and a hearer or reader finds something that pricks the conscience or throws a flash of light on some hidden and perhaps unsuspected sin; and the preacher or author is consulted personally or by letter. What is he to do? Is he to turn a deaf ear to the cry of a soul in distress? Suppose he does, and then hears that the person whom he repulsed has committed suicide or gone to the bad; will not the remorseful thought that he might have saved that soul, and refused, haunt him to his dying day? The clergy are, indeed, in an intolerable position if they are bidden by the Church, on the one hand, to invite all who cannot quiet their own consciences' to resort to them for help, and are then denounced as 'perjured priests' and reprobates for fulfilling the duty imposed upon them by the Church.

And how slow people are to realise the folly of trying to fight against nature!

Naturam expellas furcâ; tamen usque recurret,
Et mala perrumpet furtim fastidia victrix.

It is not 'murder' only that will out.' Just as the human body struggles to expel an invading poison, and it is the healthiest body that struggles hardest, so the human soul strives, and the purest strives most, to cast out sin of every kind. It is no use answering that this can be done by confessing to God alone. We must take human nature as we find it, and the simple fact is that there are human beings who crave for human sympathy, and realise the Divine forgiveness more easily if it reaches them

through the sound of a human voice. Consolation in sorrow comes really from God just as truly as the forgiveness of sins. Is there, then, no virtue in the touch of a sympathising hand, in the sob of a sympathising voice, in the glance of a sympathising eye? What is the meaning of the Incarnation if 'the high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity' was as accessible when 'dwelling in the unapproachable light' as He was when He appeared in human form among men, feeding the hungry, cleansing the lepers, comforting mourners, weeping over graves, raising the dead, casting out devils, pardoning sinners, taking up squalid children in His arms and blessing them? It is not a question of God forgiving any one who confesses to Him from a contrite heart without human intervention, but of man's realising the Divine forgiveness more when it reaches him through the ministry of his fellows. And I repeat that the objection is equally valid against intercessory prayer-indeed against any intervening media. Why kneel in confession and prayer to God? Why confess and pray at all to the Omniscient One who knows our thoughts and needs before we utter them? It is we who need these aids, not God, who bestows His gifts through the ministry of men and angels and innumerable material channels for our benefit, not from His necessity.

I am persuaded that a great deal of the prejudice against voluntary confession, under proper safeguards, arises from ignorance of the facts and from want of reflection. Of course, if a clergyman is dis

honourable, he can abuse the confidence reposed in him; but he can more easily abuse confidential intercourse of another kind, such as private interviews in his study or vestry. The fact that there may be some dishonourable doctors in the medical profession does not prevent men from trusting their family doctors and allowing them to have private interviews with their wives and daughters. The business of life could not go on except on the principle of mutual confidence; and if the clergy are not to be trusted to hear the spontaneous confessions of such of their people as voluntarily resort to them, that means that all private intercourse between them and any of their parishioners ought to be made penal. Short of that, the agitation against confession is futile. But if, on the other hand, drastic measures are to be adopted, they ought to be applied all round-to Nonconformist ministers and Roman Catholic priests as rigorously as to the clergy of the Established Church. For the plain truth is that confession, under whatever name, prevails among all Christian denominations. Mr. Moody was in the habit of inviting private confessions at all his meetings; and if intercourse of a private kind is to be allowed between a pastor and the individual members of his flock, does it not stand to reason that the more such intercourse is surrounded with the solemnities of religion, and the more open it is, the better? It is safer in a surplice and stole on the part of the pastor than in a frock coat; and safer in a confessional box in open church-where the pastor

need not know who is confessing to him-than in the secrecy of a locked vestry or study. It is odd how so practical a people as the English lose their usual common sense when their prejudices are violently excited. The sight of a confessional box in church, which reduces all risk of scandal or mischief to a minimum, is enough to drive people crazy who see no harm in a secluded tête-à-tête interview between pastor and penitent. The fact is, they don't stop to think or reason; they merely give vent to their alarmed feelings; like a charming old lady whom I once knew. Dick,' said she one day to a favourite grandson, I wish you would put away that pistol. It is most dangerous.' 'But, dear Granny,' pleaded the boy, it is not loaded.' 'Never mind, my dear,' said she, 'loaded or not, it may go off.'

But it is time to consider what the Church of England says upon this subject. For neither in this nor in other matters do I desire to go beyond her teaching.

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CHAPTER VIII

THE REFORMATION AND CONFESSION

ONE of the commonplaces of the current controversy on the so-called Church Crisis' is the assertion that the Reformers condemned and repudiated the doctrine and practice of auricular confession, and that such confession has remained ever since under the ban of the Church of England. Let us examine that assertion in the light of history; and let us begin with the Book of Common Prayer.

In the year 1548 there was an Order for Communion' set forth containing an exhortation, in which auricular confession was recommended in the following language:

'And if there be any of you whose conscience is troubled or grieved in anything, lacking comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned priest, taught in the law of God, and confess and open his sin and grief secretly, that he may receive such ghostly counsel, advice, and comfort that his conscience may be relieved, and that of us (as of the Ministers of God and of the Church) he may receive comfort and absolution, to the satisfaction of his mind, and avoiding of all scruple