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CLOSING REMARKS

1. We learn from what has been said, one reason why there is so much spasmodic religion in the church.

They have mistaken conviction for conversion, the sorrow of the world for that Godly sorrow that brings about repentance to salvation, and leaves no regret. I am convinced, after years of observation, that here is the true reason for the present deplorable state of the church all over the land.

2. We see why sinners under conviction feel as if it was a great cross to become Christians.

They think it a great trial to give up their unGodly companions, and to give up their sins. Whereas, if they had true repentance, they would not think it any cross to give up their sins. I recollect how I used to feel, when I first saw young persons becoming Christians and joining the church. I thought it was a good thing on the whole to have God, because they would save their souls and get to heaven. But for the time, it seemed to be a very sorrowful thing. I never dreamed then, that these young people could be really happy now. I believe it is very common for persons, who know that religion is good on the whole, and good in the end, to think they cannot be happy in religion. This is all because of a mistake in comprehending the true nature of repentance. They do not understand that true repentance leads to an abhorrence of those sinful things that were formerly loved. Sinners do not see that when their young friends become true Christians, they feel abhorrence for wasting their lives going to balls, parties, sinful amusements, and follies, that the love for these things is crucified.  It is replaced with the love of Christ.

I once knew a young lady who was converted to God. Her father was a very proud, worldly man. She used to be very fond of fancy dresses, and the dancing school, and balls. After she was converted, her father would force her to go to the dancing school. He used to go along with her, and force her to stand up and dance. She would go there and weep, and sometimes when she was standing up on the floor to dance, her feelings of abhorrence and sorrow would so overcome her, that she would turn away and burst into tears. Here you see the cause of all that. She truly repented of these things, with a repentance that left no regrets. Oh, how many associations would such a scene bring back sinful memories to a Christian, what compassion for her former lost companions, what abhorrence of their giddy mirth, how she longed to be in the prayer-meeting, how could she be happy there? Such is the mistake that the impenitent, or those who have only worldly sorrow, fall into, in regard to the happiness of the real Christian.

3. Here you see what is the matter with those professing Christians who think it a cross to be very strict in religion, but have no real repentance.

Such persons are always apologizing for their sins, and pleading for certain practices, that are not consistent with true religion. It shows that they love sin still, and will go as far as they dare in it. If they were true Christians, they would abhor sin, and turn from it, and would feel sin to be a cross to be dragged by them.

4. You see why some know nothing about what it is to enjoy true religion.

They are not cheerful and happy in religion. They are grieved because they have to break off from so many things they love, or because they have to give so much money. They are in the fire all the time. Instead of rejoicing in every opportunity of self-denial, and rejoicing in the plainest and most cutting exhibitions of truth, it is a great trial to them to be told what it means to serve God, when it disagrees with their inclinations and habits. The plain truth distresses them. Why?  It is because their hearts do not love to serve God. If they loved to serve Him, every ray of light that broke in upon their minds from heaven, pointing out their duty, would be welcomed, and make them more and more happy.

Whenever you see such persons, if they feel cramped and distressed because the truth presses them, if their hearts do not yield and go along with the truth, HYPOCRITE is the name of all such Bible teachers. If you find that they are distressed like anxious sinners, and that the more you point out their sins the more they are distressed, be sure of this, they have never truly repented of their sins, nor given themselves up to be God’s.

5. You see why many professing converts, who have had very deep experiences at the time of their conversion, afterwards turn away from Christ.

They had deep convictions and great distress of mind, and afterwards they got relief and their joy was very great, and they were amazingly happy for a season. But by and by they decline, and then they turn away from Christ. Some, who do not discriminate properly between true and false repentance, and who think there cannot be such deep experiences without divine power, call these “cases of falling from grace”. But the truth is, “they went out from us because they were not of us”. They never had that repentance that kills and annihilates the desire to sin.

6. See why backsliders are so miserable.

Perhaps you will infer that I suppose all true Christians are perfect, from what I said about the disposition to sin being broken up and changed. But this does not follow. There is a radical difference between a backslidden Christian and a hypocrite who has gone back from his profession of faith. The hypocrite loves the world, and enjoys sin when he returns to it. He may have some fears and some remorse, and some apprehension about the loss of character; but after all, he still enjoys sin. This is not so with the backslidden Christian. He loses his first love, then he falls prey to temptation, and so he goes into sin. But he does not love it.  Sin is always bitter to him; he feels unhappy and away from home. He has indeed, at the time, no Spirit of God, no love of God in his experiences to keep him from sin, but he does not love sin; he is unhappy in sin; he feels that he is a wretch. He is as different from the hypocrite as can be. Such an one, when he leaves the love of God, may be delivered over to Satan for a time, for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved; but he can never again enjoy sin as he used to, or delight himself as he once could in the pleasures of the world. Never again can he drink in iniquity like water. So long as he continues to wander, he is a wretch. If there is one such here today, you know it.

7. You see why convicted sinners are afraid to pledge themselves to give up their sins.

They tell you they dare not promise to do it, because they are afraid they shall not keep the promise. There, you have the reason. They love sin. The drunkard knows that he loves alcohol, and though he may be constrained to keep his promise and abstain from it, yet his appetite still craves it. And it is so with the convicted sinner. He feels that he loves sin, that his hold on sin has never been broken off, and he dares not promise to let it go from him.

