SERMON IV.

LUKE xiii. 1–5.

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

WHAT IS REPENTANCE? A complete answer to this important question would, doubtless, lead us far beyond the limits which we must at present prescribe to ourselves. Without proposing, therefore, to explain to you the nature

and various marks of a genuine repentance, we shall content ourselves with submitting to you a series of such questions, respecting its leading features, as will enable you of yourselves, if you are sincerely disposed, to know the condition of your souls before God.

Previously, however, to addressing them to you, it is necessary that you be here put in mind of a leading principle, which too many persons among us forget or overlook; which is, that, although, doubtless, the real children of God are to be known by their fruits, repentance is not properly an outward work. It is the heart which God regards; it is the heart which must change. And as the most indulgent parent would reject with disgust the most officious respect and assiduous attentions of his child, if he knew that that child, weary of his presence, and entertaining no affection for him, served him merely from the slavish fear of incurring correction, or in order to secure a more considerable portion of the paternal inheritance; much more would God, who claims our undivided love, who "searcheth the reins and

hearts," and "who knows what is in man," refuse to accept a slavish worship, or the vain efforts of a heart devoid of love for him, where the creature is enthroned in the place of the Creator.

"My son," he asks, " give me thy heart;" -"thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;"-" the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart;"— "and though you give all your goods to feed the poor, and though you give your body to be burned, and have not charity," that is to say, love in the heart, you "are nothing." It is love that God asks of his creature; it is with love that he requires to be served; it is love which makes the life of the blessed; it is love which "shall never perish."

The work of repentance, therefore, is, I repeat, within; and, to make use of the definitions of Scripture itself, it is the renewing of "the image of God" in the heart of fallen man; it is the conversion of the heart; it is the "circumcision of the heart;" it is the " taking

away of the heart of stone;" it is the " obedience of the heart;" it is "the purification of the heart;" it is "the love of God in the heart."

It might seem superfluous, perhaps, to recall, in a Christian temple, principles so obvious, and apparently so generally admitted:but, in the name of all that is most precious to you, in the name of the soul and the eternity which are yours, be careful here; examine your heart seriously; and do not follow the example of so many unhappy persons, who, beguiled by the appearances of a reformation merely external, persuade themselves that they stand in no need of repentance, because they have received the washing of baptism, because they frequent Christian assemblies, because their conduct, with regard to men, is regular and decent; whilst at the same time their heart is, notwithstanding, secretly alienated from God; whilst the honours and the love of the world still usurp the place which ought to be occupied by the fear and the love of the Almighty; whilst the maxims of the world,