REPENTANCE.
"Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions: so iniquity shall not be your ruin." (Ezek. 18:30.) "Let the wicked forsake his way." (Isaiah 4:7.) "Repent * * * every one of you." (Acts 2:38.) "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3.)
We understand that repentance does not consist in mourning over sins committed, and then repeating the same sin or one equally heinous, but that Ezekiel meant for the people to cease from doing wrong, to quit their evil practices, and walk in the paths of rectitude, virtue and true holiness. "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (II. Cor. 7:10.) We believe that the "sorrow of the world" here alluded to, is the too prevalent practice of crying, groaning and moaning over our wrong-doing, and then continuing the same practice.
The third step for man to take in this life to secure salvation in the eternal world, is to be