g in one direction has not only faced about,
but is actually walking in an exactly contrary direction. "Turn ye,
turn ye; for why will ye die?" A man may have little feeling or much
feeling; but if he does not turn away from sin, God will not have
mercy on him. Repentance has also been described as "a change of
mind." For instance, there is the parable told by Christ: "A certain
man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work
to-day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not" (Matt. xxi.
28, 29). After he had said "I will not" he thought over it, and
changed his mind. Perhaps he may have said to himself, "I did not
speak very respectfully to my father. He asked me to go and work, and
I told him I would not go. I think I was wrong." But suppose he had
only said this, and still had not gone, he would not have repented.
He was not only convinced that he was wrong; but he went off into the
fields, hoeing, or mowing or whatever it was. That is Christ's
definition of repentance. If a man says, "By the grace of God I will
forsake my sin, and do His will," that is Repentance--a turning right
about.

Some one has said, man is born with his face turned away from God.
When he truly repents he is turned right around towards God; he
leaves his old life.

Can a man at once repent? Certainly he can. It does not take a long
while to turn around. It does not take a man six months to change his
mind. There was a vessel that went down some time ago on the
Newfoundland coast. As she was bearing towards the shore, there was a
moment when the captain could have given orders to reverse the
engines and turn back. If the engines had been reversed then, the
ship would have been saved. But there was a moment when it was too
late. So there is a moment, I believe, in every man's life when he
can halt and say, "By the grace of God I will go no further towards
death and ruin. I repent of my sins and turn from them." You may say
you have not got feeling enough; but if you are convinced that you
are on the wrong road, turn right about, and say, "I will no longer
go on in the way of rebellion and sin as I have done."

Just then, when you are willing to turn towards God, salvation may be
yours.

I find that every case of conversion recorded in the Bible was
instantaneous. Repentance and faith came very suddenly. The moment a
man made up his mind, God gave him the power. God does not ask any
man to do what he has not the pow