The prodigal son, in the midst of his wandering and wickedness, was no doubt an object of love and care to his father, but it was not till he returned to his father's house, and submitted to his authority, that he was restored to favor. Not that there is any merit in repentance, as if we thereby earned a title to forgiveness: we must not entertain for a moment any such idea as that. Salvation is, in its very nature, a deliverance from sin. That is what it means. But unless we see the evil of sin we shall not wish to be delivered from it. Therefore, in every case, the first direction to the inquirer is "Repent." But of what are we to repent? Of all our wrong doing and thinking and feeling—of our neglect of God and His service—of our carelessness in this most important concern of life—of all our evil deeds and thoughts and tempers. The more closely we examine ourselves by the light of God's Word, the more we shall see to deplore, till we come at last to know practically what we have perhaps always believed as a doctrine—that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing, and that not only man in general, but we ourselves, are prone to evil as the sparks fly upward. Let us not, therefore, be discouraged, or faint in our minds! For all this evil the remedy is provided. Hear what comfortable words the Scripture hath for our encouragement. "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." (1 Tim. i. 15.) "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (S. Matt. ix. 13.) Take your reference Bible and look up the passages relating to this subject, and you will see that there is no room for discouragement, much less for despair. Ps. li. S. Luke xv. 1—10. _FIRST THURSDAY IN LENT._ _CONFESSION._ IN many places of Scripture, we find coupled with repentance another condition of repentance—that is, confession. "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord; and so Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." (Ps. xxxii. 5.) "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord." (Jer. iii. 13.) "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John i. 9.) To whom are we to confess? First of all, to ourselves. We are frankly to acknowledge our iniquity, and that not in general terms alone, but we are to come down to particulars. It is easy to own ourselves sinners in a general way, while all the time we are cherishing a very good opinion of ourselves. "Oh, yes, we are all miserable sinners!" said a shrewd old lady. "But we are just as good as the rest of the miserable sinners, and a good deal better than some of them." I fancy we all have this feeling at times, though we may not put it to ourselves quite so plainly.