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been convicted of sin, and brought to repentance and faith in Christ.

We will now look at three things necessary to every one who would return from his wanderings, and seek the forgiveness of God. The first one is, conviction of sin. No person can ever become a Christian, who is not first convicted of sin; for it is the very first step to be taken. Will a man go to a physician to be healed, before he is convinced that he is sick? No more will a sinner return to God, before he is convicted of sin. Do you ask how you may have this conviction of sin? It is the work of the Holy Spirit; but he generally uses means. If you read the Bible seriously, and compare yourself with what that book says you ought to be, you can hardly fail to be convicted that you are a sinner. But you must not wait for more conviction. Many mistake here. They feel that they are sinners, but do not experience that anguish and remorse which sometimes accompany strong conviction of sin, and which they suppose necessary to repentance. They therefore think they must

But

wait till they have more conviction. this is wrong. Go and do your duty, and repent of your sins, and you will then feel that you are a sinner, and see the utter depravity of your heart. You will then feel constrained to say, with Job, "Behold I am vile. I will lay my hand upon my mouth." Or, with David, "Mine iniquities are gone over my head." Or, with Isaiah, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Or, with Daniel, "O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face." Or, with Paul, "O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Or, with our own excellent Payson, "I know that I am every thing that is bad, summed up in one."

The second thing necessary for salvation is, repentance. Conviction of sin is of no use, if it is not followed by repentance. Those holy men just mentioned were not only convicted of their sins, but they repented of them, and turned from them. So must you and I do, if we would aspire to the blessed inheritance to which they have

gone. But what is repentance? It is sorrow for sin, not merely because of the penalty, but because we have offended God, and injured our Redeemer. It is such sorrow as Job felt, when he repented in dust and ashes. It is such sorrow as David felt, when he wrote the fifty-first psalm. It is such sorrow as Peter felt, after he had denied his Lord. It is such sorrow as the prodigal felt, when he said, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Happy is he who knows from his own experience what this repentance is! Happy is he who can adopt the language of the beautiful hymn,

"I love in solitude to shed
The penitential tear,

And all his promises to plead,

When none but God is near."

Faith in Christ is the third and last great requisite, in order to become a Christian. But what is Christian faith? It is simple, childlike belief in the word of God, and in Jesus Christ as our Mediator and

Redeemer. To illustrate this, let us take the case of the mariner. He is far away on the water, and is tossed about on the troubled waves of the sea. Above and around him, nothing is to be seen that can guide him in his course, except the glimmering stars; and these the angry tempest often veils from his sight. How is he to find his path over this trackless ocean? How is he to reach the port for which he has so long been sailing? Ah, in yonder little box, to which he so often turns in the hour of danger, he has a friend, a guide, that never misleads nor deceives him; it is his COMPASS. He did not make it himself, and perhaps does not know who did make it; yet he trusts his life and property to its direction. He knows not when or where it was made, and yet he firmly believes that it will lead him right. He cannot even tell why its needle always points to the north; yet he thinks it none the less valuable on that account.

This, young reader, is FAITH; such faith as I would have you exercise in the Bible, and in him who died for you. You are on

the voyage of life, sailing for an eternal haven. Christ has pointed you to the right way, and has given you his word for your guide. If you believe on him, and exercise in the Bible the simple faith which the mariner exercises in his guide, then you will surely reach at last that heavenly country to which the "pleasant way” leads the pilgrim. If you can truly say, with Job, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," you will soon be permitted to behold this Redeemer, and to realize what you once saw through the glass of faith. If you can look to him with the faith which the ancient people of God exercised, when they looked upon the brazen serpent, your cure will be no less certain than was theirs.

In the eleventh chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, we have a beautiful description of faith, with illustrations of it drawn from Scripture history. It is a very interesting chapter, and I would recommend to all my readers to turn to it and read it.

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