The unconverted have a false idea about repentance; they think God is going to make them repent. I was once talking with a man on this subject, and he summed up his whole argument by saying:
“Moody, it has never struck me yet.”
I said: “What has never struck you.”
“Well,” he replied: “Some people it strikes, and some it doesn’t. There was a good deal of interest in our town a few years ago, and some of my neighbors were converted, but it didn’t strike me.”
That man thought that repentance was coming down someday to strike him like lightning. Another man said he expected some sensation, like cold chills down his back.
Repentance isn’t a feeling. It is turning from sin to God. One of the best definitions was given by a soldier. Someone asked him how he was converted. He said:
“The Lord said to me, Halt! Attention! Right about face! March! and that was all there was in it.”