FIRST CONDITION OF SALVATION -- REPENTANCE

The children have been shown why Jesus wants them to seek salvation in early life. It is necessary for them to learn how to get it. The coming of Christ into the heart in saving power, like every other blessing of man, is received on certain conditions. God is willing, and even glad, to give farmers a crop of corn; but they Can get it only on the condition that they plow the ground and plant the corn and hoe it and kill the weeds, and then God uses the air and the sunshine and the dew and rain and the ground to make the corn. So God wants boys and girls to have an education and gain useful knowledge. He gave them their minds for that purpose. But they can learn only on the condition that they go to school and study and apply themselves. God wants men to learn trades; but they can do it only on the condition that they go into the shops and factories and take the tools in their hands and work. So God wants boys and girls to accept Christ and become pure and holy in heart. But they can do it only on certain conditions. The first one I shall name is REPENTANCE. That will be the subject of this chapter.

What is repentance? There is one verse in the Bible that describes it exactly. Is. 55:7, reads, "Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts." To repent is more than to feel sorry or to regret that you have sinned. It means forsake sin and abhor it, and even to hate the thought of all evil ways. God can not save a person as long as he loves sin and clings to it. God hates sin with an awful hatred, and nobody is saved, or can be, until he feels toward sin as God does.

Now God tells us that this is very important. John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness and saying "REPENT." Jesus came saying "REPENT." Peter told the people in Jerusalem to "repent." Paul said: "God now commandeth all men everywhere to 'repent.'" Jesus once said: "Except ye repent ye shall all perish." In other words, the blessed Savior teaches that all have sinned, even boys and girls, and that unless we forsake our sins in sincere repentance, he can not save any of us.

I repeat that repentance is very much more than sorrow for sin. A person can be sorry that he has an evil habit which makes him trouble, and yet he may love the evil and continue to practice it. He only repents who gives up a wicked way because it is wicked and grieves God, and injures others and his own soul. The boy or girl who has been in the habit of disobeying parents does not repent unless he stops disobeying them, and grieves over past disobedience, and hates it as a great sin against the parents, and also against God.

I want to give you a story about a child's sin and repentance, which I find in one of my books that was written fifty years ago. Twenty-five years ago I met and learned to love the author as a great and good man. A minister told to him the following story: "I had one of the kindest and best of fathers, and when I was a little white-headed boy about six years old he used to carry me to school before him on his horse, to help me in my little plans, and always seemed trying to make me happy. He came home one day very sick. My mother was sick, too; and thus nobody but my two sisters could take care of my father. In a few days he was worse, very sick, and all the physicians in the region were called to see him. The next Sabbath morning he was evidently much worse. As I went into the room he stretched out his hand to me and said: 'My little boy, I am very sick. I wish you to take this paper on the stand and run down to Mr. C.'s and get me the medicine written on that paper.' I took the paper and went to the drugstore as I had often done before. But when I got there I found it shut; and as Mr. C. lived a quarter of a mile further off, I concluded not to go and find him. I then set off for home. On my way back I contrived what to say. I knew how wicked it was to tell a lie, but one sin always leads to another. On going in to my father I saw that he was in great pain, and though pale and weak I could see great drops of sweat standing on his forehead, forced out by the pain. Oh, then I was sorry I had not gone and found the druggist. At length he said to me: 'My son has got the medicine, I hope, for I am in great pain.' I hung my head and muttered, for my conscience smote me: 'No, sir, Mr. Carter says he has got none!' 'Has got none! Is this possible?' He then cast a keen eye upon me, and seeing my head hang, and probably suspecting my falsehood, said in the mildest, kindest tone: 'My little boy will see his father suffer great pain for the want of that medicine.' I went out of the room and cried alone. I was soon called back. My brothers had come and were standing, -- all the children were standing, -- around his bed, and he was committing my poor mother to their care and giving them his last advice. I was the youngest, and when he laid his hand on my head and told me that in a few hours I should have no father, that in a day or two he would be buried up, that I must now make God my Father, love him, obey him, and always do right and speak the truth, because the eye of God is always upon me, it seemed as if I must sink. And when he laid his hand on my head again, and prayed for the blessing of God, the Redeemer, to rest upon me, soon to be a fatherless orphan, I dared not look at him, I felt so guilty. Sobbing I rushed from his bedside and thought I wished I could die. They soon told me he could not speak. Oh, how much would I have given to go in and tell him I had told a lie, and ask him once more to lay his hand on my head and forgive me! I crept in once more and heard the minister pray for the dying man. Oh, how my heart ached! I snatched my hat and ran to the druggist's house and got the medicine. I ran home with all my might and ran up to my father's bedside to confess my sin, crying out, 'O, here father!' -- but I was hushed; and I then saw that he was pale and still, and that all in the room were weeping. My dear father was dead! And the last thing I ever spoke to him was to tell him a lie. I sobbed as if my heart would break; for his kindness, his tender looks, and my own sin all rushed upon my mind. And as I gazed upon his cold, pale face, and saw his eves shut and his lips closed, could I help thinking of his last words: 'My little boy will see his father suffer great pain for the want of that medicine?' I could not know but he died for the want of it. In a day or two he was put in the ground and buried up. There were several ministers at the funeral, and each spoke kindly to me, but could not comfort me. Alas! they knew not what a load of sorrow lay on my young heart. They could not comfort me. My father was buried and the children all scattered abroad. for my mother was too feeble to take care of them.

