Here a youthful pair join hands, not for a passing salutation or for the dance:  the priest pronounces his blessing upon them, and the bond is indissoluble.  It is not long before this wedded pair bring a likeness to the threshold of the altar:  it is purified with holy water, and so incorporated into the church, that it cannot forfeit this benefit but through the most monstrous apostasy.  The child in the course of life goes on progressing in earthly things of his own accord, in heavenly things he must be instructed.  Does it prove on examination that this has been fully done, he is now received into the bosom of the church as an actual citizen, as a true and voluntary professor, not without outward tokens of the weightiness of this act.  Now, only, he is decidedly a Christian, now for the first time he knows his advantages and also his duties.  But, in the mean time, a great deal that is strange has happened to him as a man:  through instruction and affliction he has come to know how critical appears the state of his inner self, and there will constantly be a question of doctrines and of transgressions; but punishment shall no longer take place.  For here, in the infinite confusion in which he must entangle himself, amid the conflict of natural and religious claims, an admirable expedient is given him, in confiding his deeds and misdeeds, his infirmities and doubts, to a worthy man, appointed expressly for that purpose, who knows how to calm, to warn, to strengthen him, to chasten him likewise by symbolical punishments, and at last, by a complete washing away of his guilt, to render him happy, and to give him back, pure and cleansed, the tablet of his manhood.  Thus prepared, and purely set at rest by several sacramental acts, which on closer examination branch forth again into minuter sacramental traits, he kneels down to receive the host; and, that the mystery of this high act may be still enhanced, he sees the chalice only in the distance:  it is no common eating and drinking that satisfies, it is a heavenly feast, which makes him thirst after heavenly drink.

Yet let not the youth believe that this is all he has to do; let not even the man believe it.  In earthly relations we are at last accustomed to depend on ourselves; and, even there, knowledge, understanding, and character will not always suffice:  in heavenly things, on the contrary, we have never finished learning.  The higher feeling within us, which often finds itself not even truly at home, is, besides, oppressed by so much from without, that our own power hardly administers all that is necessary for counsel, consolation, and help.  But, to this end, that remedy is instituted for our whole life; and an intelligent, pious man is continually waiting to show the right way to the wanderers, and to relieve the distressed.