To repent is more than to turn from incorrect practices. It implies also the adoption of new habits. The man who has turned from his sins, may learn of a law, which he has never violated, yet which if obeyed, means progress for him. If he does not follow such a law, but remains neutral in its presence, he certainly is a sinner. To repent from such sin, is to obey each higher law as it appears. In the spiritual life, it is impossible for the person who desires the greatest joy to remain passive in the presence of new principles. He must embrace them; live them; make them his own.
Not only must the worker in science turn from scientific error; he must also accept new science as it is discovered. When the chemist, working with the best known analytical methods, learns that a more rapid or more accurate method has been found, he must adopt the new fact, in order to make the results of his work more accurate. When the chemists of a hundred years ago learned of the atomic hypothesis, it became necessary to adopt it, in order to insure more rapid progress in chemistry. Those who failed to accept the new doctrine worked in greater darkness, and made no material progress. Newton's doctrine of gravitation opened a new method of investigating the universe. Those who did not adopt it were soon outdistanced by their more active colleagues.
In every such case, the obedience yielded to the new knowledge is a kind of repentance. When a person, in religion or science, ceases to break law, he ceases from active evil; when he accepts a new law, he ceases from passive evil. No repentance can be complete which does not cease from both active and passive evil.
[Sidenote: Repentance is active faith.]
Viewed in this manner, then, repentance is obedience to law and is active faith. The law, before it is obeyed, must be understood—that is, faith must precede repentance. Therefore, the obedience yielded can increase only with the knowledge or faith of the individual. As the Prophet Joseph Smith stated it, "No man can be saved in ignorance" and "a person is saved no faster than he gains intelligence."
Repentance is as truly the second principle of action for individuals, in the domain of science as of theology.
Chapter XI.
BAPTISM.
A repentant man turns from previous violation of law, and accepts every new law that may be revealed to him. Repentance is obedience; and the repentant person is always ready to obey righteous laws.
Baptism is one of the laws of the Kingdom of God. "Except ye repent and be baptized ye can in nowise enter the Kingdom of God." The repentant person must of necessity accept this law with the others with which he may be familiar.