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Penitence.
True

The kindness of Heaven is promised to the penitent.  Heaven we are assured, is much more pleased to view a repentant sinner, than many persons who have supported a course of undev[x]iating rectitude.  And this is right, for the single effort by which we stop short in the down hill to perdition, is itself a greater exertion of virtue, than an hundred acts of justice.

Penitence asks more than a sigh or a tear.  It must sorrow indeed, and with a sorrow measured by the purity of that God, whom we have offended, but this is only its first step, in the celestial course. -- The second prayer the animated prayer for the arrow which would reach the clouds, must part from the bent bow, and the strained arm.  A stubborn but humble effort at amendment follows these and attests their sincerity.  These borne on the incense of a Saviour's sufferings shall find their way to Heaven.

Solid love whose root is virtue can no more die than virtue itself.