of penitential compunction may be awakened in his heart. The man whose conscience accuses him of a course of wilful and daring rebellion against God, may dread the future consequences of his transgression, and may look forwards, with appalling dismay, to an appearance before the judgment seat of Christ; and yet his heart may remain a stranger to those emotions of "godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of." Even Judas, in one sense, repented. He reflected on his most flagitious and enormous crime with untold horror; he dreaded its consequences with insupportable anguish; and, goaded on at once by conscience and by Satan, he rushed into the abyss of perdition. Contrast with the repentance of Judas, the repentance of Job. Addressing himself to the God against whom he had sinned, by his lips and by his temper, under the bitter provocation of his misguided friends, he said "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He obtained a discovery of the majesty of God, and he was overwhelmed with a sense of his own insignificance: he obtained a discovery of the holiness of God, and he was oppressed with a sense of his own vileness he obtained a discovery of the goodness and mercy of God, and the effect was the feeling

of deepest abasement and contrition. Not dissimilar are the feelings attributed to the Publican, when, "smiting upon his breast, and not lifting so much as his eyes to heaven, he said, God be merciful to me, a sinner." So also in every age, but especially under the dispensation of the gospel of Christ, has the "goodness of God" been found to be the grand impulse, as well as the grand directory which "leadeth to repentance."

There are two views of that goodness which have a powerful influence in melting away the icy hardness of the heart, and in producing the tender relentings of a contrite spirit.

The first is, the consideration of the goodness of God, as displayed towards us, during the entire course of our rebellion and provocation.

To

We plead guilty to the charge of the Most High, that he has "nourished and brought us up as children, but that we have rebelled against him." We are constrained to acknowledge, that he has united all the authority of a Sovereign with all the bounty of a generous Benefactor, and all the kindness of an affectionate Father. Him we feel that we are indebted for every faculty we have misimproved, for every enjoyment we have abused, for every hour we have mispent, and for every opportunity of gaining or of doing good which we have neglected. Bitter are our regrets and keen our self-upbraidings, when we

think, that we have withheld our love from Him to whom we owe our best affections, and refused obedience to those commands which are "holy, and just, and good;" and committed the two greatest evils which it was possible for us to commit, by "forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to ourselves cisternsbroken cisterns, which can hold no water."

The second view of the divine goodness, which is powerful in awakening contrition, is the consideration of the love of God, as displayed in his unspeakable gift, and in the overtures of the gospel of his grace.

In such a state of mind as that now described, Oh what new and intense emotions are produced by the assurance, that "Christ died for the ungodly!" With grateful astonishment we read in the word of truth, that "God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!" Well prepared do we now feel to regard it as a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not excepting the very chief. And was it for sinners such as I, we are ready individually to exclaim, that the Son of God incarnate laboured, and suffered, and wept, and agonized, and died? Was it for the unworthiest of the unworthy, and the vilest of the vile, that he endured the cross, despising the shame?

Was it the very purpose of his life and ministry to call sinners to repentance, and to seek and save them that were lost? Has he been calling me, with all the authority and all the beseechings of his holy word; and have I remained year after year insensible and unmoved? Has my character presented to the eye of Him that searcheth the heart, a compound of unbelief and obduracy and ingratitude and carnality? Was my daily occupation, to all appearance, that of "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God?" And notwithstanding all this, have I been spared, that time might be given me for repentance? And with Him who has spared me in the riches of his forbearance, is there still forgiveness, and even plenteous redemption? "I will arise then, and go to my Father," and say, Father I have most awfully sinned against thee, and am not worthy to be received as thy child, or even to be treated as thy servant; yet, for thy name's sake, pardon my iniquity, and for the sake of thy beloved Son, who gave his life a ransom for many, blot out my transgressions. It is a prayer against which his ear is never closed; for the promise is recorded, and must be fulfilled-" He that believeth on the Son of God shall never perish, but have everlasting life."

True and unfeigned Repentance involves,

Fourthly, CONFESSION.

The change of mind and heart will be indicated by the penitential acknowledgments of the lips. Previously to the exercise of true Repentance there was a disposition to enter on self-defence and selfjustification; but now the effort and the desire are entirely abandoned. With the patriarch of Uz, the repenting sinner is prepared to exclaim"If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: should I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment-If he contend with me, I cannot answer him one of a thousand." With these feelings of abasement, he imitates the example of that penitent, of deeply humbled spirit, who said--“ I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me." There is an accordance between his newlyacquired habits of thought and feeling, and the sentiments thus expressed by the disciple whom Jesus loved: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

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