Then you have got thus far that you hate sin? "Yes, I have." You
have said it in your letters to me, and there are others saying it
who have not written to me. "Yes," you are saying, "I desire to be
saved from it. I would save myself this very instant if I could, and
never sin again." Would you? Is not that repentance? What else is it,
think you?

Suppose you had a disobedient and rebellious son, and he had been
living irrespective of your law and will, wasting your money and
trampling under foot your commandments. Suppose he comes back, he
sees the error of his course. His eyes are opened, perhaps, by
affliction, perhaps by want, or ten thousand other things. At any
rate he sees it, and he comes home and says, "Oh! father, what a fool
I have been; how wicked I have been. I see it all now--I did not see
it when I was doing it. I see my evil course, my sins that made you
mourn, and turned your hair grey. Oh! how I hate it all. I repent in
dust and ashes. Father! I forsake it all! I come home to you!" What
would you say? Would you say, "My son, you have not repented enough.
Go! begone! Wait till you feel it more!" No, your paternal heart
would go out in love and forgiveness, and you would put the kiss of
your reconciling love upon his cheek. "Even so there is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner that _repenteth!_"
as there would be joy in that family circle over the return of that
wandering child.

But suppose that lad were to come and say, "Father, I do thus
repent; I do thus forsake my sins; but there are some companions who
will follow me so closely that I am afraid I shall again fall under
their power, and there are some habits so terrible that I am afraid
they will again conquer. Let me, then, be always by your side. You