'A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of
the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they
have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and
I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art
the Lord our God.'---JER. iii. 21, 22.
We have here a brief dramatic dialogue. First is heard a voice from the
bare heights, the sobs and cries of penitence, produced by the
prophet's earnest remonstrance. The penitent soul is absorbed in the
thought of its own evil. Its sin stands clear before it. Israel sees
its sin in its two forms. 'They have perverted their way,' or have led
a wrong outward life of action, and the reason is that 'they have
forgotten God,' or have been guilty of inward alienation and departure
from Him. Here is the consciousness of sin in its essential character,
and that produces godly sorrow. The distinction between mere remorse
and repentance is here already, in the 'weeping and supplication.'
I. So we have here a consciousness of sin in its true nature, as
embracing both deeds and heart, as originating in departure from God,
and manifested in perverted conduct.
Further, we have here sorrow. There may be consciousness of sin in its
true nature without any sorrow of heart. It is fatal when a man looks
upon his evil, gets a more or less clear sight of it, and is not sorry
and penitent. It is conceivable that there should be perfect knowledge
of sin and perfect insensibility in regard to it.
A sinful man's true mood should be sorrow--not flinging the blame on
others, or on fate, or circumstances; not regarding his sin as
misfortune or as inevitable or as disease.
Conscience is meant to produce that consciousness and that sorrow: but
conscience may be dulled or silenced. It cannot be anyhow induced to
call evil good, but it may be mistaken in what is evil. The gnomon is
true, but a veil of cloud may be drawn over the sky.
Further, we have here supplication. These two former may both be
experienced, without this third. There may be consciousness of sin and
sorrow which lead to no blessing. 'My bones waxed old through my
roaring.' Sorrow after a godly sort may be hindered by false notions of
God's great love, or by false notions of what a man ought to do when he
finds he has gone wrong. It may be hindered by cleaving, subtle love of
sin, or by self-trust. But where all these have been overcome there is
true repentance.