ith the sincere milk of God's Word_," the
baptismal covenant can be kept unbroken, and the divine life developed
and increased more and more.

After careful instruction in the home and Church, if there is due
evidence that there is Grace in the heart, that penitence and faith,
which are the elements of the new life, are really present, she admits
her children to the communion of the body and blood of Christ, by the
beautiful and significant rite of confirmation.

The scriptural doctrine of Christ's holy sacrament, which our
Church holds and sets forth, and the solemn, searching preparatory
service which she connects with it, make it truly calculated to
strengthen the child of God, and unite him closer to Christ.

Our Church insists that the whole life of the believer, in the
fellowship of the Saviour and His people, is to be a "growth in Grace and
in knowledge." In this, also the believer is wonderfully assisted by our
teachings concerning the efficacy of the Word of God as a means of Grace,
a vehicle and instrument of the Holy Spirit. He is further comforted and
quickened by that precious doctrine of justification--alone by faith
in Jesus Christ. He is encouraged to press forward to the mark, to
purify himself more and more, to become more and more active, earnest
and consecrated by what the Church teaches of sanctification.

Nor does the Church overlook or forget the sad fact that
many--often through the fault of those who ought to be their spiritual
guides in the home and Church--lapse from their baptismal covenant, or
forget their confirmation vows, and thus fall back into an unconverted
state. She insists on the absolute necessity of conversion or turning
back, for all such. She does not, however, expend all her energies in
proclaiming its necessity, but also sets forth and makes plain the
nature of conversion, and the means and methods of bringing it about.

While the Church would, first of all, use every endeavor to
preclude the necessity of conversion, by bringing the children to
Jesus that He may receive and bless them through His own sacrament;
and while she would use all diligence and watchfulness to keep them
true to Christ in their baptismal covenant, yet, when they do fall
away, she solemnly assures them that except they repent and be
converted, they will eternally perish.

And if this lamentable backsliding should take place more or less
with a large portion of a congre