REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION.

BY REV. CHARLES H. READ, D. D.,

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RICHMOND,

VIRGINIA.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted.-Acts, iii, 19.

The doctrine and duty of REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION TO GOD, in order to salvation, will never cease to be important, and a principal theme of discourse in this world, so long as men are found who are alienated from God, and wheresoever faithful ministers of Christ have access to their fellow men.

The blessed Saviour, the great teacher from heaven, opened His ministry with the plain assertion of this doctrine and duty, as bearing directly upon the condition and interests of all to whom He preached-all, without exception, who had not through the teachings of His prophets and heralds complied with these terms of salvation.

The disciples, who received the commission from Christ to preach His truth in His name, to the end that men might be saved-these, also, went everywhere, among all classes of society, preaching the doctrine and duty of repentance, and conversion to Christ, as things of universal concern and obligation, the invariable conditions of salvation from sin and hell, to all mankind.

The Epistles, also, abound in appeals and arguments setting forth this doctrine and duty; and in the closing book of the inspired canon, this same doctrine and duty are still and again endorsed by the Alpha and Omega-to be prominently maintained in the churches; whilst heaven and hell are there set one over against the other, the one as the final abode of the penitent and converted, and the other as the final abode of the impenitent and unconverted.

It is to be presumed that, among those to whom this discourse is addressed, there will be found some who are yet in their sins, without God, and without a scriptural hope of heaven. The divinely

warranted terms of salvation are yet to be complied with by some of you, if you are to escape the death that never dies. By preaching, God saves them that truly repent and turn to Him. Our business, in preaching, is to bring the truths, whereby God convicts and converts sinners and edifies believers in the ways of holiness and peace, home to their consciousness and hearts. I come, then, to urge this

message, in the name of God, upon all whom it concerns" REPENT YE THEREFORE, AND BE CONVERTED."

Plain, straightforward language is consistent with true kindness, and best becomes this theme; with such language would I speak to my fellow men-my fellow sinners.

In addressing you as sinners, let it be understood that you are not arraigned, nor called upon to "repent and be converted," upon the ground that you are exceptions in the scale of general morality, or that you are more ungodly than your impenitent and unconverted neighbors and acquaintance around you. Our Saviour made no such discriminations in His preaching; but among sinners of every grade, and of all social positions, and in every path of wrong-doing, He and His true disciples went everywhere, urging the same immediate duty, and enforcing the appeal upon all with the same solemn and tremendous alternative of the soul's eternal ruin.

A sinner-be it then observed-is one who is out of the right way; it matters not by what particular path he departs from God, or by what particular forms of sin his alienation of heart and life is distinguished; he is one of that great multitude of whom the world is so full, of whom God has declared, "They are ALL gone out of the way."

Among a thousand, yea, ten thousand sinners, there may not be found any two alike in the outward manifestation of the alienation of their hearts from God, their true and proper sovereign; and yet, as all lack the predominant principle of genuine allegiance to God, this is the just ground of His complaint against them, and of their condemnation in His sight; and upon this basis the text is applicable to each one of their entire number-to one as logically and as imperatively as to another. This statement and view of the case must, I think, be readily comprehended and assented to by all intelligent and candid minds. Let it be supposed, by way of illustration, that, as a father or master, you discover a predominant disposition in your household, among your children and servants, to neglect your proper