“From my sins—from my sins,” says the man who truly repents. “They are what I hate, even while I commit them. I hate and despise myself, I dare look neither God nor man in the face, and yet I go on doing the very things I loathe the next minute. Oh, for some one to save me from my own ill-temper, my own bitter tongue, my own laziness, my own canting habits, my own dishonesty, my own lustfulness. But who will save me from them? who will change me and make a new creature of me? Oh, for a sign from heaven that I can get rid of these bad habits! I hate them, and yet I love them. I long to give them up, and yet, if some one stronger than me does not have mercy on me, I shall go and do them again to-morrow. I am longing to do wrong now, and yet I long not to do wrong. Oh, for a sign from heaven!”
Poor sinner!—My brother! there is a sign from heaven
for thee! On that table it stands. A sign that Christ’s blood was shed to wash out thy sins, a sign that Christ’s blood will feed thee, and give thy spirit strength to cast away and hate thy sins. Come to Holy Communion and claim thy share in Christ’s pardon for the past, in Christ’s strength for the future.
“What!” says the sinner, “I come to the Sacrament! I of all men the most unfit! I who but yesterday committed such and such sins!”
Friend, as to the sin you committed yesterday, confess that to God, not me. And if you confess it to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive it. But just because you think yourself the most unfit person to come to the Holy Sacrament, for that very reason I suspect you to be fit.
“How then!” says he in his heart, “I have but this moment repented of my sins! I have but this moment, for the first time felt that God’s wrath is revealed against me, that hell is open for me!”
For that very reason, come to the Holy Sacrament, and thou shalt hear there that not hell at all, but heaven is open for thee.
“What, with all this guilty conscience, this load of sins against myself, my neighbours, my children, my masters, my servants, on my back!”
Yes, bring them all, and say in the words of the Communion Service: “I do earnestly repent, and am heartily sorry for these, my misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto me; the burden of them is intolerable.” Why, for whom were these words written, but for you who feel that the burden of your sins is intolerable. They are there, not for those who feel no burden of sin, but for you—for
you, and for those like you who feel the burden of your sins unbearable.