The Holy Scriptures present at once the most earnest calls to repentance and the most gracious offers of forgiveness. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” {34a} “O house of Israel, are not my ways equal, and are not your ways unequal? saith the Lord. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore, turn yourselves, and live ye.” {34b} “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” {34c} Such are some of the invitations of the Holy Scriptures to turning and calling upon God. Let us, then, suppose the case of one who is alarmed by the Divine threatenings; who, conscious of his guilt, sees as it were the gulf of perdition yawning beneath his feet; but is deterred, by a sense of the heinousness of his sins, from seeking the pardon which he despairs of obtaining. How is he to be addressed? The love and mercy of God, as shewn towards a guilty and perishing world, in the mysterious, but most gracious, plan of redemption, through the Saviour, must be pointed out, and largely dwelt upon. Under the severer dispensation of the Law, amid the awful splendours of its promulgation, the Lord was proclaimed to be “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” {35a} Under the Gospel dispensation, it is emphatically said, “GOD IS LOVE:” {35b} that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” {35c} Let not, therefore, the heinousness of past sins, and the sense of present unworthiness, deter any from coming to the Saviour: for “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” {35d} And that gracious Saviour has authoritatively declared, what is the sole condition of acceptance, through His infinite merits: “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life:” {35e} and has tenderly invited all to flee unto Him who labour under the yoke of sin, or the burden of sorrow; “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest: take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall