#repentance

I dare say you are planning on a late repentance. You do not know what you are doing. You are planning without God. Repentance and faith are the gifts of God, and they are gifts that He often withholds, when they have been long offered in vain. I grant you true repentance is never too late, but I warn you at the same time, late repentance is seldom true. I grant you, one penitent thief was converted in his last hours, that no man might despair; But I warn you, only one was converted, that no man might presume. I grant you it is written, Jesus is ‘Able to save completely those who come to God through him’ (Hebrews 7:25). But I warn you, it is also written by the same Spirit, ‘Since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you’ (Proverbs 1:24-26). Believe me, you will find it no easy matter to turn to God whenever you please. ↗

— J.C. Ryle

#repentance #faith

And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. ↗

— Herman Melville

#punishment #repentance #faith

Enthusiasm - a distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#connection #curable #doses #enthusiasm #experience

When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear of punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart. ↗

— Horace Mann

#begin #brought #chastisement #child #conduct