IT is related of Charles James Fox, that by dint of unceasing practice and untiring industry, he raised himself, from being an indifferent speaker, to be one of the foremost debaters of his time—the compeer of Pitt, the great Commoner. He spoke—whether well or indifferently—every night save only during one of the sessions of Parliament, and regretted that he had missed that one opportunity.
But the speaker, we would draw your attention to, burst upon the scene in the full maturity of his powers. His life had been hitherto spent in obscurity and retirement; simple and plain, almost ascetic, his habits had been.
Doubtless in his solitude he had thought deeply upon the mysteries of life, and the awful hollowness of the conventionalities of society, of the sins men committed so lightly, and of the inefficacy of a religion that made so feeble an impress upon the lives of its professors.
Suddenly, like a meteor, he blazed upon the horizon of public life. The people seemed drawn, as by a mighty spell, to hear him boldly charging them with sin and hypocrisy. His words were unvarnished and unpolished. He spoke with no tongue of velvet. The great burden of his startling preaching, uttered with superhuman vehemence and burning power, was
REPENT! REPENT!! REPENT!!
His name was John the Baptist. His exalted position was that of the forerunner of the Christ.
Oh! for a nineteenth-century John the Baptist, who would boldly reprove the sins of court and of cottage, rebuke the shameless drunkard, and the debauched profligate, the utterly careless, and the sneering infidel, the whitewashed sinners of both pulpit and pew, the empty formalist, and the cold religionist. Ten thousand such are needed to awaken from their desperate sleep the vast majority around us.
Awake they will, when once they pass into eternity, dark, gloomy, and unexplored; when once the great clock of time shall have stopped forever; when, amid the blazing of worlds, they shall be summoned before the great white throne―the last great assize―to stand before the Judge of all the earth.
Oh! the awakening that must take place. Daniel, the prophet, speaks of some awaking to “shame and everlasting contempt.”
But listen, oh! ye with an immortal soul, hastening with lightning speed upon the broad pinions of time to an endless doom, listen; ―GOD IS LOVE. Shout it afar and wide―God is love. Bear the good news over land and sea, till none of the millions who are hastening in one broad living stream to eternity, are unacquainted with the fact that the God of unbending justice, of almighty power, of creatorial rights, loves them, and because He loves them, bids them repent.
Repentance is seen all through Scripture to be
GOD’S GREAT COMMAND.
The great apostle Paul, standing on Mars’ Hill eighteen centuries ago, rang out those words of deepest import to every man, woman, and child in the wide world― “God ... . Now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”
What terrible need of repentance on every hand! Not merely the openly profane, but also the outwardly correct; not merely the rough and rude, but also the cultured and gentle. Why? “ALL HAVE SINNED, and come short of the glory of God.” ALL are involved in a common ruin. All, born outside the garden of Eden, are away from God. Hence the absolute need of repentance on your part, unsaved reader.
And what makes it such a serious question is that it is God’s expressed command. Dare a soldier disobey his officer―an officer, his general―a subject, his monarch? To do so would bring swift retribution upon their heads.
And dare you pass away from this world into God’s presence with a whole lifetime of disobedience against you? Dare you? Trifle not with the living God, in whose hand is the breath of your nostrils. And what makes it so serious is that behind and beyond the command, God has declared His heart towards you. He commands repentance because the judgment day is fixed―the Judge appointed―when He will judge in righteousness untampered by mercy. It is because of this He desires your repentance, for there is by it a door of escape.
GOD’S GREAT GOODNESS
leads to repentance. It is not by harsh means He would drive you. No, it is by a thousand and one mercies continued day after day, year after year, that He would soften your heart. He may give you health, or chasten you on a sick-bed. The bark of your life may sail under clear skies and over smooth seas, or you may be tossed upon a boiling tempest, enshrouded in deepest gloom. No matter, His love and goodness is in it all.
Now, if you had a dog which treated you no better than you do God, you would poison it. You feed it every day yourself, but it exhibits no gratitude. You call to it, but it takes absolutely no notice. When you go near it, it only snarls, and barks, and bites you. For less than that you would end its existence. Yet you never thank God for your food, your health, your home. When He calls you by an impressive sermon, a pointed tract, or speaks to you in the secret solitude of your soul, you take no notice, and yet His goodness follows you still. “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Rom. 2:44Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4)), and above and beyond all connected with life here does not the goodness of God shine out at the cross of Calvary, when it pleased Him to bruise His Son, that He might spare you, when He forsook the Saviour, in the moment of His direst need, that He might welcome you, and cleanse away your guilt through that atoning blood, which flowed from the side of Jesus.
And, further,
GOD’S GREAT LONG-SUFFERING
waits, and waits, and waits for your repentance. Scoffers have arisen asking when the day of the Lord would come. Was He always to leave men to sin with a high hand, and take no notice; was He always to allow wickedness, and slavery, and tyranny, and sweating to exist, and let kings settle things as if He did not exist, and had no rights?
Listen! The apostle Peter gives us the true reason of His slowness to speak in tones of judgment. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)).
Oh! gray-headed sinner, hoary in your guilt, so long, rebellious and wayward, turn at last to the Lord, and yield Him your obedience. In the evening of your life, as the last few sands fall through the hour-glass, with your failing memory, your furrowed brow, your bent back and feeble limbs, creeping to your grave, oh! seek the Lord while He may be found. “Oh!” you say, “I am too old to come now.” Nay, His very mercy has lengthened out your days for this; and not only so, but as the verse just quoted declares, He has lengthened out His day of matchless grace to reach such as you.
And see, if you repent, it leads to
GOD’S GREAT JOY.
Listen to the incomparable words of Jesus, as they fall so sweetly upon the ears of the gathering publicans and sinners, declaring God’s own heart: “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:77I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (Luke 15:7)).
See that prodigal. He sits on the swine trough thinking of past days. Once in affluence, with a father’s smile upon him, he had in passion demanded his portion, and with it had traveled into a far country, only to squander it in drunkenness and debauchery. Now he sits degraded beyond measure, looking upon the very pigs’ meat with longing eye, yet “no man gave to him.” And then he thinks of his father’s house, with its bread and to spare, of his father’s goodness and grace, and it leads him to repentance, and, swifter than the telegraph, there travels a communication from the weary soul of the prodigal to the father, and forthwith there is joy, and preparation, and the very best provided for the returning son.
Ah! great battles may be fought and won, great empires may rise and fall, and little note be taken of them in heaven, but let a poor wretch of a sinner in a back street, weary and sick of sin, but turn to the Lord for forgiveness and mercy, and all heaven is transported with joy. Oh! it is wonderful. Sinner, this is the God you cheat of His rights, and this is the welcome you coldly despise.
Soon your little pleasure-loving day will close; soon you will be in eternity forever; soon you will appear before the Judge of all the earth. Take care! Do not despise this love and refuse this grace.
Turn to Christ now. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” A. J. P.
“WHAT is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed.” Have you been ashamed of Jesus? I used to be ashamed of Jesus, and now I am ashamed that I ever was. My dear friend, I hope you may be henceforth ashamed that you have ever been ashamed of Jesus. Ashamed of Jesus! Ashamed of love! Ashamed of infinite grace! Ashamed of the One who gave up everything for us, who did everything for us! Ashamed of Jesus! God forbid that you and I should be ashamed of Jesus!
W. T. P. W.