REPENTANCE.

Father of heav'n and Him by whom
It, and us for it, and all else for us,

Thou mad'st and governd'st ever; come,
And re-create me, now grown ruinous;
My heart is by dejection, clay,

And by self-murder, red.

From this red earth, Oh! Father, purge away

All vicious tinctures; that, new-fashioned,

I may rise up from death before I'm dead.-DONNE.

Rend quur heart, and not quar garments, and tarn anto the Lord your God, for Be is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. Leave off from sin, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from wickedness.

Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance.

Gudly sorrow worketh repentance to saluation, not to be repented of: but the sarram of the world worketh death.

SOME, when they speak of repentance, mean little more than that they have grieved for transgression. Now sorrow is, I admit, an entrance-way of repentance -a preparation for it-a means of it; but it is not the grace itself. The truth is, we must toil and struggle as well as lament, and grief does no good any farther than it leads to a habit of watchfulness.-Channing.

It is the greatest folly imaginable in some, to shed tears for their sins and within a little while to return to them again; they think there is some kind of absolution in this way of easy venting themselves by tears in prayer, and when a new temptation returns, they easily yield to it. This is lightness and foolishness, like the inconstancy of a woman who entertains new lovers in her mourning apparel, having expressed much sorrow and grief for her former husband. The only

healing herb that the sinner can find is true repentance and humble confession: not that which acknowledges sin in a few slight words, when it has hardly looked upon it and known it; but that which proceeds from a previous true and vivid compunction of soul, and is inseparably attended by renovation and purity of heart and life; and as comprehending this, it is sometimes put for the whole of repentance. True and genuine repentance hath eyes, as it were, on both sides; it looks back on sins already committed to lament them; it looks forward and humbly resolves to commit no more what it has lamented.-Leighton.

THE man who explores himself in order to do the work of repentance, must explore his thoughts and the intention of his will, and must then examine what he would do if it were permitted him; that is, if he were not afraid of the laws, of the loss of reputation, honour, and gain; the evils of man reside therein; the evils

which a man does in the body are all from thence; they who do not explore the evils of their thought and will, cannot do the work of repentance, for they think and will afterwards, as they did before, and yet, to will evils is to do them.-Swedenborg.

Ir is true that there is much difficulty in exercising godliness. But this difficulty does not arise from the godliness which begins now to be felt in the mind, but from the ungodliness which still remains. If our feelings were not opposed to repentance, and our corruption did not oppose itself to the purity of God, there would be nothing painful for us in it. We only suffer in proportion as our natural sin resists supernatural grace. Our heart is torn between their opposing efforts. But it would be unjust to impute this violence to God who draws us to Him, instead of attributing it to the world which retains us. A child whom his mother tears from the arms of robbers, ought, in the pain he suffers, to love the lawful and loving violence which procures his liberty, and only to detest the tyranny of those who would have kept him unjustly.-Pascal.

REPENTANCE without amendment, is like continual pumping without mending the leak.—Fuller.

TAKE it (saith Chrysostom) upon my credit-Such is God's merciful inclination towards men, that repentance offered with a single mind he never refuseth; no, not although we be come to the very top of iniquity. If there be a will and desire to return, he receiveth, embraceth, and omitteth nothing which may restore us to former happiness, yea, that which is yet above all the rest; albeit, we cannot, in the duty of satisfying Him, attain what we ought, and would, but come far behind our mark, He taketh nevertheless in good worth that little which we do; be it never so mean, we lose not our labour therein.-Hooker.

Or true contrition ariseth hope of forgiveness; the favour of God, which was lost, is recovered; man is preserved from the wrath to come, and God and the penitent soul meet together with a holy kiss.

Humble contrition for sin is an acceptable sacrifice to Thee, O Lord, savouring much sweeter in Thy presence, than the perfume of frankincense. Thomas à Kempis.

EVERY delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance. It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it; and if we have time, whether we shall have a heart to it, and the assistance of God's grace to go through with it. God indeed hath been graciously

pleased to promise pardon on repentance; but He hath no where promised life and leisure, the aids of His grace and Holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance and amendment of life: He hath no where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give Him good words, and are at last contented to condescend so far to Him, as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer.-Tillotson.

Ir therefore we mean to be good, or to be happy, it behoveth us to lose no time; to be presently up at our great task, to snatch all occasions, to embrace all means incident of reforming our hearts and lives. As those who have a long journey to go, do take care to set out early, and in their way make good speed, lest the night overtake them before they reach their home; so it being a great way from hence to heaven, seeing we must pass over so many obstacles, through so many paths of duty, before we arrive thither, it is expedient to set forward as soon as can be, and to proceed with all expedition; the longer we stay, the more time we shall need, and the less we shall have.

We may consider that no future time which we can fix on, will be more convenient than the present is for our reformation. Let us pitch on what time we please, we shall be as unwilling and unfit to begin as we are now; we shall find in ourselves the same indispositions, the same averseness, or the same listlessness