十月十三日
依著神的意思忧愁，就生出没有后悔的懊悔来，以致得救。（林后7：10）
爲罪忧伤是神灵的工作。悔改时自然的园中所开的一朵美丽之花。珍珠自然地在蛤砺肌肉中生长出来，但悔罪的心若无神的恩工，在罪人身上是不会自己生出来的。若你有一颗恨恶罪的心，那是神所给你的，因爲人本性的荆棘是不会生出无花果来的。“从肉身生的，就是肉身。”真正的悔改须仰望救主。当我们爲罪悔改时，我们必须一只眼看罪，一只眼看十字架；但最好莫如我们的双眼完全定睛看基督，幷在他的慈爱的光中看我们的过犯。爲罪痛悔是实践的经验。若人仍在罪中生活，他就不能说他恨恶罪。
悔改使我们看到罪的可恶，幷非理论，而是实际——像一个被烧伤的孩子怕火一样；一个被抢劫过的人怎样怕拦路的强盗，我们怕罪也是那样。我们要逃避罪，逃避一切的罪，无分大小。一个人逃避小蛇，和逃避大蛇一样。我们若真实地爲罪忧伤必然恨恶我们的舌头，免得它说一句错话；我们必须留心我们日常的行动，免得我们干犯神；幷且每晚我们必须因亏欠神的荣耀向他痛悔，每晨我们必须切心祷告，求神在一天当中扶持我们，免得我们犯罪得罪他。真诚的悔改是继续不断的，信徒的悔改一直继续到死时；这一个滴漏是不会间断的。其他忧伤到时便终止，但这种忧伤是与我们一同增长的，这是一种很甜蜜的苦味。感谢神，因爲他允准我们享受它、忍受它，直到我们进入永久的安息。
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.
