p. 13 | Repentance by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1866

Repentance.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WHAT is repentance? A very commonly-received idea at present, of repentance, is, that it is sorrow, feeling bad. In revivals, this is what the minister teaches, and it is about the highest idea the people have of repenting; hence the person that can cry the hardest and make the most ado, they think has the most religion. He is soundly converted. But is this really so? Is sorrow repentance? We think not. Many a drunkard has been sorry, and even wept over his evil habit, who yet never reformed. Many a person has been sorry for his wickedness and bad conduct, sorry that he was not a Christian, and yet has never made a single effort to reform or come to Christ. Could we say that such a person ever repented? Certainly not.

We will illustrate the difference between sorrow and repentance. Mr. A attends a protracted meeting, is convicted, begins to feel bad and weep. I ask him what the matter is. Says he, "Oh I am repenting of my sins. I want to be a Christian." What sins have you to repent of? "Oh! many, many." Do you think of any particular ones? "Well—yes—I—I cheated neighbor B out of $10 last year. I am sorry for B—so sorry." Have you paid back the $10?

"Well—no—I don't see how I can do that. I cannot spare the money. But I am sorry for it."

Now how much repentance would there be in his sorrow? Not much. He might be ever so sorry, yet it would not help Mr. B unless it led him to refund the money. Paul plainly declares that sorrow, even true, genuine, godly sorrow, is not repentance. "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh (or leads to) repentance to salvation, not to be repented of." 2. Cor. vii, 9, 10.

If a man is truly sorry for a wrong, his sorrow will lead him to make that wrong, right. Hence we may say that repentance is the effect or result of godly sorrow.

God, by the mouth of Ezekiel, has told us what true repentance is, and what the sinner must do to become truly converted. "Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die." Eze. xviii, 27, 28.

This is repentance, to turn away from doing wrong and begin to do right; stop breaking God's law and begin to keep it. Repentance makes a change, not only in men's words, but in their deeds, in their deal, and in all their actions in life. This is the kind of repentance that the Bible teaches, and the kind that is acceptable with God.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

Watroussville, Mich.