Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories
confession was, in his poor judgment, most helpful to the spiritual life
by reminding us of the sins which do most easily beset us, and their
horrible guilt before God; (2) That it was really the intention of the
Church of England that her children should have this benefit; and (3)
That he, John James Jinks, a duly ordained priest of the same Church,
had power, under conditions, to hear confessions and declare the
forgiveness of sins to all true penitents. Thereafter, he went on
to state that he had not introduced confession as a practice in St
Agatha's, because he had never been trained in confessional theology,
because a confessor required authority from his bishop, and this the
bishop would not give; and, finally, it seemed to him that any confessor
must be a priest with a special knowledge of life, and of conspicuous
holiness; and, as they knew well, he was neither, but only an ignorant
and frail man, who was more conscious of his deficiencies every day,
and who earnestly besought the aid of their prayers. This sermon was
reported in the _Islington Mercury_, which circulated largely amongst
us, and called forth an ingenious reply from the “Modern Luther,” who
pointed out that if Mr. Jinks had not set up a confessional box in St
Agatha's Church, it was only because his (the “Modern Luther's”) eye
was upon him; that the confessional could likely be discovered in the
Vicarage; that in so far as Mr. Jinks was not telling the truth he would
receive absolution from the Jesuits, and that he very likely had already
received a licence to tell as many lies as he saw would help his cause.
Men, however, do count for something even in religious controversy,
and the very people who had no belief in Jinks' doctrine could see some
difference between his patient, charitable self-sacrificing life and the
career of a windbag like the “Modern Luther,” and no one in the last year
of his life accused Jinks of falsehood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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