ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Mat- "Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus "And they (the twelve) went out, and preached "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be bap- "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; We can give no less than eighteen other passages that refer directly to the necessity for repentance. You will find these readily in a reference Bible should you have need for them. The above will serve our purpose for the time being. These passages establish several important things which you will note: (1) That all sinners are given an opportunity to (2) That they are urged, even commanded, to re- (3) That by repenting they can attain favor with (4) That without repentance you cannot escape But let us note that it is possible for a man to reach a place where he cannot repent: "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." Hebrews 6:1-6. Then, if he cannot repent and return to God, the door is closed to him forever. Practical Observations of Repentance. Most of us have seen people repent. One young man came forward repeatedly seeking forgiveness for his sins. His efforts as far as we knew were in vain. But it was noticed that he got up from the altar each time with a definite purpose on his face. After a few days the sweet assurance of forgiveness came to him, and he was serenely happy in Christ. Then we heard the story. He wanted to be saved, but first this little debt and then that one, that he had decided to "forget" bobbed up-and he was rising from the altar with a determination to pay. The last day, when all but one was paid a debt to the railroad for hobo trips-and he had decided to write a letter to the Superintendent of the Railroad-forgiveness came to him. That is practical repent ance. In the great revivals of Kentucky about 1800, it was a common occurrence for the penitent to rise from the altar and go make peace with a neighbor, and then come back and find God. If people couldn't find deliverance from sin they would search back through their lives and see if anything needed rectifying. Restitution is an important part of repentance. When Repentance is Complete. You will know itThe burden will roll away. Then comes a sense of inward peace and joy--a definite expression within your soul. It is difficult to explain just the nature of this feeling of rejoicing. But perhaps it can be compared to the feeling of love that wells up in the heart of the mother as she looks upon her babe nestling at her breast. Or perhaps it is somewhat like the feeling the bride and the bridegroom have for each other-the thought makes something wake up on the inside somewhere-an inexpressible something that they can see in each other's eyes and feel as their lips fondly meet with love unbounded-but it is hard to find words to express it. Or it may be compared to the man that has gone all day through a dry and sandy country, scorching winds blowing sand into his hot, perspiring face, trudging along tired, thirsty, worn. And he finds a spring beneath a big shade tree at the side of the road. A "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to we ex In the chemical laboratory a quantity of several different ingredients would be given to us, each in a separate container. Our instructor told us that if we would put so much of some of them into a test tube together under certain conditions we would get certain results. For ample, we would put three or four liquids together, and suddenly in the bottom of the test tube we would see a metal deposited. We could take off the remaining liquid and take the metal in our hands. One day as the instructor was near when I was making an experiment which he said would work, I asked him, "How much more of this last liquid must I put in?" He replied, "Enough." I kept on pouring in, and it came to pass as he said it would. Just so with Repentance. When the penitent one has completely repented forgiveness will come, for all sins. When the penitent one has completely repented, without holding back a single thing-the blessing of forgiveness comes-And this blessing which let us now consider. we call JUSTIFICATION— Justification "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1.) Justification by Faith. The Justification of the sinner means the pardoning of the sinner, absolving him from the guilt and punishment of sin, through the imputation of Christ's righteousness. "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment "Much more then, being now justified by his "Being justified freely by his grace through the |