What They Said

“True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally — as a burnt child dreads fire.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Equally, repentance is more than just sorrow for the past; repentance is a change of mind and heart, a new life of denying self and serving the Savior as King in self’s place.“

“It needs to be said that faith is not a mere optimistic feeling, any more than repentance is a mere regretful or remorseful feeling. Faith and repentance are both acts, and acts of the whole man...faith is essentially the casting and resting of oneself and one’s confidence on the promises of mercy which Christ has given to sinners, and on the Christ Who gave those promises. “

"He grieves truly that weeps without a witness."

"There cannot be a true sorrow of heart for a sin that is past, but presently there doth arise a purpose not to sin for the future."

"Evangelical repentance is repentance of sin as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak. Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh."

"God will not pardom for repentance, nor yet without it."

"The wicked do but weep for their sins past, but the godly purpose to sin no more."

"A repenting man is more angry at his own heart that consenteth to sin than he is at the devil who did tempt him to sin."

"You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late"

"Whoever delays his repentance does in effect pawn his soul with the devil."

"Let the quantity of thy sins be the measure of they repentance."

"By delay of repentance, sin strengthens, and the heart hardens.  The longer ice freezeth , the harder it is to be broken."

"A boat rows against the stream; the current punishes it.  So is a nation violating a law of God; it is subject to a judgement.  The boat turns and goes with the stream; the current assists it.  So is a nation which has repented and put itself into harmony with God's law; it is subject to a blessing.  But the current is the same; it has not changed, only the boat has changed its relationship to the current.  Neither does God change - we change; and the same law which executed itself in punishment now expresses itself in reward."

“Repentance with man is the changing of his will; repentance with God is the willing of a change.”

"Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell‑bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you and that you long to get rid of it and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practices, and you deny yourself and take up the cross and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest and the whole world may call you a fool or say you have religious mania, you may have to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That is repentance."

"Some people do not like to hear much of repentance; but I think it is so necessary that if I should die in the pulpit, I would desire to die preaching repentance, and if out of the pulpit I would desire to die practicing it."