This is not, however, the common case; neither is it the happy lot of _all_ to be so instructed from their cradles to maturity. And when sin has taken possession of the mind—whether in the milder development of what is called innocent gaiety;—the love of pleasure, without vice;—indisposition for serious things and persons;—or whether evil takes a larger development, and vice in its grosser form exists; in either case they cannot be said to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—nor, as a consequence, to seek to do His will; but are living under the condemnation of those who do not believe. And these states, admitted and protracted, necessarily tend to harden in sin, and the longer they continue, to render it more difficult to return, repent, and live. So that in general it is when the fear of death is brought nearer by sickness:—when aroused by the powerful ministry of the Word, or by the direct pleadings of the Holy Spirit, convincing us of sin and of judgment to come:—then, if at all, they are arrested in their downward course, and, through God’s longsuffering mercy, are brought to see their need of a Saviour, a Redeemer, a sacrifice for sin. Under such circumstances _no necessary implication of pardon_ will give _peace_; they must feel that Jesus _has borne their sins in His own body on the tree_, _and that by His stripes they are healed_. How many instances do we read of persons, for long years refusing to yield themselves to God, being at length brought into such depths of misery or danger (in that longsuffering mercy which has followed them all through), and then are they enabled to repent and put away their sins, and, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, to be saved from the wrath to come. But some, perhaps, will say: Why cannot I believe in the Lord Jesus as “the restorer of breaches,” and “of paths to dwell in,” without going back to past ages? The answer is very obvious—that if He be not the Sacrifice, He cannot be the Restorer. He is _one_ Christ, and His work _one_. If He atones for the sin of mankind, He can be then the restorer;—the one is as much part of His character as the other. And if we would divide His perfect work in two parts, and reject Him when suffering on the cross for our sins:—that “we might live”:—“to give His life a ransom for us,”—can we be sure that He will acknowledge us when seated on the right hand of God? Can we be truly said to believe in Him with our _whole_ heart? _If_ we do not accept what He has said of Himself; by His own rule we are not seeking to do His will. It is _after_ “_having made peace through the blood of His cross_;” . . . that He _is able_ “_to reconcile all things unto Himself_” (Col. i. 19, 20), so that they who “were sometimes alienated by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of _His flesh through death_, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight.” (Col. i. 22).