quently and so grievously sinned against him. I have multiplied my transgressions, I have backsliden from his ways; and now my way is hid from the Lord. I am cast out of his presence, and I dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead!" Is this your case? It is a lamentable but not a desperate case. Though "your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear," his "hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear." When Jonah's perverseness brought him under the heavy chastisement of God, when engulphed in the vast deep, when the earth and her bars were about him for ever,9-a situation from which deliverance seemed to be impossible, he could say; "I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." The Lord heard and delivered him. He will deliver you, if you patiently and humbly wait for him.1 Wait in the spirit and with the language of the church, as expressed by the prophet: "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.” 2 Come unto him with all your sins, numerous and aggravated as they may be, his blood will wash them all away: come with all your "corrupt affections," strong and

8 Is. lix. 1, 2.

9 Jonah ii. 4—6.
2 Micah vii. 9.

1 Ps. xl. 1-3.

active as they are, and his grace will subdue them : come with all your backslidings, and he will heal your backsliding, and will love you freely.3 He will turn your darkness into light, your sorrow into joy, your mourning into rejoicing.

3 Hosea xiv. 4.

SERMON VIII.

ON REPENTANCE.

LUKE XV. 10.

"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth."

In the scriptures, many gracious promises, many tender expostulations, and many persuasive arguments, are sweetly blended and addressed to the fallen sons of Adam. Their design is to win back to God and to blessedness, those who wander and perish in the far distant region of sin and estrangement from God. May our ears be unstopped to hear, and our hearts be softened to receive, the gracious messages of his holy word!

In the chapter from which my text is taken, the Lord Jesus delivered not less than three parables, of which the scope is to exhibit the tender pity of

the divine Being, and his readiness to receive into his favour every returning prodigal.

The text will lead us,

I. TO DESCRIBE

66 THE

SINNER THAT RE

PENTETH:"

II. TO NOTICE THE FEELINGS WITH WHICH HIS REPENTANCE IS REGARDED BY THE ANGELS OF

GOD."

66

I. WE ARE TO DESCRIBE THE 66 SINNER THAT REPENTETH."

The word translated "repentance" signifies a charge of mind; "that is, not only a sorrow for the sin past, but a purpose of amendment." And how great, how important is the change that takes place in the mind of the sinner that repenteth! His views and his feelings are quite changed. His lofty opinion of himself is brought low. There was a time when he regarded himself as a good and righteous man, and prided himself on his goodness. Now he looks upon himself with deep humility and self-abasement. Once he thought that his sins were few and small, and that, at any rate, he was no worse than others: now he sees that his sins are many and great; yea more than he can

1 Leigh's Critica Sacra.

number. Had he been formerly told that he was a transgressor of God's law, his pride would soon have been roused, and his feelings deeply wounded; but now he meekly and feelingly confesses, in the spirit and language of the repenting prodigal, “I have sinned against heaven." In the days of his ignorance and worldliness, he thought but lightly of sin,—a small and allowable evil,— yea, many sins as harmless and innocent; but now he contemplates sin, every sin, as a great evil. He beholds the malignity of sin, regards it as a rebellious opposition to the will of God; as aiming at the subversion of the divine government; as the fertile cause of all the misery under which the creation groans, and of all the inconceivable torments that are endured in hell. If, during his impenitent career, he felt any sorrow for sin, that sorrow was merely on account of the misery of sin, or the consequences of his folly,-the loss of health, or reputation, or property, or it may be on account of apprehended punishment hereafter; but now he sorrows for sin as sin; he sorrows because his own transgressions are mad rebellion against so good, so holy, so merciful a God. His is a "godly sorrow" not "the sorrow of the world" that "worketh death." He now feels what an evil and bitter

2

2 2 Cor. vii. 10.