at has no repentance in
it. So much the worse for the people that listen to such error. There
is no merit in repentance; the only meritorious cause of your salvation
is the blood-shedding and the present and perfect atonement of Christ.
But "the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." The old
Puritans were right who said, that the soundest conversions were those
with which the law had most to do. Mount Sinai exhibited proofs of God's
love, and Christ, who died for us on Calvary, is the author and enforcer
of the whole law. There must be the bowing down of your souls to the
claims of the law, the struggle for amendment, the renunciation of sin,
the recognition of your own hopelessness, and the cry, "What must I do to
be saved?" "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then
comes Christ, and peace, and joy; a participation in the divine nature;
and a power to contribute practically to the repentance of the nation.
This is your duty.

You Christian people, too, are called upon to repent. Depend upon it as
we go through life an act of repentance, once for all, will not do: we
shall need repentance daily. When a man is admitted to the favour of God
it is that his mouth should be stopped, it is that he should entertain
penitential feeling as long as he lives--not the penitence of guilt, but
the penitence of gratitude. The recollection, I am a sinner, will
inspire and maintain such penitence; and a blessed end that man will
make, who in the full meaning of the words, pours out the prayer at the
last, "God be merciful to me a sinner." We need repentance--we all need
it. Let us turn our attention to ourselves, and ascertain how much we
have contributed to the existing evils of the nation. How much have we
contributed to the present state of things which in the judgment of sober
Christian concern may be held to have provoked the anger of God? We may
have contributed to these evils, and I dare say we have, in two ways:
first, by neglect of duty. There are sinners about you, you need not go
far to find them--perhaps there are some ungodly people in your own
houses. What have you ever done to make them godly? What effort have
you made, what kind of an example have you set them in your words, in
your tempers, in your spiritual aspirations? Now tell yourselves
honestly. You have been living with them up to this day, living with
them during this day. What have you said to them? Do your conduct and