- Faber’s "Good Confession"

SEVERAL YEARS AGO I DISCOVERED a Christian testimony, which for sheer beauty is hardly matched by anything in religious literature. This lyric confession was given by Frederic W. Faber, author of “Faith of Our Fathers,” “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” “Jesus! Jesus! Dearest Lord,” and many other loved hymns. It appears to be just about the most perfect combination of restrained dignity and joyous abandonment that can be found in evangelical literature. It would be equally at home in the quiet study of the mystic or in the rough tabernacle of the camp meeting.
In reading this confession we should guard against the feeling that Faber’s experience was unique. Because we never heard it put like this before, we may be tempted to assume that there have not been many people so radically and soundly converted as was Faber. This would be an error in judgment. Millions have been as wonderfully converted as Faber, but only one in a million has the gift of self-expression to tell out his or her experience so completely and with such exquisite perfection.
A recent writer has remarked that next to the power to create great art is the power to enjoy it. The mind that can best appreciate Bach or da Vinci or Milton is nearest in capacity to the genius himself. So the Christian who can understand and enjoy a testimony such as this may not be too far removed from the spiritual attitude of the man who wrote it. The earthly soul will not feel at home with Faber.
It is our cheerful belief that thousands of men and women who will read these words have met God in a revolutionary, transforming encounter fully equal to that of Faber’s. What they have lacked is the gift of self-analysis and the literary craftsmanship that would enable them to write of it in such ecstatic language.
Here it is. Faber called it “A Good Confession.”
The chains that have bound me are flung to the wind,
By the mercy of God the poor slave is set free;
And the strong grace of heaven breathes fresh o’er the mind,
Like the bright winds of summer that gladden the sea.
There was nought in God’s world half so dark or so vile
As the sin and bondage that fettered my soul;
There was nought half so base as the malice and guile
Of my own sordid passions, or Satan’s control.
For years I have borne about hell in my breast;
When I thought of my God it was nothing but gloom;
Day brought me no pleasure, night gave me no rest,
There was still the grim shadow of horrible doom.
It seemed as if nothing less likely could be
Than that light should break in on a dungeon so deep;
To create a new world were less hard than to free
The slave from his bondage, the soul from its sleep.
But the Word had gone forth, and said, Let there be light,
And it flashed through my soul like a sharp passing smart;
One look to my Savior, and all the dark night,
Like a dream scarce remembered, was gone from my heart.
I cried out for mercy, and fell on my knees,
And confessed, while my heart with keen sorrow was wrung;
‘Twas the labor of minutes, and years of disease
Fell as fast from my soul as the words from my tongue.
And now, blest be God and the sweet Lord who died!
No deer on the mountain, no bird in the sky,
No bright wave that leaps on the dark bounding tide,
Is a creature so free or so happy as I.
All hail, then, all hail, to the dear Precious Blood,
That hath worked these sweet wonders of mercy in me;
May each day countless numbers throng down to its flood,
And God have His glory, and sinners go free.