Editorial January 30, 1926 Issue

Repentance

Ella W. Hoag

"Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" thus declared John the Baptist centuries ago, and repentance has been preached almost unremittingly ever since. Wherever sin has been in evidence, repentance has been proclaimed a necessity. From Genesis to Revelation men are called upon again and again to repent, and the Scriptures teach very clearly that no one can ever hope to enter the kingdom of heaven except by this road. Job found he could not be delivered from his dire distresses until he reached the mental attitude where he could exclaim: "I have heard of thee [God] by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Multitudes of men would gladly repent, if only they understood just what they were to repent of and how such repentance was to be brought about. In a general way they have been told that it is their sins, their wrongdoings, they must be sorry for. They have also been told that such sorrow amounts to nothing unless they stop sinning. But still the questions have arisen: Just what are my sins? How can I be sorry? How can I reform?

At this point Christian Science appears with its wonderful illuminating light. When it proclaims the fact of God and His perfect spiritual creation as the all and only, it simultaneously reveals the falsity of the beliefs in a material existence and shows men that they need to recognize the enormity and repent of all such beliefs if they are ever to find the kingdom of heaven "at hand," as John declared it to be.

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