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Page 42
"If you do this, Florry, you cause the whole fabric to totter, for on
this doctrine, as a foundation, rests the arch, of which confession is
the keystone."
"'Confess ye your sins, one to another,' is very strong in our favor,
Mary?"
"Florry, we are searching for truth, and let us in all humility and
candor investigate this particularly important point. It seems to me
that St. James's meaning is this--when we have offended or harmed our
fellow-men or brethren, we should make all the amends in our power;
confess our faults unto them; implore their pardon, and abstain from
offensive conduct in future. Do you not think that if he had intended
us to interpret it differently, he would have said--'Confess your
faults unto your priest, and he will give you absolution.' Setting
aside all bias, do you not think this reasonable; the more so, when
we call to mind those words of our Saviour in his sermon on the mount:
'Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest
that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before
the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and
then come and offer thy gift.' If our Lord had intended the ordinance
of confession, would he not have said on this occasion, 'First confess
thy sins unto thy priest, and when he has absolved thee, then come
with clean hands and offer thy gift.' Mark the difference, and ask
your own heart if there is any encouragement here for confessing to
your Padre?"
"If this passage of James were all we could adduce in favor of
confession, I should think with you, Mary; yet it is not so. When
about to dismiss his Apostles on their errands of mercy, Christ said
to them--'Peace be with you; as my Father hath sent me, even so I send
you;' and when he had breathed upon them, he said unto them--'Receive
ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto
them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.' Now, Mary,
do you not plainly perceive that the power of forgiving sin was
conferred upon the Apostles?"
"Most assuredly I do; and avow my belief that they were enabled
to forgive sin, and at the same time other miraculous powers were
conferred on the 'Twelve.' 'Then he called his twelve disciples
together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to
cure diseases.' We know that they cast out devils, restored the blind,
and raised the dead. Power to forgive sin was one among many wonderful
gifts conferred upon them. Yet you do not believe that the power of
raising the dead was transmitted to posterity. How, then, can you say
the gift of absolution was?"
"But, Mary, Christ says in another place--'Thou art Peter: and upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.'"
"I perfectly agree with you, Florry, in believing that St. Peter had
miraculous powers bestowed on him by our Saviour; but it seems absurd
to suppose that these powers were perpetuated in the ministers of the
Roman Catholic Church. Our Saviour said, what 'Peter loosed, should
be loosed in heaven,' and not what Peter's successors loosed should be
observed and loosed in heaven. We should not judge of Christ's views
by isolated passages, but rather from all his teachings; for if we
did, what would you say to the verse just below those already quoted,
'And he said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an
offense unto me: for thou savorest not the things which be of God, but
those that be of men.' But this is wandering from the subject. In
St. Augustine's Confessions, though I admit somewhat abridged, I find
nothing relating to confessing to priests. This passage alone appears:
'O Lord, thou knowest!--have I not confessed my sins to thee? and
hast thou not pardoned the iniquity of my heart?' Speaking of a
sudden illness during his boyhood, he says he eagerly desired baptism,
fearing to die, and his mother was about to comply with his request,
when he quickly recovered. Now, had he considered confession
necessary, would he not have urged it upon all who read his
Confessions, which you will mark, Florry, were not made to a priest,
but obviously to God himself,"
There followed a long pause, while Florence dropped her face in her
hands and sighed heavily.
"Florry, it is very late; our candle has burnt low--see, it is
flickering in the socket; we have not heeded the lapse of time." She
rose and replaced the books she had been consulting.
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