In like manner, the Savior, when making his conditional promise of salvation, left out repentance, it being implied, virtually included, in the admonition to believe and be baptized; since baptism is "for the remission of sins"--sins of which man has repented. Faith, not repentance, is the first essential--the initial requirement made of the seeker for salvation. The Second Step.--The first fruit of faith is repentance. It follows faith as naturally as kindness follows love, as obedience springs from reverence, as a desire to be congenial with, succeeds admiration for, one whose example is deemed worthy of emulation. God commands all men to repent; and a desire to please him and become acceptable in his sight, naturally leads the soul of faith to repentance. "Sin No More."--Repentance is not that superficial sorrow felt by the wrongdoer when "caught in the act"--a sorrow not for sin, but for sin's detection. Chagrin is not repentance. Mortification and shame alone bring no change of heart toward right feeling and right living. Even remorse is not all there is to repentance. In highest meaning and fullest measure, repentance is equivalent to reformation; the beginning of the reformatory process being a resolve to "sin no more." "By this ye may know that a man repenteth of his sins: Behold he will confess them and forsake them." [4] What is Sin?--Sin is the transgression of divine law, as made known through the conscience or by revelation. A man sins when he violates his conscience, going contrary to light and knowledge--not the light and knowledge that has come to his neighbor, but that which has come to himself. He sins when he does the opposite of what he knows to be right. Up to that point he only blunders. One may suffer painful consequences for only blundering, but he cannot commit sin unless he knows better than to do the thing in which the sin consists. One must have a conscience before he can violate it. "Where there is no law given, there is no punishment . . . . no condemnation." [5] "He that knoweth not good from; evil is blameless." [6] Degrees of Damnation.--Souls who know that they have sinned, and who refuse to forsake their sins, will be damned. They damn themselves by that refusal. Damnation is no part of the Gospel. It is simply the sad alternative, the inevitable consequence of rejecting the offer of salvation. Damnation (condemnation) is not necessarily permanent, and it may exist in degrees, the degree being determined by the measure of culpability in the one condemned. Even the damned can be saved if they repent. The Sin Unpardonable.--It is possible, however, to sin so far and so deeply that repentance is impossible. Shakespeare puts into the mouth of one of his characters--the guilty King Claudius--this speech: "Try what repentance can: what can it not? Yet what can it when one cannot repent?" [7]