---

I. THE MEANS WHICH WON HIM TO IT. It was the preacher's voice. How wretched, how fearful, how nigh unto reprobation was his state ere Nathan came to him. And now he breaks down like the snow wreath when the sun looks full upon it.

II. THE SIGNS WHICH MARK HIS SINCERITY. They are —

1. That the one thought which fills his soul is, "I have sinned against the Lord." True, he had sinned against man as well as God, yet, because the aspect of his sin as committed against God was so much more terrible and awful to him that it filled up the whole field of his view, and he could see nothing else.

2. And he sees his sin in all its hugeness and vileness. There is no diminishing or excusing it, no paring it down.

3. He takes willingly the disgrace of his sin; and —

4. Its punishment. But whilst he asks not deliverance frets these, there is a cry —

5. The cry for cleansing. "Create in me a clean heart," etc.

6. He turns straight to God, clinging to Him, even in this hour of shame.

7. His one terror is test he be cast away from God's presence.

8. There is the devotion of all his after life to God's service.

III. CONCLUSION.

1. Have you ever trembled under the word of God?

2. Are these marks of true repentance visible in you? Go over them one by one.

3. Seek the. blessing of true repentance by prayer to God for it; it is His gift. It is the work at that "tree Spirit" which is Christ's special gift. Until that heavenly dew falls upon thy soul, it will be, must be, dry and cold, and bare. Thou cannot work thyself into penitence. But when that gracious shower is poured upon the heart, all is done. Then the voice of the turtle is heard. Then the heart mourns apart, It is like the breaking up of some mighty northern frost, which has bound the so, ailing sea fast beneath its iron band, when the western gale has breathed upon it, and the hard, thick-ribbed ice-crest has broken up as a cobweb under the grasp of a giant. And then all is changed; on the ocean's breast the mighty currents wake again into life, bearing on and on to the frozen north the life-giving streams of southern waters; and as the warm gales breathe on the snowy plains of the neighbouring shore, the long-banished verdure flashes again into colour and beauty, and the sweet spring comes on apace, the birds begin their songs, the fountains awake; and every blade and leaf, with all the tribes of life around them, rejoice before God in the blessed sunlight. And yet, what is all this to the breaking up of the ice-crest which has bound down a living soul for which Christ died? And

2. Remember thy sins.

3. Revenge thy fault (2 Corinthians 7:11).

4. As thou gazest upon thy sin, gaze more earnestly upon the face of thy Lord who, by His cross, delivers thee from thy sin.

(Bishop S. Wilberforoe.)

---

---

KJV: Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

WEB: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.