REPENTANCE.
Something of the importance of the subject of repentance, as connected
with the Gospel, may be learned from the stress laid upon it by those
who have been sent of God to instruct the people in the ways of
life. The burden of John the Baptist's teaching was, "Repent ye, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand."[A] Jesus also told the people of
Jerusalem, that except they repented, they should perish.[B] When upon
the Western hemisphere, among the Nephites, he also taught repentance
as one of the conditions of salvation, saying to them, "Whosoever will
hearken to my words, and repenteth and is baptized, the same shall be
saved."[C] And of course it follows that those who repented not, and
were not baptized, could not be saved.
[Footnote A: Matt. iii: 2.]
[Footnote B: Luke xiii: 1-5.]
[Footnote C: III. Nephi xxiii: 5.]
When the apostles, that were chosen in Judea, began the execution of
the commission given them, _viz_., to go and teach all nations, the very
first thing they required the people who received their words to do
was that they should repent.[D] Paul bears witness, that though in the
days of ignorance God winked at sins, when the Gospel was declared
unto the people, he commanded men everywhere to repent. And in this
last dispensation, the Lord inspired his servant Joseph Smith to say,
"We know that all men must repent, and believe on the name of Jesus
Christ, * * * or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God."[E]
[Footnote D: Luke xiii: 1-5.]
[Footnote E: Doc. and Cov., sec. xx: 29.]
From these scriptures it is evident that repentance is one of the
conditions of salvation, and, indeed, reason, no less forcibly than
revelation, would teach us that it is one of the conditions on which
salvation is predicated. It must forever precede a forgiveness of
sins. He who is impenitent is in no condition to receive a forgiveness
of sins; he does not desire it; he would not receive it; he refuses
to surrender, and however much men and angels may deplore his state
of mind, one cannot conceive how God would forgive anyone in open
rebellion to him and his laws, and who persists in that rebellion. Not
until the spirit is humbled, not until the heart throbs with genuine
sorrow for repeated violation of God's holy laws, not until the
citadel of sin is surrendered, can man hope for forgiveness, or expect
salvation.
But what is repentance? I shall venture as a definition this,
Repentance is a deep and heartfelt sorrow for sin, producing a
reformation of life. That is the significance of the word to my mind as
associated with the Gospel; and I think such a definition arises from
the spirit, and, I may say, the letter of the scriptures.
"Repent, and turn yourselves from your transgressions; so iniquity
shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new
spirit, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"[F]
[Footnote F: Ezek. xviii: 30, 31.]
Such was the word of the Lord to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel.
I call the attention of the reader to the fact, that the idea of
turning away from transgressions, and making a new heart and a new
spirit, or in other word, a reformation of life, is associated with the
commandment to repent, and forms part of it.
Paul wrote an epistle to the Corinthian saints, reproving them for
their sins, and his sharp reproofs filled them with sorrow. In a
subsequent epistle to the same people, and alluding to the effect of
his former epistle, he said: "Though I made you sorry with a letter, I
do not repent. * * * I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that
you sorrowed unto repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly
manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow
worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow
of the world worketh death."[G]
[Footnote G: II. Cor. vii: 8-10.]
From this passage it appears that Paul recognized two kinds of sorrow,
or repentance, one of which has need to be repented of, because
unfruitful of reformation, and therefore not profitable in the way of
salvation--the sorrow of the world which worketh death. On the other
hand is godly sorrow, or repentance which bringeth salvation, known
to both men and angels, aye, and likewise to God, by the fruit it
bears--good works--forsaking evil, producing a reformation of life.
It leads one who stole to steal no more; one in the habit of getting
drunk, to get drunk no more; one who blasphemed the name of God to
do so no more; and so on as to all things in which man violates the
sacred principles of righteousness. It is written in James: "Submit
yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from
you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands,
ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted and
mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy
to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up."[H]
[Footnote H: James iv: 7-10.]
