idea of how the business of his soul stands.

When it reveals the fact that sin is making headway and the spirit
losing ground, then the wise teaching of the Prayer Book should be
followed; "the grief"--for such it ought to be--opened in Confession to
God, before one of God's ministers, and the benefit of absolution
secured.

Much of the terrible prejudice felt against this practice arises from
the mistaken idea that the priest professes to forgive us our sins. The
words of the Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick, in our own Prayer
Book, put the matter on its true footing:--"Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who
hath left power to His Church to absolve, ... _forgive_ thee ... and
by His authority ... I _absolve_ thee." The source of all pardon and
the right to exercise it rest in God alone, but the message declaring
the fact is part of the "ministry of reconciliation," committed, in the
infinite condescension of God, to the "earthen vessels." An illustration
may be taken from the pardon of a criminal condemned to death; the Home
Secretary recommends it, but the King, on his sole authority, grants it,
and then the message, the _absolvo te_, which lets the man go free,
is delivered by the governor of the gaol.

Penitents, especially after a first confession at some crisis in mature
life, often bear witness to the fact that it seemed to bring them
straight into the presence of Jesus Christ; to make them feel the
reality of His pardoning blood in a way they never could have believed
possible. How strange that the very thing which by so many pious and
thoroughly honest souls is dreaded because it is supposed to bring a man
in between God and the soul, should yet so often be used by the Holy
Spirit to give a wondrous and precious vision of Christ the Saviour.