November 2

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.—ACTS iii, 19.

'Tis not to cry, Mercy! or to sit

And droop, or to confess that thou hast failed;

'Tis to bewail the sins thou didst commit,

And not commit those sins thou hast bewailed.

He that bewails, and not forsakes them too,

Confesses rather what he means to do.

FRANCIS QUARLES.

The completion and sum of repentance is a change of life. That sorrow which dictates no caution, that fear which does not quicken our escape, that austerity which fails to rectify our affections, are vain and unavailing. But sorrow and terror must naturally precede reformation, for what other cause can produce it? He, therefore, that feels himself alarmed by his conscience, anxious for the attainment of a better state, and afflicted by the memory of his past faults, may justly conclude that the great work of repentance is begun, and hope by retirement and prayer, the natural and religious means of strengthening his convictions, to impress upon his mind such a sense of the Divine presence as may overpower the blandishments of secular delights, and enable him to advance from one degree of holiness to another, till death shall set him free from doubt and contest, misery and temptation.

What better can we do than prostrate fall

Before Him reverent, and there confess

Humbly our faults, and pardon beg with tears,

Watering the ground, and with our sighs the air

Frequenting, sent from hearts contrite, in sign

Of sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek?

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.