One of the articles of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith reads thus:  Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is “bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal."[2] The Creed which we accept summons us to repent of original as well as actual sin; and it defines original sin to be “the want of original righteousness, together with the corruption of the whole nature.”  The want of original righteousness, then, is a ground of condemnation, and therefore a reason for shame, and godly sorrow.  It is something which man once had, ought still to have, but now lacks; and therefore is ill-deserving, for the very same reason that the young ruler’s lack of supreme love to God was ill-deserving.

If we acknowledge the validity of the distinction between a sin of omission and a sin of commission, and concede that each alike is culpable,[3] we shall find no difficulty with this demand of the Creed.  Why should not you and I mourn over the total want of the image of God in our hearts, as much as over any other form and species of sin?  This image of God consists in holy reverence.  When we look into our hearts, and find no holy reverence there, ought we not to be filled with shame and sorrow?  This image of God consists in filial and supreme affection for God, such as the young ruler lacked; and when we look into our hearts, and find not a particle of supreme love to God in them, ought we not to repent of this original, this deep-seated, this innate depravity?  This image of God, again, which was lost in our apostasy, consisted in humble constant trust in God; and when we search our souls, and perceive that there is nothing of this spirit in them, but on the contrary a strong and overmastering disposition to trust in ourselves, and to distrust our Maker, ought not this discovery to waken in us the very same feeling that Isaiah gave expression to, when he said that the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint; the very same feeling that David gave expression to, when he cried:  “Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me?”

This is to repent of original sin, and there is no mystery or absurdity about it.  It is to turn the eye inward, and see what is lacking in our heart and affections; and not merely what of outward and actual transgressions we have committed.  Those whose idea of moral excellence is like that of the young ruler; those who suppose holiness to consist merely in the outward observance of the commandments of the second table; those who do not look into the depths of their nature, and contrast the total corruption that is there, with the perfect and positive righteousness that ought to be there, and that was there by creation,—­all such will find the call of the Creed to repent of original