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hend salvation and eternity, in the circle of

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When we ponder over the scriptures, there is one very delightful promise, which they hold out; not only that repentance, producing a real alteration of life will be accepted of God, as an atonement for sin; but so much does that acceptance, and forgiveness, make a part, and an essential part, of the great scheme of redemption, that we are told, there will be joy in Heaven over a repentant sinner; that the vanquishing of evil penetrates into other worlds, reaches to higher systems, diffuses joy over greater beings, and purer natures, whom we should have supposed to be occupied with their own proper and essential happiness; therefore, no man should say, my life has been too bad,—I have gone too far, I have trespassed too much,-I may as well go on to the end;-I have no chance of being saved.—It is better far, that such a man should make a last effort for his soul, that he should come forth, and lay his sin upon the altar, and call earnestly to God with a contrite, and a wounded

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heart.-Ninety and nine just persons cannot move Heaven as much as the true sorrows of sin; all things are better than the abandonment of hope in Providence, and the daring, wicked, impenitent violation of the laws of God.

I will now, then, shortly recapitulate all that I have said, in my two discourses, upon the subject of repentance. I have said, that repentance must be sincere;that to be sincere, it must conduce to righteousness, and must include restitution, or compensation; that its efficacy is in proportion to the early period at which it is begun,—and that it has no efficacy at all, if it is deferred till the moment of death :The causes of repentance, I have stated to be a good, religious education; sickness, old age, and all great physical evils, public or private; repentance, when once excited by these causes, should be rendered permanent by the recollection of those feelings which first gave it birth, by dividing the difficulty, so as to accommodate it to our weak state of resolution, or by overwhelming it, at once, by one great effort. If these things have in

them any shadow of truth,-if they are founded upon the spirit of the gospel, then repent ye; sin no more; leave the pledge upon the altar; give back the thirty pieces of silver, the wages of Satan; and, remember your Creator; while life yet remains ;wait not till palsy and fever teach you to repent; wait not till pain, and anguish, teach you the power of God;-learn, rather, that power from the blessings you enjoy, and while you do enjoy them, repent ye,-for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

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ON

TRUTH.

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