soul turns to the Father in tranquillity because it
knows that, though there has been grievous fall, yet all is not lost.
He will give it another chance. In the Father's house are many
mansions, and He is still preparing a place for us. All the treasures
of His {193} Kingdom may yet be ours if we come back in true sorrow.
We broke our resolution, we wounded Him again in the same old sin, but
He has not given us up. Even while we are wondering how we can ever
face Him again, He is starting out on His way to the wilderness to seek
the sheep that is lost. The stones of the way cut His Sacred Feet; the
thorns and briars of sin tear His Hands as He bends down to extricate
the entangled soul; but He cares naught for these if only He can fetch
home again His banished one.

We are told that "The Saints are the sinners who kept on trying." They
reign in glory to-day not because they were pure from sin, but because
when sin entered in they did not forget the Father's tender love, but
came back, calm and sure, to the peace of His pardoning embrace.

III. _A Spirit of Reparation_

A heart that loves, and that has offended the object of its love,
naturally longs for opportunity to make reparation. If our return to
the divine allegiance after a fall is in the smallest measure sincere,
we shall not have to spur ourselves on to a desire for reparation. It
will spring up unbidden, strong and dominant. The heart will be
restless and disquieted until opportunity be found.

This desire is not a supernatural gift only. It {194} belongs even to
the natural heart of man. We see it showing itself in little children.
Mark the child who has offended a loving mother, who has wept out its
heart-broken confession on her bosom, and been forgiven and soothed,
and sent away restored to the mother's favour. How quick is that
little one all day long to watch for and grasp opportunities of
responding to her slightest wish. The little heart instinctively longs
to make good the wrong of its disobedience. So with the heart that,
having sinned against God, has repented. This is one of the best tests
of true and godly repentance. If we long to repair the wrong, if we
are quick to seize opportunities to honour Him whom our sin had
dishonoured, there can be no question that we have sorrowed after a
godly sort.

How does God meet this spirit on the part of the penitent?

Here enters the divine Love and says, "My child, you have indeed
di