ERRATUM. Page 10, line 1. For "Some of the passage will be impossible," read "Soon the passage will be impossible." I. Faith's Confession. "And a certain scribe came, and said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head. And another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead."-MATTHEW viii. 19-22. I NEVER begin the preparation of Candidates for Confirmation without feelings of great hopefulness, for I think I have never failed to see some signal blessing resulting from it. On the other hand, I cannot but regard this work with feelings of great solemnity, for it is dreadful to reject or to postpone an invitation of Christ, especially such an invitation as is given at this season. For this season is, in truth, a call and an invitation to confess Christ before the Church and before the world. To those who make such a confession, nothing could be more encouraging than the Confirmation Service. Notice these three points of encouragement. First of all, the one great theme of the prayers of that Service is that the Holy Spirit may be given to those who have presented themselves for the purpose of confessing Christ. Listen to these prayers; try to pray them now as you read them : 66 Strengthen them, we beseech Thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them Thy manifold gifts of grace; the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength; the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of Thy holy fear, now and for ever." "Defend, O Lord, this Thy child (or this Thy servant) with Thy heavenly grace, that he may continue Thine for ever: and daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more and more, until he come to Thine everlasting kingdom." "Let Thy fatherly hand, we beseech Thee, ever be over them, and Thy Holy Spirit ever be with them." Now, if these prayers be answered, and the Holy Spirit be given, who need faint, or be discouraged? But, you say, my prayers are so feeble. Then, remember, secondly, not only are those who are Confirmed supposed to join in these prayers for the Holy Spirit, but a large company of believers, assembled with a chief Pastor of the Church, are solemnly united in the supplication. 9-15. And then, thirdly, that Pastor, in the most natural and most ancient form of Gen. xlviii. blessing, lays his hands upon those for whom prayer is thus offered, to assure them (by this comfortable token of the Church's acceptance) that their heavenly Father regards them with favour and goodwill. Very full, therefore, of encouragement is the whole form and spirit of the Confirmation Service; and it ought to be, for Jesus Articles xx. and xxv. is very gentle,-careful not to quench the smoking flax. Confirmation is appointed, not by Christ Himself, but by the Church. It thus differs from the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper), for while, like them, it has an outward Catechism. and visible sign, that sign was not "ordained by Christ Himself," "The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies. . . . And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written." But Confirmation, as it certainly has in it nothing contrary to God's Word, is also certainly one of the oldest Church institutions; and though essentially different from the laying on of the hands of the Apostles (for the Apostles only, and none of their contemporaries or successors, could convey the power of working miracles, etc., by the laying on of hands), yet it grew out of this, and is, as the Confirmation Service puts it, "after the example of the holy Apostles ;" and we may expect Christ richly to bless the true and right use of this order of the Church. Acts viii. 18-20. I say "true and right use," for Confirmation consists of two parts: the one being |