"It was twelve years after this, while in college, that I went alone to the grave of my father. As I stood over it I seemed to be back at his bedside, to see his pale face, and hear his voice. Oh! the thought of that sin and wickedness cut me to the heart. It seemed as if worlds would not be too much to give could I then only have called loud enough to have him hear me ask for forgiveness. But it was too late. He had been in the grave twelve years; and I must live and die weeping over that ungrateful falsehood. May God forgive me."

Now I want to make a few comments on this sad story.

1. It shows that children may commit very wicked sins that end in very serious results at a very early age. This boy was but six years old when he thus sinned, lying to his earthly father and disobeying his Heavenly Father. Possibly it caused the death of his father, and it certainly filled his own heart with a lifelong sorrow.

2. You see that a young child may repent of sin. Young as this boy was, he felt a deep abhorrence of his sin, and the thought of it in after years almost broke his heart. Any child may thus feel the wickedness of sin and abandon it forever.

3. You can see from this story what repentance is. "Repentance begins in the humiliation of the heart and ends in the reformation of the life."

"Real repentance consists in the heart being broken for sin and from sin." You see he turned away not only from this sin of disobedience and lying, but from all sin, and became a good Christian man and a minister of the gospel. To repent of one sin like lying or swearing or disobedience or drunkenness, and cling to other sins, is like stopping one hole in the bottom of a ship when there are two other holes through which the water will pour in and sink the ship. It is like healing one wound in a soldiers body, and leaving two other grievous wounds unhealed which will cause his death. He who truly repents will hate and try to give up all sin.

4. You notice this boy asked God to forgive him. This is what any one who truly repents of sin does, for the reason that all sin is a sin against the holy God. When King David had committed an awful sin against a man that caused his death, and afterward repented, he cried out: " Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, O God." Let every boy and girl remember that when you quarrel or lie or swear or disobey, you have not truly repented until you both turn away from your sins and cry out to God for pardon.

In a certain town in Iowa, a liquor dealer, whose name we will not give, was converted during a revival. He made up his mind to lead a new life at the time that he had a large lot of costly liquors on hand. His first act was to cart his whole stock of liquors down the street to a place in front of the church and there make a bonfire of it all. While the people within the church were praising God, and asking him to help sinners to repent, this wicked saloon-keeper was repenting by giving up his sin and asking the pardon of God. The glare of the burning liquors gave evidence to God and man that a prodigal was repenting of his many sins.

5. You notice that this boy repented the very day he committed the sin. He did not wait until he was grown to manhood or until he was gray with years. While he was yet a boy of six years old, and before the sun of that day which witnessed his dark sin had set he turned from it with a broken and contrite heart to God. "A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." "If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in." "You can not repent too soon, because you know not how soon it may be too late." Therefore, dear readers, repent now. Turn from every form of sin, and run for forgiveness to a gentle Savior's arms. Confess your sins to the Savior, and ask for his grace and mercy. A sinner's cry for pardon always gains the listening ear of God.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the first condition of salvation?
2. Are not God's most precious gifts usually given on some conditions?
3. What is repentance?
4. Is repentance important?
5. Is it more than sorrow or regret for sin?
6. What sins did the little boy commit?
7. How early in life did he commit the great sins?
8. Did he repent?
9. How did he show his repentance?
10. Did he ask God to forgive him?
11. Did he wait until he was old before he repented?
12. How did the saloon-keeper repent?
13. Is not NOW the very best time to turn from sin and seek God's pardon?

Song: "Turn to the Lord and Seek Salvation. Another title to the hymn is "Come, Ye Sinners."