p. 723 | Sins of Omission by George Dana Boardman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 4, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 46.

Sins of Omission.

By George Dana Boardman

In using this term I do not mean to imply that what are called sins of omission are less positive than what are called sins of commission. In fact, sins of omission are the most positive of sins. For man owes to his Maker the unintermittent and perfect obedience of his life-time; so that one single sin of omission is a debt which he can never find time or means to pay; and therefore the Lord teaches us to pray, "Forgive us our debts." In fact, the parent sin—the sin of sins, that root sin of which it is one of the offices of the Holy Spirit to convict the world—is a sin of omission: "Of sin, because they believe not on me." Alas! most persons are troubled only with those sins which are called sins of commission,—outward, manifest sins. They forget that by far the larger proportion of our sins in God's sight are sins of simple neglect. The sinner's whole life is one black night of omission, now and then rifted by sins of commission flashing athwart it. Did ever a day pass over the head of any of us in solemn review of which we could truly say, "I have done to-day everything that God requires of me?" Oh, these sins of omission! Who shall count them? Who shall weigh them? Who shall ferret them out, burrowing without number as they do through the labyrinths which wind beneath that outward life on which alone we are wont to fasten our eyes? And as we consider these unconscious sins of omission with which our lives are compact and black, of all prayers that become our lips none is more fitting than this: "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."—George Dana Boardman.