CONFESSION.

AD CLERUM.

"But if by this means he cannot quiet his own conscience, but requireth further help or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of God's Word and open his grief."— Exhortation to the Holy Communion.

So soon as the Parson has given official notice from the Altar, that the Bishop will be ready to confirm all such as shall be presented to him, the first thing he has to do is to assemble his staff, that is to say, his curates, schoolmasters and mistresses, pupil teachers, Sunday-school teachers, and visitors, and to see that they understand fully their respective duties; he will take that opportunity of explaining to them his system, the text books he wishes them to use, the class books, tracts, or papers which he wishes them to distribute.

A week or more may be profitably spent in going over with them these books, tracts, papers, &c., and seeing that they themselves understand what they undertake to teach, a thing which he can by no means afford to take for granted.

He will then ascertain, and note down the amount of time each is able or willing to devote to this work; the numbers each is willing to take in hand, and the description of catechumens for which each is best suited.

He need have no scruple in employing the pupil teachers in this business, because it is essentially school work, and the best description of practice they can be put to. In no other way will they so readily acquire the art of teaching, in no other way will they so permanently fix on their minds

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THE PARSON'S STAFF.

those fundamental truths of their religion, which are the ground-work of all education. Still, however, he will be careful to employ them where they will be most useful, among the younger catechumens, their companions, or late companions in the school.

Visitors also, and Sunday-school teachers he will find extremely useful in their own particular way; there will always be some among the catechumens, who will have to relearn even the Creed and the Commandments, and many a Visitor, whose good will and patience are greater than his learning or acquirements, will here do good service; lady visitors will generally have three or four families of their own particular dependents and followers, the children of which, particularly the girls, they will teach and advise under the Parson's instructions, very much better than he could do it himself.

His schoolmasters and his male lay assistants, should he be fortunate enough to possess any, will occupy themselves with the young men who can get released from their work at irregular times only. In some parishes he may get a certain amount of assistance also from the clerk or sexton, and, in truth, there is generally work enough for all.

The business of the Curate or Curates will be to circulate about the parish, to ascertain or confirm the characters of the catechumens, to encourage those who are frightened, to reprove those who are slack, to carry messages to the sponsors and parents, to distribute the examination papers, and occasionally to give a hint in filling them up. rally they are to supply any deficiencies among the teachers, to show them how to do their work, and to assist them in it.

Gene

It may be supposed that the Parson has had himself some previous notice of the intended Confirmation, and by this time he will have called upon all the mistresses of families in his parish, and will have ascertained and noticed in his book how often, and at what hours, they are willing to spare their servants for examination, what chance these servants will have of home instruction and assistance, and what example is likely to be set them by the families in

THE PARSON'S OWN DUTY.

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which they are employed. But after he has once given notice in the Church, his business lies at home, not only because he will have reports to receive, books and tracts to distribute, and directions to give to his various assistants, whose whole day's work may very possibly be stopped if the Parson is doing his Curate's work and perambulating the parish, but principally, because it is his duty to be always ready to receive the catechumens as they are sent to him, to examine each, for the first time, singly, and to classify them according to their respective attainments and dispositions. It will not answer, in a large, or even moderately sized parish, to appoint a particular hour for this; his catechumens will mostly be in business of one sort or other, and will not be able to choose their own time for attending. From the very nature of the case, it is necessary that he should see them singly, either alone or attended by their respective sponsors, as they themselves think best; and, if he appoints a particular hour for them, there will always be an assemblage of young people waiting for their turns of audience, without any one to superintend them, a thing most particularly to be avoided.

