The New Life

The Confession of Sin.
God, yes, God Himself, and He alone, takes away
sin.i
He
This the Christian does not always understand.
has an inborn tendency to desire to cover sin, or to
make it less, or to root it out only when he purposes
drawing near to God. He thinks to cover sin with
his repentance and self-blame, with scorn of the
temptation that came to him, or otherwise with what
he has done or still hopes to do.'' Young Christian,
if you would enjoy the gladness of a complete forgiveness
and a divine cleansing of sin, see to it that
you use aright the confession of sin. In the true confession
of sin you have one of the most blessed privileges
of a child of God, one of the deepest roots of a
powerful spiritual life.
For this end, let your confession be a definite one.'
The continued indeterminate confession of sin does
more harm than good. It is much better to say to
God that you have nothing to confess, than to confess
you know not what. Begin with one sin. Let
it come to a complete harmony betwixt God and you
concerning this one sin. Let it be fixed with you
that this sin is through confession placed in God's
hands. You shall experience that in such confession
there are both power and blessing.
Let the confession be an upright one.* By it
* I/CV. vi. ai ; Num. v. 7 ;
2 Sam. xii. 13
19, IL 5, 19.
; Ps. xxxii. 5, xxxviii.
2 Gen. iii. 12; Kx xxxii. 22, 24 ; Isa. i. 11, 15 ; I^uke xiii. 26.
*Nu«!i. x>\ II- acxi. ,-
7 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, 17 ; Isa. lix. 12, 13 ; I^uke
kxUi. 41 ; Acis xix. 18, 19, xxii. 19, 20 ; i Tim. i. 13, 15.
'Prove »xviiL ^3 Lev. xzvi. 40, 41 ;
Jer. xxxi. 18, 19.
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