ion of sin, the identifying of self with God's
attitude towards it, that, we have seen, is alone, in the New Testament
sense of the word, repentance.

2. The penitence of the robber, on analysis, discloses the three
familiar elements--

(_a_) Contrition is obviously implied in the whole action.

(_b_) Confession--"we receive the due rewards of the things which we
wrought."

(_c_) Amendment--in the separation of himself from those with whom he
had hitherto joined in reviling Christ.

Now it is worth noting, that our Catechism bids us examine ourselves not
about our sins, but about our repentance; "whether they truly repent." We
are meant to ask ourselves--

(_a_) Is our contrition real? And here, for our comfort, we remember
that God accepts as contrition the sincere desire to be contrite.

(_b_) Have we made such a painstaking self-examination as to ensure our
making a good confession? "If we confess our _sins_" (separate, detailed
sins, not our sinfulness in general terms), "He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins."

Have we used "sacramental" confession, according to the teaching of the
Prayer Book, that is, when our conscience told us that we needed it?

(_c_) Is our resolution of amendment a clear and honest one? What sins
are there, some of whose results we are able to modify or in part reverse
(false impressions, untruths, acts or words of unkindness)? God is
generous in forgiveness. Surely we are bound to be generous in our
amendment. There is a sense in which the results of sin abide beyond
possibility of recall. Yet I believe that the instinct which bids us
"make up for" a hurt inflicted on a beloved person, is a Divine instinct
in our nature, and one which we are to carry into the region of our
relation to God.

3. We notice another important truth as regards the Divine forgiveness.
It has nothing to do with the removal of punishment, the release from
penalty or consequence of sin. The forgiveness of the robber was
immediate and complete. But he had still to hang in agony, and there
awaited him the frightful pain of the crurifragium, the breaking of the
legs by beating with clubs.

The sooner we learn the two great truths about the punishment of sin, the
better.

(_a_) Punishment is inevitable. It is a necessary result of the
constitution of the physical and moral universe, of the working, in both
regions, of those laws which are the expression of the Divine Mind.

(