p. 55 | Bogus Confession by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 12, 1875

Bogus Confession.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

“A real, genuine, bona-fide confession is about the rarest utterance one ever hears. We know some excellent people who never in their lives, never, at all events, since their maturity, have gone frankly to the public, their church, or their most intimate friend, and said, ‘I was wrong, I am sorry, forgive me.’ As a matter of curiosity, we wish the reader would stop right here, and see if he can recall one solitary instance in which he has done this.”

“There is plenty of bogus confession; but of real, honest confession, very little. There is the confession commendatory. ‘I tell you,’ says Mr. A, ‘I have got an awful temper. It flames up mighty quick, don’t last long, but it’s hot while it burns. There’s considerable lion in me, and it’s got to come out.’ He thinks he has made a confession. Not at all. He has been patting himself on his back, and pluming himself on his sin. The peacock is not prouder of his tail than this man of his pet passion.”

“There is the confession general. The man catches up the general confession of public prayer, and repeats it over and over in prayer-meeting, in family prayers, at his own bedside: ‘I have done the things I ought not to have done, and I have left undone the things I ought to have done, and there is no health in me.’ Now, the confession of a congregation must be in general terms; but the confession of an individual to his own conscience and his God ought to be particular. If Harry were to come to me Monday night with, ‘I have done the things I ought not to have done, and there is no health in me, good night, father,’ and again on Tuesday night with, ‘I have done the things, etc., good-night, father,’ by Wednesday night I should stop him and say, ‘Hold, here, a minute; tell me what are some of the things you have done you ought not to have done, some of the things you have left undone you ought to have done.’ I should ask him in the language of the lawyers, to give me a bill of particulars. Confession in mere general terms of general sinfulness is no confession at all.”

“There is the confession theological. This is the declaration of an article of belief. It is in effect an orthodox syllogism, thus: ‘All men are sinners; I am a man; therefore I am a sinner.’ Sometimes it is put in a less orthodox way, thus: ‘Oh, yes! I suppose I am a sinner. All men are sinners. And I do not pretend to be any better than my neighbors.’”

“There are three occasions when a man has nothing to do with his neighbors; viz., when he is born; when he dies; and when he stands before God’s judgment-seat. And there is a fourth occasion when he had better forget his neighbors, namely, when he stands before his own conscience to be judged. Correct views concerning the general sinfulness of the race are important; but they are unimportant compared with correct views concerning our individual selves. We have known men as proud as Lucifer, who were unimpeachably orthodox concerning Adam’s fall and general depravity; and we have known men who have held views a great deal more charitable than philosophical respecting human nature in general, who keenly felt their own sins and shortcomings, and their own need of a personal Saviour.”

“It is very easy to brag of our sins, or to roll off by rote formal confessions of sins, or to incorporate in our creed a general recognition of the general sinfulness of mankind. But these are all bogus confessions. So go to God and say, ‘In that business transaction I was mean; in that one I lied; in that word to my wife I was cruel and barbarous, I might better have struck her a blow with my hand than with my tongue; in that punishment of my child I was tyrannical and unjust; I have been selfish, proud, false, mean.’ This is a matter, which pertains to self, but it is just the hardest thing any man is ever called on to do. No penance imposed by pope or priest, no pilgrimage by Mohammedan devotee but would be easier to average humanity. And it is only this sort of confession that means anything.”—Christian Weekly.

A personal, frank, square confession, how exceedingly hard to make, as we all know who have had occasion to try it. How seldom are such confessions heard; and yet all others are bogus, only adding hypocrisy to sin. The above words are sound, and should be heeded by us all. D. M. CANRIGHT.