleads with them, they forget what manner of men they were,
and they repent and turn. Now, what would we do if we had been treated
as God was? If we had made a supper or a feast, and sent out
messengers to invite the guests to come, what would we do? Do you
think we should take the trouble to go round and visit them all, and
get them to come? And when they sat down and said they could not eat
would we open their mouths? If they still declared they could not eat,
should we still make them eat? Ah! beloved, I am inclined to think you
would not do so. If you had signed the letters of invitation, and the
invited would not come to your feast, would you not say, “You shall
not have it.” But what does God do? He says, “Now I will make a
feast, I will invite the people, and if they do not come in, my
ministers shall go out and fetch them in bodily. I will say to my
servants, go ye out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to
come in, that they may partake of the feast I have prepared.” Is it
not a stupendous act of divine mercy that he actually makes them
willing? He does not do it by force, but uses a sweet spiritual
suasion. They are first as unwilling to be saved as they can be;
“but,” says God, “that is nothing, I have power to make you turn
to me, and I will.” The Holy Ghost then brings home the Word of God
to the consciences of his children in so blessed a manner, that they
can no longer refuse to love Jesus. Mark you, not by any force against
the will, but by a sweet spiritual influence changing the will. O, ye
lost and ruined sinners! stand here and admire my Master’s mercy. He
sets not only a feast of good things before men, but he induces them
to come and partake of them, and constrains them to continue feasting
until he carries them to the everlasting eternal mansion. And as he
bears them up, he says to each one, “I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore, by my loving kindness I have drawn thee.
Now, dost thou love me?” “Oh, Lord,” they cry, “thy grace in
bringing us here proves that thou dost love us, for we were unwilling
to go. Thou saidst, you shall go, we said we would not go, but thou
hast made us go. And now, Lord, we bless thee, and love thee for that
force. It was sweet constraint.” I was a struggling captive, but I
am now made willing.
Oh!
sovereign grace, my heart subdue!
I would be led in triumph too;
A willing captive to my Lord
To sing the honors of his Word.”
Well
now, what say you? Some of you will say, “Sir, I have been trying to
repent for a long time. In pains and afflictions I have been praying
and trying
to believe, and doing all I can.” I will tell you another thing: you
will try a long time before you will be able to do it. That is not the
way to get it. I heard of two gentlemen travelling. One of them said
to the other, “I do not know how it is, but you always seem to
recollect your wife and family, and all that is doing at home, and you
seem as if you connected all things around you with them; but I try to
bring mine to my recollection constantly, and yet I never can.”;
No,” said the other, “that is the very reason-because you try. If
you could connect them with every little circumstance ye meet, you
would easily remember them. I think at such and such a time-now they
are rising; at such and such a time-now they are at prayers; at such
and such a time-now they are having their breakfast. In this way I
have them still before me.” I think the same thing happens with
regard to “repentance.” If a man says, “I want to believe,”
and tries by some mechanical means to work himself into repentance, it
is an absurdity, and he will never accomplish it. But the way for him
to repent is by God’s grace to believe, to believe and think on
Jesus. If he picture to himself the wounded bleeding side the crown of
thorns, the tears of anguish-if he takes a vision of all that Christ
suffered, I will be bound for it he will turn to him in repentance. I
would stake what reputation I may have in spiritual things upon
this-that a man cannot, under God’s Holy Spirit, contemplate the
cross of Christ without a broken heart. If it is not so, my heart is
different from any one’s else. I have never known a man who has
thought upon, and taken a view of the cross, who has not found that it
begat “repentance,” and begat faith. We look at Jesus Christ if we
would be saved, and we then say. “Amazing sacrifice! that Jesus thus
died to save sinners.” If you want faith, remember he gives it, if
you want repentance, he gives it! if you want everlasting life, he
gives it liberally. He can force you to feel your great sin, and cause
you to repent by the sight of Calvary’s cross, and the sound of the
greatest, deepest death shriek, “Eloi! Eloi! lama sabacthani?”
“My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” That will beget
“repentance;” it will make you weep and say, “Alas! and did my
Savior bleed; and did my Sovereign die for me?” Then beloved, if you
would have “repentance,” this is my best advice to you-look to
Jesus. And may the blessed Giver of all “repentance unto
salvation” guard you from the false repentances which I have
described, and give you that “repentance,” which existeth unto
life.
“Repent!
the voice celestial cries,
Nor longer dare delay;
The wretch that scorns the mandate, dies,
And meets a fiery day.
No
more the sovereign eye of GOD
O’erlooks the crimes of men;
His heralds are despatch’d abroad
To warn the world of sin.
The
summons reach thro’ all the earth
Let earth attend and fear;
Listen, ye men of royal birth,
And let your vassals hear!
Together
in his presence bow,
And all your guilt confess
Embrace the blessed Savior now,
Nor trifle with his grace.
Bow,
ere the awful trumpet sound,
And call you to his bar:
For mercy knows the appointed bound.
And turns to vengeance there.”