conditions be improved when faults are recognized and made
known. . . . We may continue to baptize chiildren [sic] of
_Gewohnheitschristen_ (formal Christians), but it is a question whether
we ought to continue to baptize the children of those who have given up
the faith and among whom there is no guarantee of a Christian training.
This means also a reformation in our confirmation practice. Does
confirmation mean a family party, or mark the time to leave school, or
has it something to do with baptism? These are rocks of offense which
must be cleared out of the way if the Church is to be restored to
health."

Among the questions proposed to the pastors were the following:

1. Do you have a personal interview with each candidate prior to
confirmation with the view of ascertaining his fitness for the act?

2. Do you at that interview inquire as to the candidate's repentance,
faith, conversion, new life?

3. Is the confirmation of the candidate dependent upon the satisfactory
result of this examination?

Among the answers were the following: "Not, individually." "No, except
before the congregation." "Not formally so." "For at least six months."
"Only with certain ones," etc., etc.

A goodly number of pastors speak to the candidates _"unter vier Augen,"_
but they are the exceptions. The ordinary practice knows nothing of such
a course. The public examination is little more than an exhibition.

In other words, we have strayed over to the Roman side of the road. The
difference between us and the Roman priest being this: he will see them
again at the confessional, but those whom we confirm in this superficial
way, many of them, we shall never see again. Or, if perchance we should
see some of them, it will be at long range, the same as when we first
admitted them to confirmation. Imagine a doctor curing his patients in
this way, getting them together in a room and prescribing for their
diseases from what he sees of them in a crowd. The care of souls cannot
be performed in bulk, it is the care of _a_ soul.

Besides what a privilege the pastor loses, the opportunity of a
lifeline, not only to explain to an inquiring heart the mysteries of our
faith in the light of his personal need, but also to put himself in such
a relation to the individual that he may become a beloved _Beichvater_.
But alas, we have to a great extent lost the confessional. Instead of it
we have a hybrid combination of Lutheran doctrine and Reformed pra