Himself told me of this place of misery, but I would have my own way, and this is the result of my I chose sin rather than holiness, rather than God, and this Hell is the eternal consequences of sin.

own way.

The world thinks lightly of sin, speaks lightly of sin, tries to forget the awfulness of sin. But if I will regard them, there stand clearly before my eyes three great revelations of the awfulness of sin - the miseries of earth, the Passion of Jesus Christ, and the existence of Hell.

Meditate on these things; ask the Holy Ghost to help you, and you will gradually come to have -I do not say an adequate conception of the fearfulness of sin, but a truer view of its bitterness, of its intrinsic malice; and when you have this deeper view of sin, when you realize that it is the one great evil of this world, ask yourselves, Are my sins forgiven?

CHAPTER III

ABSOLUTION

By considering the character and conditions of forgiveness, and the malice of sin, we have endeavoured thus far to clear the ground for the question, Are my sins forgiven? We must now carry the subject a step further, by investigating what provision, if any, our Lord has made in the Gospels and in His Church for the administration of the great gift of forgiveness.

We have stated that the most important article of the Creed, for the individual Christian, is, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins"; the most stirring petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses." But has God appointed in His Church any means by which I can obtain the forgiveness of my sins? I believe with my whole heart that "He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." I recognize, further, that I must fulfil certain conditions, in order that I may appropriate His forgiveness; in other words, that I must be forgivable. But in a matter of such tremendous

1

11 S. John i. 9.

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importance to my salvation a further question arises: Has God in Holy Scripture indicated any means by which I may obtain the assurance of His forgiveness? Does the Church, of which I am a member, point to any sacramental act by which I may secure this precious gift?

1

To both these questions I would answer with an emphatic affirmative. In the very passage we have just quoted, S. John says, "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," where Confession is stated to be a condition of forgiveness. And in his Gospel we read that Christ, on His first appearance to His apostles assembled in the upper chamber on Easter Day, breathed on them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them"; that is, Christ bestowed upon them the power to absolve or forgive sins. Our church has thought good to order that daily, in her Morning and Evening Prayer, we should be reminded of this gift; for, after a confession of general sinfulness (rather than of sins), the priest is directed to announce that "Almighty God.. hath given power, and commandment, to His Ministers, to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins."

1 S. John xx. 22, 23.

Before we examine the evidence for Confession in the Bible and in the Church, it will be well to notice that every other sacramental gift is confirmed to us by some objective sign, and through some outward act. We believe that we are regenerated in Baptism. But it is not enough for us to think that we are regenerated, to have a subjective conviction that we have received the new birth; we must go on to the Sacrament of Baptism, which is to us an objective sign that we have received that gift, a sign instituted by Christ Himself. In the same way, it is not left to us to hope that we have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We know we have received them through the objective sign of the laying on of the bishop's hands in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Yet again, we are not satisfied with feeding upon the Body and Blood of Christ in spiritual communion only; but we come to that Sacrament of Christ's institution, the Holy Communion, in which we objectively receive His Body and Blood. We find, therefore, that for each great sacramental gift Christ has provided a definite means by which the gift may be conveyed, an objective sign as a "pledge to assure us" that we have received it.

Now the forgiveness of sins is quite as important to our salvation as the gifts of the Holy Ghost or the feeding upon the Body and Blood of Christ; for

without the forgiveness of sins all else is useless. Arguing from the analogy of the other sacraments, therefore, is it not reasonable that we should expect some sacramental ordinance through which we may receive the gift of forgiveness, and by which we may have assurance that we have so received it. Let us now turn to the New Testament and see what provision is there made for the sacramental bestowal of the forgiveness of sins; in other words, for Absolution.

The forgiveness of sins was won for us by our Lord's death upon the Cross, whereby He made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world. And immediately after His resurrection from the dead, on the evening of Easter Day, on the occasion of His first appearance to His apostles in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, our Lord instituted Absolution; for He said, "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 1

He begins by proclaiming, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." One of the pur

1 S. John xx. 21-23.