ethren to dwell together in unity."(459)

Suppose that the venerable Protestant Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina,
in passing through England, were invited by the Rev. Mr. Grueber to preach
in his church in the morning, and that the Rt. Rev. Prelate chose for his
subject a sermon on confession; and suppose that the Rev. Mr. Grueber
selected in the evening, as the subject of his discourse, the doctrine
advanced by him in his catechism.

Let us imagine some benighted dissenter attending Mr. Grueber's church at
the morning and evening service, with the view to being enlightened in the
teachings of the Protestant church. Would not our dissenter be sorely
perplexed, on returning home at night, as to what the Protestant Episcopal
church really _did teach_?

Some Episcopalians are pleased to admit that confession may be resorted to
with spiritual profit in certain abnormal cases--for instance, in time of
sickness. So that, in their judgment, a religious observance which is
salutary to a sick man is pernicious to him in good health. For the life
of me, I cannot see how the circumstances of bodily health can affect the
moral character of a religious act.

That a minister of the Baptist or the Methodist church should deny the
power of priestly absolution I readily understand, since these churches
disclaim, in their confessions of faith, any such prerogative for their
clergy. But I cannot well conceive why a Protestant Episcopalian should
repudiate the pardoning power, which is plainly asserted in his standard
prayer-book.

Whenever an Episcopalian Bishop imposes hands on candidates for the
ministry he employs the following words, which are found in the Book of
Common Prayer: "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest
in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our
hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins
thou dost retain, they are retained."(460) If these words do not mean that
the minister receives by the imposition of the Bishop's hands the power of
forgiving sin, they mean nothing at all. When the Bishop pronounces this
sentence, either he intends to convey this power of absolution, or he does
not. If he intended to confer this power, he could not employ more clear
and precise language to express his idea; if he did not intend to confer
this power, then his language is calculated to mislead.

Just imagine that prelate addressing a candidate for Holy Or