, 1876-08-13
CHURCH Confession

apologize TO their Lordships for bringing bcfor
them q subject not altogether agreeable t.
some members of their Lordships' house. Til
subject was not onfy complicated one, but
was one OF the greatest importance, the iutercs
in which was auglnenting every day, for
touched the question Of llabitual confessiou.-
practice which had been condemned as con
trary to the practice and teaching O
the Church Of England by the hiehes
authority Of the Church. As the hiehes
officers Of the Church Of England sat il
that house, he thought he had selected til,
proper place for discussing the subject. HI
brought the matter before public notice In 1873
and there was considerable deoate on it in thu
! Upper House Of Convocation. Considerable
| difficulty was expressed as to how the matte,
should be dealt with, but the purport Of the de-
bate was to condemn compulsory confession
and to show that habitual, compulsory, or sac
| ramental confession was contrary to the prac.
tices OF the Established Church. As to the
! Public Worship act, it did not give any greater
facility in dealing with the practice than existed
before the passing OF that act, and therefore,
he was sorry to say, the practice Of habitual
| sacramcnta1 confession was spreading. They
had all recently read in the public press very
| unfortunate case, and they all sympathzetl with
| the noble Earl. H. had recently been talking
toa lady, who said no doubt they all sympa,
thtzed with the noble Earl, but that
| classes in ife which had not to regret
some similar case. There was not Dlo-
cese in which this practice Of confession did not
prevail III one or more churches, In q recent
sermon the Bishop Of Manchester said that
although no one had a greater dread of the in
PRODUCTION Of confession than himself, yet he
had be IN unable to forbid it, as one Of his most
earnest and most gifted clcrgynen represented
that he could use it to Keep Young men pure.
Of the confessional kept the youth of France
and Italy pure, and he contendcd that the right
reverend prelate, in publicly accepting habitual
confession had acted rltru vres, and done =
gricvous wrong to the National Church. As
ranked with that Of Holywell street, he would
merely remark that there was one point on
which it constantly insistcd-namcly, that If
person felt inclined to confess, he ought not to
allow himself to he influenced in 4 contrary
direction By even his nearest and dearest friends
With regard to this evil, he might mention two
typical cases. One was furnished BY a letter
which was written by clergyman to Young
lady, and which was to the following effect:
MT DEAR CHILD: Itried to see you after even
as to whether you should communicate without
jar anything anknd but it seems to u9 me- II yoa Ia
leave Of coming to y sacrament which cur Lord
has ordained for the forgiveness Of sins done after
baptism. You are running great risk know no
other way BY which. mortal sin committed after
baptism is forgiven except by sacrameuta confess
elon and abso1ntion: II you are liMng aud diving
without again being ahsoved. II is only right that
you should see clearly the risk you are running.
The same clergyman, be understood, had since
forwarded to i young lady snaall book, enti-
tied, "Absolution, and how it is to be obtain
ed" containing questions for self-examination
on the seventh commandment. The second case
was described by a letter, which had been ad-
months ago." his correspondent wrote, II dis
covered that MY daughter had, for about
eighteen months, been naanostrnonthly eonfessnr
to clergyman. She tells ,nc that when she
first went there she told him she was not of age,
and that she had come to him unknown to either
Of her parents, and that if they kacv Of it the7
would be rerV angry"
The letter went on to state that this clergy |
mans church Was open every Friday from to |
); that he sat in his surplioe in a small room
in at time, knclt down beside him. and re-
,ciycd absolution by his putting his hanl on
Jhc head. Such WAS the result OF this mscr-
lblc system that a graduate Of the University,
gentleman, being carried away BY saccrdota1
zeal, acted contrary to Ill rules OF honor or
good feeling, and deliberately encouraged fIiaI
lisobcdience and systematic deceit. That case
vas we'll known in the neighborhood where it
occurred. The clergy felt their cloth assai1cd,
he laity asked whether their children were to
'e thus decoycd from them; but they knew
hat they were safe in the hands OF the most
crercud prc1atc; they knew that he had stated
hat sacramental confession had no place in the
church of England; they knew he had promised
o use all the power and influence Of his high
osition and his high character to sup
ress it.; and therefore they were assured !
hat hat hi his Grace would publicly visit !
d aac the graIess sensnrf ons whgso sh9
entlen'an,, He would say one word more.
lone Of them were free from attacks SO |
reacheroue, but they could change their church, /
heir schools, their residence. But in country
arishes the poor had no defense. Had they
rotcct them by seeing that the parish clergy
ian Of the National Church confornlcd to the i
racticc and teaching Of that Church? That
abltual confession was gaining daily stronger
clieycd that confession was the cornerstone
sacerdotalism, and that no greater evil ever ,
1icted society. Nationally it robbed men OF
slf-reliance; in England it would divide class :
ON class. Socially it would destroy our En-
lish homes by intcrposing stranger between
usband and wife, between father and child. |
it would rob US of pure Christianity ,
!; creating many mediators instead of one. It
contagious disease threatened man OF beast
lr1iamcnt interfercd to protect them. He !
,avor to stay the advance OF that deadly moral +
alady. !
The Bishop Of London said that in one Of the ] l
ses referred to he had called upon the clergy | q
an to defend himself against the charges which +
ID been brought against him and to explain | F
: conduct in the matter. lie had received in
ply letter from the clergyman in question,
lich contained promise Of obedience On the | I
1T Of the latter to his spiritual ruler His at i
ntion had been subsequently directed by some r
:rgymen to the fact that young persons stated =
them that they had been confessed by =
rate, and that tley had warned them against !
ing so for the future. The Right Reverend !:
e1atc then proceeded to point out that tue I
IRE fact OF = clergyman receiving confession $
,uld not affor1 grounds for prosecuting him :
r teaching false doctrine, and observed that II
ere were few things more dangerous than in
tuting prosecutions for teaching false doc | |,
ne unless they were based OH the clcarcst and | q
'ongest evidence. Al
MISCELLANY. tt
THE CHURCH IN GENERAL. ::
The next meeting Of the National Conference II
Unitarian and other Christian churches, will al
held at Saratoga Sept. 12 to Is. IL
There arc 19,2s7 Methodist Episcopal Sunday
'ools, containing 207,162 teachers, and 1,40G, +,
scholars, in the United States. it
INC regular Baptists number in the United y
ties 21,55l churches, 1854 ministers, and Ia. L.,
ri T1f mcYnhnra WITH o+1,or port;cf hnf1iaS ~