Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-03-02
CONFESSIONS OE SIN.

puI WDOsO COn[essetn ana tOrsaketh them shall
have mercy.-PROvERBs xXvII:13.
There is an old saying that San open con-
fession is good for the SOUL" We do not
know where it originated, or how it origi-
mated, but it has been adopted pretty gener-
ally as truism, without inquiry or dispute.
The scriptures make frequent references to
the duty of confession Of sin, but they are
always accompanied with a promise of ben
eft from such an act when those sins are
abandoned as result of such confession.
This may account in measure for the pre-
vailing custom, followed so largely in the So
called experience and prayer meetings, of
publicly boasting of the sins one has COM
mitted in the past, only to 60 away and re-
peat the same sins when the first opportunity
presents itself. b .@s
We are decidedly of the opinion that an
honest confession of error is the first step to
repentance of that error, but well-doing
should not end there We do not approve
of confessions that are made only as matter
of form or in order to be in the fashion. It
has become altogether too fashionable to sin
and to acknowledge that sin to the world in
general at the prayer or conference meeting.
It is no uncommon thing to hear some good
deacon or elder, while 'leading in prayer"
confess to an enormity of evil doing that
sometimes fairly staggers his hearers. Fol
lowing the example thus set the brethren and
sisters declare that they have sinned against
God and man in various ways, and wish to
humble themselves in the sight of both. We
have often thought that it would be fraught
with great danger for any person to accuse
these men or women with the commission
of 1.-THE of the faults of which they
accuse themselves. The penalty would,
in all probability, be broken head.
Humility is quality of heart much to be
commended in protesting Christian, but
an attempt to reach or to appear to have
reached that state too often results in self
abasement of sort not to be commended.
To be humble as the word ought to be in
terpreted, it is not necessary that a man
should lyingly accuse himself of faults that
would degrade him in the sight of his fellow
men and lower his own self esteem if true.
He commits greater sin by acknowledging
in his prayer or the recital of his experience
sins that he has not committed than if he
concealed sins of which he was really guilty.
Did any of these worthy people who cut
such conspicuous figure in the weekly
meetings of the church, ever think of
how pernicious an effect they were
exercising upon the minds of the young.
The first idea that enters young mans or
young woman's mind when listening to the
pitiful, establishment of those to whom
they have been taught to look as patterns of
all the virtues is "If these men and these
women commit SO many grievous sins, what
harm will it be if commit few % And
forthwith they proceed to be in the fashion,
and lay up a store of transgressions which
they expect some time to confess and repent
of just as they see their elders doing.
The fashion of public confessions at the
stated gatherings of the churches, whether
made in the form Of prayers or experience,
is as absurd as it is pernicious. It is not
Sucn CONFESSION or repentance as IS required
by the scriptures, for seldom does it
lead to genuine repentance for and forsak-
ing of these sins. We have heard men week
after week accuse themselves of offenses,
amounting almost to crimes, and so habitu-
ated had they become to the role that they
would seldom vary their humiliating story
from the beginning to the close of the year.
The practice ought to be abandoned, and we
see no better way of bringing this result
about than by treating men in public as pre-
cisely the kind of men they paint themselves
in their prayers and experiences. We ap-
prehend that the habit would soon be
broken if this course be pursued, and We
suggest that it be tried.