The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

420 THE FAITH OP OUR FATHERS.sorrow and misery and it is ;only the consciousnessof the immense good which he is doing, that sustainsthe confessor in the sacred tribunal. He is one"who can have compassion on the ignorant anderring, because he himself is also encompassed withinfirmity."1I have seen the man whose consciences as weigheddown by the accumulated sins of twenty winters.Upon his face were branded guilt and ehame andremorse and confusion. There he stood by the Confessional, with a downcast countenance, ashamed,like the Publican, to look up to heaven. And heglided into the little mercy-seat. No human earwill ever learn what there transpired. The revelations of the Confessional are a sealed book.But during the few moments spent in the Confessional, a resurrection occurred more miraculous thanthe raising of Lazarus from the tomb it was theresurrection of a soul, that had long lain worm-eaten,from the grave of sin. During those precious moments, a ray from heaven dispelled the darkness andgloom from that self-accuser s mind; and the genialwarmth of the Holy Spirit had melted his frozenheart, and the purifying influence of the same Spiritthat came on the Apostles,"like a mighty windfrom heaven," scattered the poisonous atmospherein which he lived, and filled his soul with divinegrace. And when he came out there was quicknessin his step, and joy on his countenance, and a new1Heb. v. 2.