Because of the stress here laid upon the necessity of humility, and
the people being commanded to mourn and weep, to let their laughter be
turned to mourning, and their joy to heaviness, some religious teachers
(like the Pharisees and scribes of old who tithed mint and anise and
cummin, but omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy
and faith) give so much attention to weeping, mourning and crying
aloud, in order to appear to be afflicted, that they have overlooked
the weightier matters--cleansing their hands, purifying their hearts,
resisting the devil and drawing nigh unto God. These ought they to
do, and not leave the other--the weeping and mourning, inasmuch as it
arises from a deep and heartfelt conviction of sinfulness--undone.
But at present there is too much of what Paul would call "worldly
sorrow" mixed up with the idea of repentance. Too much mourning over
sin, yet running into temptation; an excess of lamentation and not
enough of turning away from evil; in a word, the sorrow of the world,
which worketh death, is too prevalent. How weary must be the old, old
story to God and angels, as well as to men--"we have done those things
we ought not to have done, and have left undone those things we ought
to have done!"
Then again, the sorrow of the world, the sorrow which worketh death,
is too generally accepted for genuine repentance; the latter may be
known and distinguished from the former by its being accompanied by
a reformation of life, a turning away from that which is evil--the
kind of repentance required in the Gospel, the only kind that will be
accepted of God, or that savors of salvation. God, whom we esteem as
a being in whom all the fullness of perfection dwells, must ever be
more pleased with the substance of worship, or religion, or repentance
than with the forms pertaining to it, and this is abundantly proven by
instances recorded in holy writ.
In the days of Israel's captivity in Babylon, certain messengers from
those who were captive, Sherezer and Regem-melech and their men, went
up to Jerusalem to inquire of the prophets and priests of the Lord if
Israel while in captivity should keep the fast of the fifth month,
and weep, separating themselves as they had hitherto done. In answer
to these inquiries the word of the Lord came through the prophet
Zechariah, and he asks: "When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and
seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me,
even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat
for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words
which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was
inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her,
when men inhabited the south and the plain?"
He reminds them that through the former prophets he had commanded
Israel to execute true judgment, to show mercy and compassion every
man to his brother; to oppress not the widow and the fatherless, the
stranger nor the poor; to let none imagine evil in his heart against
his brother. But these things they neglected to do, and the Lord
permitted their enemies to scatter them among strange nations.
As a final answer to those messengers, however, the Lord said: "These
are the things which ye shall do: speak ye every man the truth to his
neighbor, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: and
let none of you imagine evil in your heart against his neighbor: and
love no false oath: for all these are things which I hate, saith the
Lord." And then the Lord, on condition of their doing this, promised
them that "The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and
the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the
house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts; therefore love the
truth and peace."[I]
[Footnote I: Zech., chapters vii and viii.]
Surely, after the spirit of this circumstance is carefully considered,
it will be admitted that I am right in my statement, that God is more
pleased with the substance of repentance, than with the weeping and
mourning attendant upon it; more satisfied with the reformation of the
sinner, than with his affliction.
Then, how reasonable and righteous is this law of repentance! When one
guilty of violating the laws of heaven desires forgiveness, the very
least thing that can be expected of him is that he will refrain from
doing again those things which constituted his offense, and form an
honest resolution to refrain from evil.
Moreover, repentance is chiefly beneficial to the person who practices
it. The commandment from God to repent--always given in connection
with the declaration of the Gospel--is really nothing more than an
invitation to do one's self a kindness. It can only be an abomination
to fools to depart from evil. It is written, also, that "Righteousness
exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."[J] And as it
is with a nation, so it is with individuals.
[Footnote J: Proverbs of Solomon.]
Again, the voice of inspiration says: "As righteousness tendeth to
life, so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death." To
repent, then, means to turn aside from the path which leads to death,
and choose that which leads to life--to life eternal. And while the
angels in heaven may rejoice over one who turns from the error of his
way; yet, the chief good arising from the reformation of the sinner, is
reaped by himself.
Since God, then, in this matter of repentance seeks only the good of
those of whom the requirement is made, "Let the wicked forsake his
wicked way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him turn unto
the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God for he will
abundantly pardon."[K]
[Footnote K: Isaiah lv: 7.]