That many have written well on the doctrine of repentance, I grant: but the subject is mingled with others in voluminous works. I have not seen a treatise on this all-important topic, in a small compass, and in a plain style. Had I known any thing which appeared well-adapted to answer the same end, I should certainly have spared my labour. I am not without hope, that masters, or heads of families, may be induced to give this, with other serious books, to their servants; and that those who have the means and the will to do good, may feel disposed to spread it among their neighbours. We live in an age, when various plans for the instruction of the poor are every day receiving additional en couragement. So numerous are Sunday schools, and so active are those who teach and conduct them, that we may reasonably hope, in a short time, there will be but comparatively few among the lower classes that cannot read. And is it not desirable, that they should be furnished with serious and suitable books? Considering the multitude of loose and dangerous publications which are continually issuing from the press, it is surely necessary that the friends of religion should do all they can to pre-occupy the ground, or to provide antidotes where the poison has begun to take effect. If this small work should be blessed of God as the means of exciting a deep and serious concern about the "One thing needful," in any who receive it, I shall think myself well rewarded. May that Being, from whom cometh every blessing, cause the influence of his grace to accompany it to many hearts! REPENTANCE. CHAPTER I. On the State of the Impenitent. I WILL tell you, reader, in the beginning, what is my design in this little book: I do not intend to amuse you with curious questions, or engage you in fierce disputes, and vain janglings; but to shew you the things that belong to your peace. You must soon die, and bid farewell to the world. You are gliding down the stream of time into a shoreless and bottomless ocean. It is clear from the word of God, that after death you must be either eternally happy, or eternally miserable. It is as plain as words can make it, that if you go on hardened in sin to the last, your precious immortal soul will be certainly lost, and lost forever. I therefore beg your serious attention to the subject of repentance. No subject is more frequently and urgently pressed upon men in the holy scriptures. Every messenger |