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We Should Repent

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 12, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 47.

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We Should Repent

Lesson for the Children — No. 1

We Should Repent

MEMORY TEXT: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19.
Have the children commit this verse to memory. Ask what it means to repent. “To be sorry.” Illustrate what true repentance is. A boy may be sorry he did wrong when he is punished, but still not be sorry for the sin. A thief is sorry because he is sent to prison, but not because he stole. Judas was so very sorry he sold Jesus that he hanged himself; but Judas repented because he saw that he himself was lost, not because he was a betrayer and murderer.
The right kind of repentance makes us sorry for what we have done, instead of for the punishment we suffer.
When Job repented he said, “I abhor myself.” There are some things we do not like, some we even hate, but abhor is a still stronger word. Job abhorred himself. When he saw how holy God was, and that he had sinned against him, he felt like sitting down in dust and ashes to show his sorrow.
Illustrate true repentance further by the people of Nineveh. Try to make the children see the stranger coming up the main street. “Hark!” the people may have said, “he is saying something. Now he is near enough so we can hear his words. Listen!” “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
The people grew pale. They looked at one another. “Did you hear what that man said?” they asked one another. Then they began to tell others what they had heard. Some ran home to tell their wives and children.
Still Jonah kept going on through the streets all day long, calling out the solemn words, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
Somebody told these words to the king of Nineveh. He left his throne, took off his rich robes, and put on rough cloth to show that he was mourning. (Describe the proclamation made, and how all the people repented.) They not only prayed, but they turned every one from his evil way. That was true repentance.
A lady heard two boys talking. “They say Jesus is coming, and that will be the end of everything,” said one. “I don’t want to see him,” replied the other. “If I thought he was coming so soon, I’d want to kill myself.” Would you feel that way? Perhaps the first thing you would think of would be the cross words you spoke to brother or sister, or you would remember how you tried to deceive father, or disobeyed mother. O, you would want more time to get ready!
The Ninevites cried “mightily unto God.” This week of prayer is a time when we should do the same. They knew how much time they had. We do not. Our time to prepare may be shorter than theirs. The only safe way is to get ready now.
(Call for those who truly repent of sin to stand. Close with a season of earnest prayer that God may help each one to repent.)