"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