ion, resists the Spirit, sears his conscience, and spends his life, lost to all sense of religious things. It is true of the first, at every period of his life, that he performs no more than his duty. He would be guilty in the sight of God if he did less. He may say, in the language dictated by Christ to his disciples, "I am an unprofitable servant." "I have done that which it was my duty to do." Let us suppose that man had neglected some part of his duty-had failed to improve some talent, or had improved it partially-had shrunk from some field of action which he should have occupied. He is responsible for all that he ought to have done. Is God dishonored is the Church injured- are souls lost through his neglect? The guilt is upon him. He is answerable for all evil, direct and indirect, thence resulting. He is now disqualified, perhaps, for great usefulness, by former unfaithfulHe is yet bound for all that he might have done, had he never made a single false step.

ness.

The other individual whom we have supposed, with equal advantages, to have led a sinful life, is, at every point in his career, bound to the same duties as the Christian. He is a defaulter by the whole amount of his neglected duties. He has lost all sense of guilt. His conscience is silent. He knows not remorse. He is, perhaps, an infidel. Still, God's law abates not a jot of its stern claims. It has demands upon him not only for immediate penitence and reformation, but holds him bound for all past deficiencies-for neglected prayers, and penitence, and obedience, and holiness. All these are in God's book, and wait for the judgment. By every item of all the duties of a perfect life is he guilty, and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. He heeds not the swelling catalogue. He only thinks, perhaps, of gross sins; yet in God's book the daily record is swelled and blackened, not only by all that he does which a Christian does not do, but by all that a Christian does which he neglects. Perhaps he should have become a minister; God holds him

responsible, then, for all the duties of that office-for all the souls lost for want of his services-for all consequences to the day of judgment. If this is not true, how did he get released from God's claims? By his sins alone? By which?

Sinners do not believe this, but act upon a secret persuasion that sin is less criminal in them than in Christians, and some cultivate a sort of skepticism-keep a few doubts— avoid a full acquaintance with duty, under a notion that they are less guilty—as if God could be deceived by trick and finesse.

The subject teaches:

1. The deplorable condition of impenitent sinners. Under the influence of sin they naturally become more and more insensible, blind, and careless; and yet their guilt and condemnation are daily becoming more intolerable. The weight of the curse is increasing with frightful and incalculable rapidity, and they are more and more heedless of danger. They sleep in the delusive and boding calm, which lasts only while the tempest of God's wrath gathers its blackness and fiery bolts. The Gospel, which they neglect or contemn, is yet working mightily in them as a savor of death unto death, and the divine justice only lingers, because its heightened claims shall be satisfied by a more terrible vindication.

2. Our subject presents to the young the strongest motives for an early consecration of their lives to God. They alone, who embrace religion in early life, can return to the Lord "his own with usury." "Others may be saved so as by fire;" but there are defects in their religious character and performances which no diligence or piety can supply. They have wasted, at least, a part of their Lord's money, and necessarily keep back "a part of the price." Their usefulness, their happiness in life, and the brightness of their heavenly crown, are irretrievably impaired by having spent a part of their lives in sin. The young alone have it in their power, through grace, to satisfy every claim, to restore to the Lord

his own with usury-to say to him at the day of reckoning, "Lord! thou deliveredst unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained, besides them, five talents more.”

3. Finally, we see in this subject the imperative need of an atoning sacrifice. If men are responsible, not only for their sins and omissions, but also for talents which they have lost irrecoverably, and even for those which through neglect they never acquired-if the justice of God presses these claims upon all with a rigorous and inexorable exactness, as assuredly it will—what man—what Christian can stand before his judge? The Gospel makes provision for this exigency. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." "There is, therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death."*

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XXXI.

REPENTANCE AND FAITH.

I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying, both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.-Acтs, xx., 20, 21.

REPENTANCE and faith are so fundamental that the apostle declares that in having preached them he has preached the whole Gospel; in the words of the text, that he had kept back nothing that was profitable ;" and in verse 27, he af firms that he has declared "all the counsel of God." He preached "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, publicly, and from house to house"—" to the Jews and also to the Greeks."

* Romans, viii., 1, 2.

Repentance and faith are still the burden of the preacher's message, the central ideas of the Gospel, on which all other parts of the system depend, and in which all are involved. They must often be repeated on this account, and because they are eminently the powerful dogmas, as well as because, unlike first principles of other branches of knowledge, their true import is often misunderstood.

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Repentance and faith have been subjects of endless controversy. Their order is disputed. Repentance precedes faith. A measure of faith does, indeed, go before repentance; for "he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Still repentance precedes faith in the teachings of the Bible. "Repent ye, and believe the Gospel,"* was the opening of Christ's ministry. Repentance and remission of sins" was to be preached to all nations, according to the Savior's last charge to his apostles.† Peter, on the day of Pentecost, in answer to those who asked, "What shall we do?" directed them to "repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Repentance precedes faith, as is shown by John's ministry of repentance, which came before Christ's, and from the nature of these duties, since faith in Christ is the way of justification—the remedy for the moral disease, which men do not seek or desire till they feel that they are sinners.

Repentance must always include,

1. Conviction for sin-a persuasion that we are sinners -are in a false position-are wrong-in danger.

2. Sorrow for sin. This may differ in intensity, according to natural temperament: in some persons it is overwhelming, in others only moderate. Duration and depth are of no importance, so we are sick of sin. Many labor after keen anguish, as if it were an end, not a means. Some are speedily converted with little mental suffering others

* Mark, i., 15.

+ Luke, xxiv., 47.

mourn long and bitterly in vain. The sorrow is sufficient and genuine when we are willing to forsake sin-to reform. Many sorrow much, but do not reach this point; others attain it speedily. The abandonment of sin, and all sin, is the end of repentance.

3. Repentance must be " toward God." Men often grieve much for sin, on account of the evils it brings-sufferings to self or others—disgrace-losses. This is "the sorrow of the world." Reformation, too, may proceed on low, selfish, or worldly motives, and may be complete. But it is not evangelical if it has not God for its object. "Repentance toward God."

4. This repentance extends to all sin, and implies that we would not sin more because it offends God, even though it should lead to no personal inconvenience.

The remedial

II. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. provisions and agencies of the Gospel, through which sin is pardoned and the soul sanctified, are, in the divine economy, made available by faith in Christ. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world"-" the Mediator of the new covenant"—" our Intercessor at the right hand of God.” As repentance, to be effective and evangelical, must look toward God, the offended Sovereign and Lawgiver, so all true faith has respect to Jesus Christ, who made satisfaction for sin upon the cross.

1. Faith, like repentance, is a theme of controversy. In the mind of many awakened persons it is a mystical term, which fills the soul with doubt and indecision. Men often look upon it with a sense of despondency and helplessness, doubtful whether it is an act for them or for God to perform. They pray in the same spirit-grope in bewildering twilight. None would repent or believe without the Spirit; but the supernatural influence only enlightens, strengthens, incites to the performance of these duties, which are at last strictly our own. All commands to repentance and faith suppose