October 13

Godly sorrow tcorketh repentance.” — 2 Corir.thians vii. 10.

lENUINE, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of (hi li Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature’s thorns never produce a singk fig “That which ia born of flesh is flesh.”

True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ, and see our transgressions only in the lijrht of Ilis love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may s.iy he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally — as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it — shun it in everything — not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our topgue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over om daily actions, lest in anything we off”end, and each i?ight. wf shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this daj God would hold us up that we may not sin against Him.

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent unti theii dying day. This dropping well ii not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy an 1 to suff’er it until we entef fur eternal rest.