The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

""418 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.How can any one object to the table of sins inour prayer-books, and consistently advocate thecirculation of the Bible, which contains incomparably plainer and more palpable allusions to grosscrimes than are found in our books of devotion?Let us not forget the adage, Honi soit qui mal ypense"I may be permitted, in concluding this subject, toadd the testimony of my own experience on thebeneficent influence of the Confessional ; for, likemy brethren in the ministry, I am, in the languageof Dryden,"One bred apart from worldly noise,To study souls, their cures, and their diseases."Since the time of my ordination up to the presenthour, I have been accustomed to hear Confessionsalmost every day. I have, therefore, had a fair opportunity of ascertaining the value of thesystem."And the impressions forced upon my mind, far frombeing peculiar to myself, are shared by everyCatholic priest throughout the world who ischargedwith the care of souls. And the testimony of tenexperienced confessors ought, in my estimation, tohave more weight, in enabling men to judge of themoral tendencies of the Confessional, than the gratuitous assertions of a thousand individuals who haveno personal experience of the Confessional, but whodraw on their heated imaginations, or on the pagesof sensational novels, for the statements they offer.