After the business of classification is over, which will itself take much longer than might be expected, from the shyness of the stranger catechumens, and their unwillingness to come forward, the Parson will not be released from his home work; the office of teaching he may very profitably delegate to others, but the examination of conscience he can delegate to none. He must remember that Confirmation follows the law of every sacramental ordinance; that a grace is thereby given and received, which can in no case be inoperative, that, if it be not a savour of life, it is, and must be, a savour of death, and that since habitual sin, unrepented sin, and even levity and heedlessness, will turn God's blessing into a curse, it is his duty to see that none be presented to the Bishop who are unfit, not in an intellectual point of view,-that is comparatively of little importance, for no damnation is attached to that,—but in a moral and religious point of view.

It may be objected that this involves of necessity Auricular Confession. Most indisputably it does; most indis

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SINFULNESS THE AGGREGATE OF SINS.

putably it is out of the question that any Parson can prepare his catechumens at all without it. Confirmation, we must recollect, since it is the imparting to the catechumen sufficient strength from GOD to enable him to receive to his soul's health the grace of CHRIST'S Body and Blood, is in reality the preparation for the Holy Communion, and the Holy Communion is itself the preparation for death and judgment.

If in the preparation of our people for death and judgment we were simply to call upon our penitents to confess themselves sinners in general terms, and to urge them to throw themselves on their SAVIOUR for mercy and forgiveness, we should be doing our duty, theoretically, perhaps, but practically we should be doing very little of it indeed. There is not a man who will not readily call himself, and allow you to call him, a sinner, with any number of cumulative epithets you may select from the Bible; he calls himself a sinner, just as he would call himself dark, or fair, or tall, or short: a fact, no doubt, but a fact with which he has personally little to do. The point that he cannot realise is, that a sinner is a man who has committed one or more sins; hint that he has committed any one sin to entitle him to that name which he has admitted so readily, and he denies it and is offended.

If sinfulness be the aggregate of particular sins, then it is evident, that to convince a man of his sinfulness, you must convince him of his having committed special sins.

It is upon this fact that the directions in the Prayer Book are founded. And, as preparation for Confirmation is in fact preparation for the First Communion, these directions must be more minutely attended to at this time, than at any other, because this preparation is a sample of the Christian's preparation for every subsequent Communion. The catechumen, in fact, is learning a lesson under the eye of the Parson, which must be learnt, like every thing else, by doing it, but which, when learnt, he will be able to put in practice by himself on future occasions.

Auricular Confession should very rarely be suffered to become periodical or habitual, because this destroys the sense of personal responsibility, and weakens by disuse the

healthy action of the conscience; it will, no doubt, be practised by the Christian, more or less, through his whole life on special occasions, because there is no time of life in which unusual spiritual difficulties may not beset us, and unforeseen temptations lay hold upon us, although it will be less and less needed every year that the mind grows stronger, the habits more confirmed, and the conscience more practised.

But this is not the case with the catechumens. They are now learning this most necessary discipline, just as they are learning their Catechism, or their Faith and Duty, and the Parson is now teaching them how in after life to reckon up their sins, and to confess them to God. He is giving them a rule to measure their sins by, which he instructs them to use for themselves, and is ready at any time to assist them in applying, and therefore it is, that though the discipline of confession is salutary at all times, and on a death-bed comforting to the soul, at Confirmation it is not only salutary and comforting, but indispensable.

The Parson therefore will take the Prayer Book for his rule, and after stating in general terms the proposition on which he is to build all the rest, namely, that men are sinners, and that it is from their LORD's mercy alone that they can expect forgiveness, he will direct his catechumens to anticipate Divine Judgment by judging themselves. They are to "judge themselves, that they be not judged of the LORD." He then shows them how to do it; that is to say, by "the rule of GOD's Commandments," according to which they will probably be judged on the Last Day.

He will do this by actually laying the Ten Commandments before them one after another, as I have attempted to do, and pointing out the different ways in which these Commandments can be broken-requiring his catechumen to examine his past life upon each of these points separately-leaving him even then to do it himself, if he finds himself capable of doing it; not pressing help upon him, only offering to assist him if he should find any difficulty. He will find difficulty if he gives his mind to it at all,