8. See why some Bible teachers are so much opposed to pledges.

It is on the same principle. They love their sins so well, they know their hearts will plead for indulgence, and they are afraid to promise to give them up. Hence many who profess to think they are Christians, refuse to join the church. The secret reason is, they feel that their heart is still going after sin, and they dare not come under the obligations of the church-covenant. They do not want to be subject to the discipline of the church, in case they should sin. That man knows he is a hypocrite.

9. Those sinners who have worldly sorrow can now see where the difficulty lies, and what is the reason they are not converted.

Their intellectual views of sin may be such, that if their hearts agreed with their intellect, they would be Christians. And perhaps they are thinking that this is true repentance. But if they were truly willing to give up sin, and all sin, they would not hesitate to pledge themselves to it, and to have the entire world know that they had done it. If there are any such today, I ask you now to come to God. If you are willing to give up sin, you are willing to promise to do it, and willing to have it known that you have done it. But if you resist conviction, and when your understanding is enlightened to see what you ought to do, your heart still wants to stay in your sins, tremble, sinner, at the prospect before you. All your convictions will not help you. They will only sink you deeper into hell for having resisted them.

If you are willing to give up your sins, you can signify it as I have named. But if you still love your sins, and want to retain them, you can keep stay where you are. And now, shall we go and tell God in prayer, that these sinners are unwilling to give up their sins, that though they are convinced they are wrong, they love their idols and after them they will go? May the Lord have mercy on them, for they are in a fearful state.

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6. This false repentance leads to self-righteousness.

The individual who has this repentance may know that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners, and may profess to believe on him and to rely on him alone for salvation, but after all, he is actually placing ten times more reliance on his own reformation than on Jesus Christ for his salvation. If he would watch his own heart, he might know it is so. He may say he expects salvation by Christ, but in fact he is depending more on his personal reformation, and his hope is founded more on that, than on the atonement of Christ, and he is really creating up a righteousness of his own making.

7. False repentance leads to false security.

The individual supposes the worldly sorrow he has had to be true repentance, and he trusts to it. It is a curious fact, that so far as I have been able to get at the state of mind of this class of persons, they seem to take it for granted that Christ will save them because they have had sorrow on account of their sins, although they are not conscious that they have ever felt any resting in Christ. They felt sorrow, and then they got relief and felt better, and now they expect to be saved by Christ, when their very consciousness will teach them that they have never felt a deep reliance on Christ.

8. False repentance hardens the heart.

The individual who has this kind of sorrow becomes harder in heart, in proportion to the number of times that he exercises such sorrow. If he has strong emotions of conviction, and his heart does not break up and flow out, the fountains of feeling are more and more dried up, and his heart more and more difficult to be reached. Take a real Christian, one who has truly repented, and every time you bring the truth to bear upon him so as to break him down before God, he becomes more and more mellow, and more easily affected, and excited, and melted, and broken down under God’s blessed word, so long as he lives–and to all eternity. His heart gets into the habit of going along with the convictions of his understanding, and he becomes as teachable and easily swayed as a little child.

Here is the grand distinction. Let churches, or individual members, who have only this worldly repentance, pass through a revival, and get waked up and become active, and then grow cold again. Let this be repeated and you find them more and more difficult to be roused, until by and by they become as hard as a rock, and nothing can ever rally them to a revival again. Compare this to those churches and individuals who have true repentance. Let them go through successive revivals, and you find them growing more and more mellow and tender until they get to such a state, that if they hear an announcement for a revival, they catch on fire and burn instantly and are ready for the work.

This difference is like comparing light and darkness. It is everywhere observable among the churches and church members. You see the principle illustrated in sinners, who after passing through repeated revivals, by and by will scoff and rail at everything about the church.  Although the heavens hang with clouds of mercy over their heads, they heed it not but reject it. It is so in churches and members, if they have not true repentance, every fresh excitement hardens the heart and renders them more difficult to be reached by the truth.

9. False repentance sears the conscience.

Such persons are liable at first to be thrown into distress, whenever the truth is flashed upon their mind. They may not have so much conviction as the real Christian. But the real Christian is filled with peace at the very time that his tears are flowing from conviction of sin. And each repeated season of conviction makes him more and more watchful, and tender, and careful, till his conscience becomes, like the apple of his eye, so tender that the very appearance of evil will offend it. But the other kind of sorrow, which does not lead to hearty rejection of sin, leaves the heart harder than before, and by and by sears the conscience as with a hot iron. This sorrow brings about death.

10. False repentance rejects Jesus Christ as the reason for hope.

Depending on reformation and sorrow, or any thing else, it leads to no such reliance on Jesus Christ, that the love of Christ will constrain him to labor all his days for Christ.

11. It is transient and temporary.

This kind of repentance is sure to bring regrets. By and by you will find such persons becoming ashamed of the deep feelings that they had. They do not want to speak of them, and if they talk of them it is always lightly and coldly. They perhaps bustled about in time of revival, and appeared as much engaged as any body, and very likely were among the extremes in every thing that was done. But when the revival is over, and you find them opposed to new measures, and changing back, and ashamed of their zeal. They in fact repent of their repentance.

Such persons, after they have joined the church, will be ashamed of having come to the altar. When the height of the revival has gone by, they will begin to talk against being too enthusiastic, and the necessity of getting into a more dignified and consistent way in the church. Here is the secret–they had a repentance of which they afterwards repented.

You sometimes find persons who profess to be converted in a revival, turning against the very measures, and means, and doctrines, by which they profess to have been converted. This is not so with the true Christian. He is never ashamed of his repentance. The last thing he would ever think of being ashamed of, is the excitement of feeling he felt in a revival.

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