十月十三日

依著神的意思憂愁，就生出沒有後悔的懊悔來，以致得救。（林後7：10）

爲罪憂傷是神靈的工作。悔改時自然的園中所開的一朵美麗之花。珍珠自然地在蛤礪肌肉中生長出來，但悔罪的心若無神的恩工，在罪人身上是不會自己生出來的。若你有一顆恨惡罪的心，那是神所給你的，因爲人本性的荊棘是不會生出無花果來的。“從肉身生的，就是肉身。”真正的悔改須仰望救主。當我們爲罪悔改時，我們必須一隻眼看罪，一隻眼看十字架；但最好莫如我們的雙眼完全定睛看基督，幷在他的慈愛的光中看我們的過犯。爲罪痛悔是實踐的經驗。若人仍在罪中生活，他就不能說他恨惡罪。

悔改使我們看到罪的可惡，幷非理論，而是實際——像一個被燒傷的孩子怕火一樣；一個被搶劫過的人怎樣怕攔路的强盜，我們怕罪也是那樣。我們要逃避罪，逃避一切的罪，無分大小。一個人逃避小蛇，和逃避大蛇一樣。我們若真實地爲罪憂傷必然恨惡我們的舌頭，免得它說一句錯話；我們必須留心我們日常的行動，免得我們干犯神；幷且每晚我們必須因虧欠神的榮耀向他痛悔，每晨我們必須切心禱告，求神在一天當中扶持我們，免得我們犯罪得罪他。真誠的悔改是繼續不斷的，信徒的悔改一直繼續到死時；這一個滴漏是不會間斷的。其他憂傷到時便終止，但這種憂傷是與我們一同增長的，這是一種很甜蜜的苦味。感謝神，因爲他允准我們享受它、忍受它，直到我們進入永久的安息。

October 13

"Godly sorrow worketh repentance."--2 Corinthians 7:10

Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature's thorns never produced a single fig. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of his love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally--as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it--shun it in everything--not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him.

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.