The word repent is used to signify, sometimes, simply remorse or pain for wrong-doing. In another sense it signifies that sorrow for wrong-doing which includes reformation. It is ceasing to disobey law and commencing a life of obedience. It is in this sense that men are saved by repentance.
Another answer is, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.” This has been shown to signify, thou shalt choose as the chief end of life to make happiness the right way, that is, by obeying all the physical, social, and moral laws of God. “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”
Another answer is, “make it thy chief end to glorify God.” Inasmuch as God's glory consists in the exhibition of his character as a benevolent being, all [pg 158] who promote his chief aim by making happiness according to his will, are living to glorify God.
Another answer is, “live a truly virtuous life.” It has been shown that true virtue consists in obedience to the great law of sacrifice by which the lesser personal good is sacrificed to the greater good of all concerned.
Thus faith, repentance, love to God and man, making it our chief end to glorify God, living a virtuous life, all signify one and the same thing, (i.e.,) choosing to find out and to obey all the physical, social, and moral laws of God as our chief end or ruling purpose.
The righteous are those who have formed such a purpose, and who exhibit its results in their daily life.
The wicked are those who have not formed such a purpose, and do not exhibit it in their daily life.
In the common language of every-day life, when a person is intensely interested in any pursuit, it is said to be “his life.” And when a man changes from a vicious to a virtuous course he is said to “begin a new life.”
Thus it would be in agreement with the ordinary use of language to call a new-formed purpose to obey all the laws of God the commencement of a new life. And as the beginning of natural life is the commencement of a life of impulsive choices unregulated by law, the commencement of a life of obedience to law would, by a figure of speech, very naturally be called “a new birth.”
We have seen, in previous pages, that the formation of a ruling principle or governing purpose is sometimes the result of a slow process of educational influences, and sometimes it is a marked and sudden change. In [pg 159] the history of mind we find, as a general rule, that it is the slow process of educational training that secures a virtuous character in childhood, while the more sudden and marked changes are incident chiefly to more advanced life.