18. O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19. Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar. 1. I have sinned, O Lord my God: and what shall I say unto Thee? For when I reflect upon this life of mine, what it has been each day, and what it is, confusion covers me. Alaş! in what a dense array do my wickednesses rise up against me! How impure is my heart, how full of the world, how beset with lusts, how slow to believe, how unloving towards Thee! And Thou continuest holy, O Thou worship of Israel ! * Thou art still gracious, and willest not the death of any one of the millions of sinners which are before Thee! 66 It is of the Lord's mercies that I have not been consumed; for His compassions fail not they are new every morning." + 2. What stayed the hand of Thy justice when I was walking frowardly, O my God? What sheathed the sword of vengeance, when I was vile enough to hate Thee, base enough to despise my *Ps. xxii. 3. Lam. iii. 22. Saviour; when I was so foolish as to think lightly of Thy goodness, and so daring as to deny Thy truth? What time my tongue was sinning, was it not Thy power which gave it utterance? When my hand was working evil, Thy will had given it power. When my heart was full of hatred, it was Thy love which made it beat with the pulse of life. When my soul went forth in vanity after the idols of a depraved fancy and unholy wishes, Thou wert still my only life. And in the midst of this perverseness of my warped and contradictory nature, when each day and every hour I openly offended against Thy holy law, and forfeited all claim to pity or regard; yea, when my whole life was corrupt before Thee, because whether sleeping or waking I never cared for Thee; still didst Thou care for me; still didst Thou keep and preserve me day by day, O heavenly Father; and underneath me, that I might not fall to nothingness, were Thine everlasting arms! 3. Oh! how numberless are my sins, and yet Thy mercies are more unnumbered still! Let me then arise, and go to my Father, and say unto Him, "Father I have sinned." Let me enter somehow into Thy presence, O my God, and bring my sins before Thee, that Thou mayest see me, and heal me in Thy forgiveness for my Saviour's sake. By dislike of neighbours, Known only to Thee and me, Good Lord, I have sinned. By esteeming myself, By trusting my own strength, By forgiving my hidden faults, By pretending to be more than I am, Good Lord, I have sinned. By unkindness to others, By misinterpreting their character, Good Lord, I have sinned. By turning from the poor and needy, By the distastes of daily life, Good Lord, I have sinned. In seeking the world, not Thee, In loving the company of friends before Thy service, In striving for advancement at the expense of religion, In wishing to serve Christ and mammon, In acting Christianity for form's sake, Good Lord, I have sinned. In using Thy holy name thoughtlessly, In hearing but not wishing to understand, In following imagination against reason, In thinking to serve Thee by intemperate acts, In self-complacent comparisons of man with man, Good Lord, I have sinned. |