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Repentance: Quotations from Burning Words

True repentance consists in the heart being broken for sin and broken from sin.— THORNTON,

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

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.— GEORGE C. LORIMER

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. -— HENRY MELVILL

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.— WM. M. TAYLOR

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.— GEORGE C. LORIMER

To grieve over sin is one thing, to repent is another.— F. W. ROBERTSON

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.— D. L. MOODY

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.— GARDINER SPRING

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.— HENRY DARLING

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.— D. L. MOODY

Repentance can never become a substitute for obedience, neither can it, of itself alone, constitute a just ground for pardon. 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.— LOCKE

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.— T. L. CUYLER

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 God. In comparison with this, his other crimes vanish to nothing. The language of his heart is, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned."— GARDINER SPRING

- 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.— F. W. ROBERTSON

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. -— ELIZABETH A. E. GODWIN

Repentance is true and genuine, if we are grieved for sin as it is offensive to God, if we are forsaking and turning from it both in heart and life, and, particularly, if we are deeply affected with the sin of unbelief.— FISHER'S CATECHISM

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.— FULLER

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

True repentance is to cease from sin.— ST. AMBROSE

'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

Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.— WESTMINSTER CATECHISM

We believe that repentance and faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God, whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and relying on Him alone as the only and all-sufficient Saviour.— BAPTIST CHURCH MANUAL

God has promised to forgive the penitent. He has pledged His word that the act of forgiveness on His part shall follow the exercise of repentance on yours. Returning prodigal, pardoning mercy is thine. It is as sure as the sincerity of thy repentance. Come back then, O, thou 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 Conquer give thyself to Him in a final and last sacrifice. again, as Christ will help you, the original love, in that to abide and rest.— HORACE BUSHNELL

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 for me 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.— F. W. ROBERTSON

With the blood of Christ to wash away the darkest guilt, and the Spirit of God to sanctify the vilest, and strengthen the weak- Too late! It is never too late. est nature, I despair of none. 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.— THOMAS GUTHRIE

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.— C. ELVEN