And there is a gracious purpose, a merciful regard for the sinner’s best interests, in this imposed law of general and particular confession. The offering of frequent confession will keep a man mindful of his state before God. It will lead him to consider what he has to confess; and so, through self-searching, he will come to self-knowledge: and the act of describing each sin to GOD will operate in representing that sin faithfully to the sinner; so that the very ordinance, which is properly the acknowledgment before GOD of sins realised, regretted, and forsaken, will often serve to show the sinner, for the first time, the sin which he has to repent of and forsake.
And one other benefit will surely arise from this exercise, namely, that the sinner will be deterred from a fresh commission of that confessed sin; that, having ascertained what are his evil propensities, what are the weak points in which Satan successfully assails him, he will be more on his guard against lapses, and wanderings, and defeats. He will nerve himself, and fight more _certainly_; “not as one that beateth the air.” He will seek to be better covered with the armour of GOD, and grasp more resolutely the sword of the Spirit. He will go forth conquering and to conquer.
To obtain pardon, then, for past sins, it is necessary (in accordance with GOD’S law) to confess them. To know ourselves, our difficulties, failures, trials from within and without; to shame ourselves out of sin, and to guide and encourage us to victory over it, it is expedient (and GOD has mercifully required it) that we should tell out before Him, ever and anon, all that we can rake up against ourselves; and not present even that as a total, but beg Him to add to it the secret things, in which we offend without knowing it. “Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O, cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.”
Alas! my brethren, how high is the standard! How far do many of us fall short of it! Where, among the frequenters of the temple, are the abashed, and humbled, and contrite penitents, proclaiming their sinfulness, and imploring pardon: “GOD be merciful to me a sinner”? Where, among professed Christians, are the imitators of David, communing with, searching out their spirit in the night season, rising early, to tell out with sighs and pangs each sin that they can discover; each renewal of it; each thought of it? But an hour since, we all joined, or professed to join, in words of general confession. Who felt and abashed themselves as sinners? Who really confessed any sin to GOD? Presently, some of us will take part in a more solemn form, and draw nearer still to a present GOD, seeking most intimate communion with Him. What sins are we going to confess, and pray to be relieved from? How much of self-abasement and contrition shall we take with us to the foot of the altar? No further back than yesterday each one of us sinned in thought, in word, or in deed; perhaps, in all three, How many of us brought those sins to remembrance, last night or this morning, by self-examination, and confessed them, and with contrition sought pardon of them? Which of us has done this, and is wont to do it, whenever wrong has been done, or right omitted? Remember, there is no forgiveness, there is no favour with GOD, nor hope of heaven without it. There is no knowledge of self, no perception of danger from without, no spiritual progress. He that covereth his sin shall not and _cannot_ prosper. He walketh independently, ungratefully, rebelliously—in his own way; and the end of that way is death.