The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-18
WILL TELL HOW ID
 STAY RELIGIOUS Rev. Brown to Address Young Men This Afternoon TALKED ON REPENTANCE Evangelist Last Night Pointed Out What Constitutes Repentance and How Easy 1t Is for Men to
 Accept Christ.
TALKED ON REPENTANCE

The subject for the morning service to- day at the First Methodist church is How to Stay Religions"
 This afternon at. 3:SO there will be A mass meeting for men and boys, and MT Brown will speak on the subject, Up from Sin." This service will be under the auspices of the Young Mems Christian association, and every young man of the city is cordially invited to attend.
 Last night Mir. Brown spoke on Re pentance," using Acts xvii;9O as his text.
 John the Baptist" said the preacher, seemed to have but one theme and one text, and that was that the kingdom of God was nigh unto them and that they should repent and get ready to receive that kingdom and that God commanded all men everywhere to repent.
 What is repentance? Some men would be Christians, but they do not know how. They think they must do many hard and mysterious things in order to get to Christ. He is very near every one of us.
 There are two sides of being a Chris tian-the human and the divine. Jesus did not attempt to explain the mysteries of the new birth to Nicodemus. He seemed to think that the unregenerate mind could not fathom such a mystery, but simply illustrated this change by the figure of the wind blowing in the boughs of the trees.
 Tt is one thing to experience a new birth and another thing to explain 1t. The finite mind cannot understand the divine side of repentance. but the human side is so simple that a child can understand it.
 Fear is not repentance There is some thing more than fear needed, and if this is the only motive that drives them to re- pentance they will soon be back in the same paths.
 Sorrow Is not repentance. Godly sor- row worketh repentance, but because it worketh repentance Is not any evidence that it is repentance itself. It is not the person who sheds the most tears that does the most repentance, necessarily. Tears may be the evidence of repentance, or they may not be. The may be the evi- dence of sorrow at being caught up with.
 Feeling is not repentance. It is not re- ligion. Many men and women work only when they feel like It, but men should do right from principle.
 "Good resolutions do not constitute re- pentance. The road to hell is paved with good resolutions.
 "Nor Is conviction repentance. We may be convicted that we are wrong. but this conviction is not turning away from our wrong course. A scare may help some people to become religious and does help many to move toward the king dom of God.
 Although sorrow is not repentance 1t must precede repentance, and a man must be sorry for his sins before he will repent of them and give them up.
 "A resolution must be made on princi- pie and not simply on feeling, and convic- ton for sin must lead to something fur ther. If we recognize we are in the wrong we must be convicted of this fact and get our belongings and get off of that train and get on the right train
 ."rhe boy who refused to go into his fathers vineyard and who afterward re- pented and went was a typical example of repentance. We often stumble over the simplicity of the plan of salvation.
 Jesus sent the lepers to the priest to show themselves to him, and at the first step of obedience to this command they were healed.
 s"The man washed in the pool of Siloam at the command of Christ, was made clean in this act of obedience. Obedience to Christ is in the power of every man and this act is the first step in repen- tance.
 God commands all men everywhere to repent, and If He commands us to repent He will enable us to obey that command. It may seem long way to Christ, but when we take the first step He is nearer than we thought to every one of us.
 "If we meet His condition He will meet our needs"