III. CONFESSION OF GUILT AND HELPLESSNESS. ALMIGHTY GOD, thou hast at length subdued my pride. Weakness and pain have helped reflection. Here, in this sick chamber, where I am called to suffer, and perhaps to die, dependent on the care of others, and scarcely able to do more for myself than a little child, I cannot be any longer proud. But it is not my weakness, so much as my sinfulness, which humbles me. Lord, I am vile. I have wilfully broken thy laws; neglected my duty; and omitted countless opportunities of doing good. Every act has been defective, and all my affections have been earthly. I have sinned in thought, word, and deed, times without number. I have led others into sin by my conversation and example. In short, my whole life has been made up of transgressions; and my whole nature is defiled. In all this I am the more guilty, because I have been so favoured. Snatched from many dangers, I have been preserved to this day. My wants have been supplied; thou hast given me many hours of enjoyment; I have had many means of grace; I have been taught my duty; I have had innumerable mercies; and yet I have been so great a sinner! Lord, I confess that I deserve eternal death. Justly might I be excluded from thy presence for ever. Nor can I ever merit any thing better. All I can do, never can meet thy present demands, much less make atonement for the past. I am likewise as weak as I am guilty. How can I change my nature? Left to myself, I should be for ever ungodly; and therefore I richly deserve to be for ever miserable. All that I can possibly suffer here, is unspeakably less than is my due. Without Christ, I must remain under unpardoned guilt; without the Holy Spirit, I must continue unregenerate; without sovereign mercy, I perish. Lord, thou hast an absolute right to do with me what thou wilt. But I cast myself upon thy mercy. Did not Jesus come to seek and to save that which was lost? Then, I am a suitable object for his compassion. Did he not invite the heavy laden to come to him? Then he has invited me, for It was the sense of my sins oppresses me. in Thy name that St. John said, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins; and thou hast brought me to make an unreserved confession of them: wilt thou not therefore forgive? Christ also has said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, and as thou hast in some degree destroyed my pride, making me feel my vileness, so that I do not now resent affronts as I once did and I could receive reproof from a little child; wilt thou not graciously receive me, now that I cast myself on Thy mercy and grace in Christ Jesus, and admit me to all the privileges of thy children? The Sinner's Prayer. Shew pity, Lord, O Lord; forgive; Are not thy mercies large and free? My crimes, though great, do not surpass The power and glory of Thy grace. Great God! thy nature hath no bound; So let thy pard'ning love be found. Oh wash my soul from ev'ry sin, My lips with shame my sins confess |