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SERMON XXIX.

THE FRUITS MEET FOR REPENTANCE.

ST. MATTHEW, iii. 8.

"Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance."

THE word, in the original language in which the New Testament is written, that stands for repentance, is a word which signifies change of mind. To repent, therefore, is to have your mind altogether changed. Now this consideration should be kept in view, for repentance is more usually supposed to mean sorrow. No doubt sorrow is a part of it, for no man can change his mind upon so important a subject as the whole plan of life, without thereby confessing that his former plan had not been what it should be, which must naturally be to him matter of regret and grief. But still this sorrow may exist where there is no repentance. This was the kind of sorrow Judas felt when he had betrayed the innocent blood; and is also the kind of sorrow spoken of by the Apostle, and which he calls "the sorrow of the world," saying that it "worketh death." But where there is change of mind from the worse to the better, there is repentance.

The distinction is to be noted, because it makes a wonderful difference in the view we take of this great doctrine

of repentance. If we consider it to consist merely in sorrow for past sin, there is scarcely a sinner amongst us that does not repent; for sin naturally and necessarily brings after it suffering and shame and remorse of mind, whether the sinner wishes to feel such trouble or no. He has not a choice about it: it is in the order of God's appointments that sorrow should follow sin, as the night the day. But if we consider repentance to consist mainly in a change of mind from the worse to the better, instead of every sinner proving a penitent, it is to be feared that very few prove so. Now if there be this change of mind, what will be the consequence of it? and how can we assure ourselves that penitents we are? The words of the text tell us: we shall, in that case, bring forth fruits meet for such change of mind. Our actions and conduct are the index of our mind; and the fingers of a clock's face do not more certainly point to the movements of the machinery within the case, and tell whether those movements are too fast or too slow or none at all, than the fashion of a man's life tells what movements are going on in his mind within, whether good, bad, or indifferent. Where, therefore, there is repentance, there is a change of mind; and where there is a change of mind, there is a change of life. The links of this chain cannot be broken. There can be no repentance where there is no change of mind from worse to better, and no change of mind where there is no change of life from worse to better.

Suppose I am on my road for London, and change my mind upon the road; how is it possible for me to show that such change of mind has taken place in me, unless I turn back, and travel the other way? So it is with repentance of sin-it is change of mind with respect to sin; but how is this change to discover itself save by my going and sin

ning no more? The change may come over me in a greater time or a less. I believe, for my own part, it is generally gradual and progressive, even as a change from childhood to youth, or from youth to old age (which answers to the idea of "growing in grace"); but however that may be, the change itself is the thing for every sinner to satisfy himself of, and not whether it be sudden or gradual, — which is a matter of infinitely less importance. For, to use the same illustration as before, if a clock goes wrong, it is of no consequence whatever whether I make it go right by a number of successive regulations, or by one regulation only; the point to look to is that it go right, whether by repeated corrections or by one. So, I say, it is with regard to repentance; the main matter is that there shall be a change of mind, and a change of life as springing from that change; but whether that change was gradual or sudden, progressive or instantaneous, is matter of very little moment.

In looking therefore to such conversions as those of St. Paul, or St. Peter, or David, it is not their suddenness that is the thing chiefly to be studied in them—though I believe it is very often the only thing thought about—but whether the change of mind wrought in them was not complete and substantial, and whether such change of mind did not prove itself by a change in their lives. That is the point to fix the eye upon.

When David was reproached by the Prophet Nathan for the deeds he had done, he certainly did at once and on the instant exclaim, "I have sinned!"— his heart suddenly was smitten, and he made his confession in the agony of the moment. But the great feature of his repentance, and that which teaches the main lesson to us, was the change of mind which came over him, evinced by the change of life which now ensued; for this appears both by what we read of his

history in the Book of Kings, and by what we read of his own feelings in the Book of Psalms.

So again in the case of St. Paul: as Paul was journeying to Damascus, breathing slaughter against the saints, "suddenly," no doubt, "there shined round about him a light from heaven," and he heard the Lord's voice, and made answer, trembling and astonished, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" And when the conversion of St. Paul is adverted to, it is in nine cases out of ten to this fact of its instantaneous nature that our attention is drawn; and much speculation is built upon it. But this is by no means the feature of that extraordinary occurrence that is to be regarded most, but rather the change of mind which Paul experienced, and the change of life which ever after betokened that change of mind. He had been a persecutor, he now suffered persecution. He had breathed nothing but threatenings and slaughter, he now breathed nothing but words of peace and love. He had been hurtful and injurious to his neighbours, he now was unwearied in well-doing. He had been high-minded, he now was humble. There was hardly a

feature in the man which had not undergone a change; a change which manifested itself in the course of his future life, every day and every hour of the day.

So again in the case of St. Peter : his conversion was no doubt sudden. "The second time the cock crew; and Peter," we read, "called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And when he thought thereon he wept." But the main feature in this conversion also for our eye to fix on, is not its suddenness, but the complete change of mind which evidently came over Peter afterwards, and the complete change of character and habit which flowed from his change of mind. He had been ambitious of worldly

honours, he now has heaven only in his eye. He had been fearful and faltering in his Master's service, he is now bold and steadfast. He had been angry and revengeful, he now is for laying aside all malice, and all guile, and envies, and evil speakings. All these are examples of the doctrine of the text fulfilled-repent, and "bring forth fruits meet for repentance"—for in all these cases there is a change of mind, and, by consequence, a change of life. Whether that change had been brought about at once or by degrees, was a matter of comparatively little consequence; it was at all events real, permanent, and productive of fruits.

I do not therefore construe repentance or conversioncall it what you will-into any sudden and momentary feeling, whether of sorrow or of any other movement of the mind. It is not like the lightning that flashes across and disappears. It is, on the contrary, a permanent, abiding state; a life put to rights, habits corrected, lusts mortified, passions subdued and bridled. It is for the swearer to leave off oaths, the deceiver to leave off cheating,—the thief to keep to his own,—the pilferer to allow himself no longer in little frauds. It is for the liar to turn to the truth. It is for the crafty to give up his crooked tricks, and to be straightforward. It is for the ungrateful to learn to be thankful, the dissatisfied to learn contentment. It is for the drunkard to forsake his cups, for the whoremonger to cleanse his heart and life. It is for the proud man to learn humility, the scornful to learn charity, the disobedient to learn submission. It is, in a word, to do your duty to God and man, instead of abandoning your duty to both. These, and the like to these, are fruits meet for repentance, when they flow from a heart changed; and where the heart is changed, flow from it they will.

Let no man deceive you into a belief that less clear,