“Florry, we are searching for truth, and let us in all humility and candor investigate this particularly important point.  It seems to me that St. James’s meaning is this—­when we have offended or harmed our fellow-men or brethren, we should make all the amends in our power; confess our faults unto them; implore their pardon, and abstain from offensive conduct in future.  Do you not think that if he had intended us to interpret it differently, he would have said—­’Confess your faults unto your priest, and he will give you absolution.’  Setting aside all bias, do you not think this reasonable; the more so, when we call to mind those words of our Saviour in his sermon on the mount:  ’Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.’  If our Lord had intended the ordinance of confession, would he not have said on this occasion, ’First confess thy sins unto thy priest, and when he has absolved thee, then come with clean hands and offer thy gift.’  Mark the difference, and ask your own heart if there is any encouragement here for confessing to your Padre?”

“If this passage of James were all we could adduce in favor of confession, I should think with you, Mary; yet it is not so.  When about to dismiss his Apostles on their errands of mercy, Christ said to them—­’Peace be with you; as my Father hath sent me, even so I send you;’ and when he had breathed upon them, he said unto them—­’Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’  Now, Mary, do you not plainly perceive that the power of forgiving sin was conferred upon the Apostles?”

“Most assuredly I do; and avow my belief that they were enabled to forgive sin, and at the same time other miraculous powers were conferred on the ‘Twelve.’  ’Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.’  We know that they cast out devils, restored the blind, and raised the dead.  Power to forgive sin was one among many wonderful gifts conferred upon them.  Yet you do not believe that the power of raising the dead was transmitted to posterity.  How, then, can you say the gift of absolution was?”

“But, Mary, Christ says in another place—­’Thou art Peter:  and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’”