We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness.
Frank acknowledgment of guilt
Next to the merit of not sinning is confessing sin. A learned man has said, “The three hardest words in the English language are--‘I was mistaken.’” Frederick the Great wrote to the Senate: “I have just lost a great battle, and it was entirely my own fault.” Goldsmith said, “This confession displayed more greatness than all his victories.” Such a prompt acknowledgment of his fault recalls Bacon’s course in more trying circumstances. “I do plainly and ingenuously confess,” said the great Chancellor, “that I am guilty of corruption, and so renounce all defence. I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed. (A. T. Pierson.)
True repentance avails with God
When a man undertakes to repent towards his fellowmen, it is repenting straight up a precipice; when he repents towards law it is repenting in a crocodile’s jaws; when he repents towards public sentiment, it is throwing himself into a thicket of brambles and thorns; but when he repents towards God, he repents towards all love and delicacy. God receives the soul, as the sea the bather, to return it again, purer and whiter than He took it. (H. W. Beecher.)