Repentance

"Who after his transgression doth repent, Is halfe, or altogether, innocent."

"He comes never late who comes repentant."

"Woman, amends may never come too late."

"God dropped a spark down into everyone, And if we find and fan it to a blaze, It'll spring up and glow, like—like the sun, And light the wandering out of stony ways."

"He [Cato] used to say that in all his life he never repented but of three things. The first was that he had trusted a woman with a secret; the second that he had gone by sea when he might have gone by land; and the third, that he had passed one day without having a will by him."

"Der Wahn ist kurtz, die Reu ist lang."

"But with the morning cool repentance came."

"Nam sera nunquam est ad bonos mores via. Quem pœnitet peccasse, pæne est innocens."

"Nec unquam primi consilii deos pœnitet."

"Cave ne quidquam incipias, quod post pœniteat."

"Velox consilium sequitur pœnitentia."

"And while the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."

"True repentance is to cease from sin."

"There is one case of death-bed repentance recorded — the penitent thief — that no one should despair; and only one, that no one should presume."

"Come back then, O, them prodigal, to thy Father. Quit thy sad folly and emptiness, thy reproaches of soul, thy diseased longings, and thy restless sighs. Return again to thy God, and give thyself to Him in a final and last sacrifice. Conquer again, as Christ will help you, the original love, in that to abide and rest."

"Of all acts is not, for a man, repentance the most divine? The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none."

"It will require more than a few hours of fasting and prayer to cast out such demons as selfishness, worldliness, and unbelief. Repentance, to be of any avail, must work a change of heart and of conduct."

"No man ever truly repented, and turned away from all his sins, until by faith he accepted the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross."

"Holy practice is the most decisive evidence of the reality of our repentance. " Bring forth fruits meet for repentance.""

"Nor alms, nor deeds, that I have done, Can for a single sin atone; To Calvary alone I flee; O God! be merciful to me."

"Place not thy amendment only in increasing thy devotion, but in bettering thy life. This is the damning hypocrisy of this age; that it slights all good morality, and spends its zeal in matters of ceremony, and a form of godliness without the power of it."

"My Saviour, mid life's varying scene Be Thou my stay; Guide me, through each perplexing path, To perfect day. In weakness and in sin I stand; Still faith can clasp Thy mighty hand, And follow at Thy dear command. My Saviour, I have nought to bring Worthy of Thee; A broken heart Thou wilt not spurn; Accept of me. I need Thy righteousness Divine, I plead Thy promises as mine, I perish if I am not Thine."

"With the blood of Christ to wash away the darkest guilt, and the Spirit of God to sanctify the vilest, and strengthen the weakest nature, I despair of none. Too late! It is never too late. Even old age, tottering to the grave beneath the weight of seventy years and a great load of guilt, may retrace its steps and begin life anew. Hope falls like a sunbeam on the hoary head. I have seen the morning rise cold and gloomy, and the sky grow thicker, and the rain fall faster as the hours wore on; yet, ere he set in night, the sun, bursting through heavy clouds, has broken out to illumine the landscape and shed a flood of glory on the dying day."

"Repentance does not consist in one single act of sorrow, though that, being the first and leading act, gives denomination to the whole; but in doing works meet for repentance, in a sincere obedience to the law of Christ for the remainder of our lives."

"While repentance is indispensable to eternal life, we are not to regard it in the light of a price paid for its possession. It is not an expiatory grace, or a compensation for moral indebtedness."

"Not all the drops the human eye can shed will ever quench the fires or blot out the guilt of sin. Do not, I pray you, be deceived on this point; do not permit yourselves to harbor the delusion that the rain-showers from your beclouded eyes can ever fertilize the barren soul, and cause it to blossom as the rose."

"The Scriptural doctrine in regard to repentance is not, that a man must repent in order to his being qualified to go to Christ; it is rather, that he must go to Christ in order to his being able to repent. From Him comes the grace of contrition as well as the cleansing of expiation."

"The law stops every man's mouth. God will have a man humble himself down on his face before Him, with not a word to say for himself. Then God will speak to him, when he owns that he is a sinner, and gets rid of all his own righteousness."

"Repentance is getting out of one train and getting into the other. You are in the wrong train; you are in the broad path that takes you down to the pit of hell. Get out of it to-day. Right-about-face."

"'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."

"To grieve over sin is one thing, to repent is another."

"A heart renewed — a loving heart — a penitent and humble heart — a heart broken and contrite, purified by love — that and only that is the rest of men. Spotlessness may do for angels, repentance unto life is the highest that belongs to man."

"Perhaps yours is a very remorseful past — a foolish, frivolous, disgraceful, frittered past. Well, Christ says, " My servant, be sad," but no languor; there is work to be done forme yet — rise up, be going! Oh, my brethren, Christ takes your wretched remnants of life — the feeble pulses of a heart which has spent its best hours not for Him, but for self and for enjoyment, and in His strange love He condescends to accept them."

"It is one thing to mourn for sin because it exposes us to hell, and another to mourn for it because it is an infinite evil. It is one thing to mourn for it because it is injurious to ourselves; another, to mourn for it because it is offensive to God. It is one thing to be terrified; another, to be humbled."

"The true penitent sees that he has broken God's holy law, and resisted the claims of his rightful Sovereign. The thought that most deeply affects him is, that he has sinned against Gvd. In comparison with this, his other crimes vanish to nothing. The language of his heart is, " Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.""

"True repentance has as its constituent elements not only grief and hatred of sin, but also an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. It hates the sin, and not simply the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered God's love."

"True repentance consists in the heart being broken for sin and broken from sin."

"Repentance is never out of season. Repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.O that we would therefore, while we are on this side of the grave, make our peace with God! Tomorrow may be our dying day; let this be our repenting day. In Adam we all suffered shipwreck and repentance is the only plank left us after shipwreck to swim to heaven. The first sermon that Christ preached, indeed, the first word of his sermon was 'Repent'. Repentance is a pure gospel grace. The covenant of works admitted no repentance; there it was, sin and die. Repentance came in by the gospel. Christ has purchased in his blood that repenting sinners shall be saved. The two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance. These are the two wings by which he flies to heaven."