they may be, but merely to confess them to Him who will forgive upon confession. There is certainly here the power of drawing fine distinctions. It seems that we are bound to confess with a view to forgiveness, and are bound not to ask for forgiveness. In face of this, Marsden’s plea is irrelevant. Still, the Brethren admitted the propriety of both public and private confession of sin; though at the same time it was not prominent in their ordinary meetings.
He would perhaps be rather a churlish Evangelical that would quarrel with the Brethren merely for confessing with a view to forgiveness instead of praying for forgiveness; but their actual tendency to neglect both is a more serious matter. Their hymn-books witness against them on this head. For instance, in Hymns for the Little Flock, which (edited by Wigram in 1856, and re-edited by Darby in 1881)[1] has been universally used by Exclusive Brethren since its first appearance, I cannot recall any confession of sin whatever. Even hymns of their own writers had to be remodelled to avoid it. Deck, for example, closed a striking hymn beginning, “O Lord, when we the path retrace which Thou on earth hast trod,” with the following stanzas:—
“O Lord, with sorrow and with shame
We meekly would confess
How little we who bear Thy Name Thy mind,
Thy ways express.
“Give us Thy meek, Thy lowly mind,
We would obedient be;
And all our rest and pleasure find
In fellowship with Thee.”
- ↑ The edition of 1856 is sometimes erroneously assigned to Darby. Wigram’s editorship was perfectly well known.
