deceive yourselves by supposing that you repent, for you do not; but,
oh! my dear friends, let me beseech you to repent. The apostle says,
"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" and this
is, I believe, the greatest work of the ministry. To do what? To
persuade men to submit. We are constantly talking to thousands of
people who know just what God wants of them. We cannot bring many of
them any new light or new Gospel. They know all about it. They used
to tell me that so often, that I longed for a congregation of
heathen, which I have found since then. Consequently, when they hear
the Gospel, like the publicans and sinners of old, they go into the
kingdom, while such as some of you who are the natural children of
the kingdom, are shut out, because when they hear they receive, and
submit, and obey, while you stand outside and hold on to your idols,
and reason, and quibble, and reject! My dear friends, let me
persuade you to trample under foot that idol, to tear down that
refuge of lies, and to come to God honestly, and say, "Lord, here I
am, to be a servant, to be nothing, to do anything, to suffer
anything. I know I shall be happier with Thy smile and Thy blessing
than all these evil things now make me without Thee." When you come
to a full surrender, my friends, you will get what you have been
seeking, some of you, for years.

But then another difficulty comes in, and people say, "I have not
the power to repent." Oh! yes, you have. That is a grand mistake. You
have the power, or God would not command it. You can repent. You can
this moment lift up your eyes to Heaven, and say, with the prodigal,
"Father, I have sinned, and I renounce my sin." You may not be able
to weep--God nowhere requires or commands that; but you are able,
this very moment, to renounce sin, in purpose, in resolution, in
intention. Mind, don't confound the renouncing of the sin, with the