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of one thing behind you, and faith is the entering into something else before you. It is a change of mind or purpose, a complete turning about with reference to God and sin.
^ In Adam Bede, George Eliot represents the heroine Dinah Morris as thus pointing out to the unhappy Hetty Sorrel the conditions of true repentance : " God can't bless you while you have one falsehood in your soul ; His pardoning mercy can't reach you until you open your heart to Him, and say, ' I have done this great wickedness; 0 God, save me, make me pure from sin.' While you cling to one sin and will not part with it, it must drag you down to misery after death, as it has dragged you to misery here in this world, my poor, poor Hetty. It is sin that brings dread, and darkness, and despair : there is light and blessedness for us as soon as we cast it off : God enters our souls then, and teaches us, and brings us strength and peace."
^ Eemorse which positively excludes the love of God is infernal, it is like that of the lost. Kepentance which does not regret the love of God, even though as yet it is without it, is good and desirable, but imperfect : it can never save us until it attains to love, and is mingled with it. So that, as the great Apostle said, even if he gave his body to be burned, and all his goods to the poor, and had not charity, it would all be of no avail ; we, too, may say with truth that, however great our penitence may be, even though it make our eyes overflow with tears of sorrow, and our hearts to break with remorse, still if we have not the holy love of God it will serve us nothing as regards eternal life.^
3. This repentance is " not to be repented of " ; it contains no sting of regret. Bitter indeed may be the tears that flow when first the discovery is made by the heart of its own vileness ; over- whelming, perhaps, may be the shame and grief; like rankling arrows may be those convictions of sin in the contrite heart ; yet, in looking back, not one pang is regretted, for they were the birth throes of the soul's conversion. Though we sow in tears, yet, if we reap in joy, those tears will never be regretted. Even in the very process of this sorrow, apart from its ultimate result, there is that which causes it not to be regretted. That sorrow softens the heart and relieves it. We know that there is such a thing as a hard stunning grief, when not a tear is shed and the heart seems turned to stone. We know what instant relief it is when aught ' St. Francis Pe Sales, Theotimus, bk. ii, ch. 19.
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80 touches that grief-bound spirit as to unseal its fountain, and unlock its rigidity. The passion of sorrow that ensues is positive luxury as compared with its former hard grief. So there is a sweet unburdening of the soul in the sorrow of repentance. We all remember how as children the heart became lightened, when, after some fault committed, and perhaps long-concealed or un- owned, we at last told it all out to a loving parent's ear, though scarce for sobbing could we tell it. Even so, when the contrite sinner falls upon his Saviour's breast, in wailing but yet in confiding acknowledgment of his sin, does he experience the blessedness of that sorrow which is unto repentance, in its un- burdening, softening, melting power.
^ Sin, repentance, and pardon are like to the three vernal months of the year, March, April, and May. Sin comes in like March, blustering, stormy, and full of bold violence. Eepentance succeeds like April, showering, weeping, and full of tears. Pardon follows like May, springing, singing, full of joys and flowers. Our eyes must be full of April, with the sorrow of repentance ; and then our hearts shall be full of May, with the true joy of for- giveness.^
^ It is as when of old God would have the earth at its fairest for the coming of him who was to have dominion over it all : and " there went up a mist and watered the earth " — hung it all in tears. The leaves were heavy and dripping, the flowers were sodden, the drenched grass was matted together. Then arose the sun, and out of tears came radiant beauty, for the ruddy light shot through it all and glistened in every drop, and hung the trees with diamonds, and sowed the grass with orient pearl, and flashed on every side with emerald and ruby, and a jewel was lapped in every flower. So is born the joy of the Lord. The Sun of Righteousness arises and shines upon the tears of our penitence and grief. Or yet again : it is as when in some overheated day the black clouds of thunder creep up the sky and blot out the sun ; not a breath stirs the languid leaves, nor any sound breaks the awe and hush of all things. Then comes the lightning flash. And then the crashing thunder, " like a whole sea overhead," and the floods that run in rivulets on every side. And afterwards the new life, filling everything with cool, delicious freshness. The sun glistens in the rain-drops and tips the edges of the departing clouds with gold, and flings a rainbow right across the heavens ; and on every side bursts forth a ringing gladness, like the prophet's song