lis also '* repent " with anguish and sorrow of heart. We are apt to speak of such changes as though they did not involve us in any guilt ; yea, as though they were as necessary to our welfare as the alternations of summer and winter. That God may bring good out of them, we do not deny : for lie over- ruled for good even the crucifixion of his dear Son : but that such experiences are evil, is clearly manifest ; for if God him- self change not, our love to him should also be unchangeable. Let then the variations in our frames be marked as grounds of deepest humiliation and contrition.
But we must not be satisfied with deploring what is amiss : we must awake from our slumbers, antl " do our first works." How was it with us formerly ? Did our eyes run down with tears of penitence ; were our hearts penetrated with an admi- ration of the Divine mercy; did we set apart seasons for solemn fasting and prayer ; did we give up ourselves to God in a perpetual covenant ; did we read his word with avidity, and set ourselves to practise every lesson we found in it; was it our delight to visit the sick, relieve the poor, instruct the ignorant; was religion our business and our chief joy? Let us then " repent, and do our first works." Repentance with- out reformation is no repentance.
Nor let it be thought that any thing less than such a return to God as this Avill suffice. The counsel here given by our Lord is not mere advice, but a solemn warning, applicable both to Churches and to individuals. If a society of Chris- tians degenerate in their zeal and love, they may expect, as E})hesus at last had, to have their candlestick removed, and the light of the Gospel taken from them. And if an indivi- dual continue in a state of declension after having been warned of his guilt and danger, he can hope for nothing but to have his remissness punished by a long and painful with- drawment of the light of God's countenance, if not also by final dereliction and desertion. And the more secure he may imagine himself to be, the more suddenly and unexpectedly will tlie judgment be inflicted on him. Let not any one then imagine, that a performance of duties, however punctual, how- ever zealous, will supersede the necessity of ardent and un- feigned love ; since it is the inward affection of the soul that gives to every service its chief value. The backslidden Chris- tian must return : he must so return, as really to delight himself in God. To do this, or to perish, is his only alter- native.]
IV. His promise —
[Our lilessed Lord did not think it unsuitable to use menaces on some accoimts towards those, whom, on other ac-r counts, he was hai)py to commend. Yet it was not by fear only that he would work upon them. He loves a willing
service :