March 17

Repent ye, therefore, and be converted.—Acts 3:19.

IN the light of God's truth, and through the influence of the Holy Spirit, have I seen and felt my sinfulness as a transgressor of the divine law? Has sin become hateful to me, not merely on account of its consequences, but because by every sin I crucify the Son of God afresh? Does the sincerity of my repentance appear in my avoiding sins that I once committed? Does sin in others give me pain? And do I seek to lead them to forsake it, and to come to Christ as their Saviour?

The true penitent is a convinced, believing soul. An unconvinced sinner cannot be truly penitent; for what the eye sees not, the heart mourns not, and the life forsakes not.—BAILLIE.

Real repentance consists in a heart broken for sin, and so broken from sin. It begins in humiliation of the heart, and ends in reformation of the life. It looks upon the past, with sorrow for the wrong committed; and on the future, with watchfulness, lest it err again. It is "the heart's sorrow, and a clear life ensuing." It begins in an act, and it continues as a habit of the Christian life.

Life's waring hours, like the Sibyl's page,

As they lessen, in value rise:

Then rouse thee and live, nor deem that your age Stands in the length of your pilgrimage,

But in days that are truly wise;

In days so spent, that each one, in its flight, Shall bear you on to the world of light!