Help from the hills; senior confirmation instructions

Preface

It is a privilege to give commendation and approval to that which will educate and develope the spiritual life. This manual is intended as a teaching agent; to practically help one in realizing the inestimable value and Blessing of God the Holy Ghost in His Sacrament of Confirmation. As we receive the immediate gift of Christ in the Holy Communion, so also we receive the active, operative power of the Holy Spirit in the Apostolic Laying on of hands. I heartily endorse this volume, and pray that it may prove its efficacy in the deepening and enriching of many souls.

Cleveland, O. William A. Leonard,

Trinity Cathedral, Bishop of Ohio.

Advent 1916.

AUTHOR'S FOREWORD.

This little book is sent out into the world; and, by the nature of the case, it's world will be a small world; with two definite purposes in view. First; it is hoped that the Contents may be of some slight service to busy Priests who are called upon to prepare candidates for Confirmation. Secondly; the author trusts that the matter contained herein may refresh the memory, and recreate the Churchly Understanding, of men and women who have already received "The Laying on of Hands."

The treatment of the subjects involved in the different Chapters is avowedly a popular treatment. The Theological is purposely subordinated to the Philosophical. This, it seems to the Author, is in keeping with the Modern Mind — which is more easily influenced by Theology related to Life than it is impressed by Life related to Theology; by Experience rather than by Authority. No claim is made either to originality, in the absolute acceptance of the term; or to scholarship, as scholarship is supposed to stand for minute accuracy of expression. The Chapters have been struck off red hot in the furnace of parochial obligations, — perfection is, therefore, mortgaged at the outset; and their substance may, in several instances, be traced to the writings of well known Bishops and Priests of The Anglican Communion, The Author, however, has not consulted any Text Books of any kind during the compilation of this diminutive volume. What he has written has come from the Sieve of his own Assimilation, and is in the nature of "stock in trade."

That God may bless the accompanying pages to His Glory, and the further upbuilding of His Holy Church, is my most earnest prayer.

RECOGNITION

There are Books that become part and parcel with ourselves; Books that enter our lives, and take up their abode there; until it is difficult to separate between ourselves and them, and to affirm definitely where the one begins and the other ends.

The Author is aware that he owes at least as much to his reading of such Books as he does to his own originality of thought, and so he would make most grateful acknowledgement of the undoubted assistance which he has received in the substance of this Manual from the following well known Writers:

The present Bishop of London, Dr. Winnington- Ingram.

Canon Scott-Holland.

The Rev. Henry Drummond.

The Rev. E. C. S. Gibson.

The Rev. William Bullock.

The Rev. John Henry Jowett.

The Rev. J. B. C. Murphy; and others.

Dedication

To the congregations of Christ Church Cathedral, Hamilton, Ontario, and Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio, this little Book is dedicated — in recognition of the Charity that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Index

Page

Preface, The Bishop of Ohio 3

Author's Foreword 4

Recognition 5

Dedication 6

Introduction, and the Nature of Confirmation 9

The Necessity of Confirmation; together with the consideration of some current objections 17

Discussion of The Gift received in Confirmation; God The Holy Ghost 35

The relation between Baptism and Confirmation; Infant Baptism; and The Church 51

Some Glories of The Church; a brief Historical Sketch of The Prayer Book; and The Church Calendar 67

The Order of the Administration of The Holy Communion Service 107

Preparatory Address to The Holy Communion 117

THE NATURE OF CONFIRMATION

CHAPTER ONE E first question that we naturally ask ourselves when we are anxious to be confirmed is this:

x What is Confirmation? To come to confirmation without knowing what confirmation is would be to derive little benefit from it.

What is confirmation? We get a hint of the answer in the very position of the Confirmation Service in the Prayer Book. It comes after the Catechism, and the Catechism comes after the Baptismal Services. This means, does it not, that there are Three Steps into the Temple of Christianity? The first step is Baptism. We must be baptized, or initiated, that we may become a Christian, "a Child of God, and an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven." I am not a Mason until I am initiated. Only then does the vastness of Masonic obligation, and what I might call Masonic differentiation, break in upon me.

The second step is Instruction. I must begin to know what it means to be a Christian. The whole scheme of the undertaking must be presented, in outline, at any rate, for my edification. Discipleship is only to be achieved through knowledge. It is not enough for me that I should be technically a Mason. I must, through study, achieve the atmosphere of Freemasonry. Then, and not until then, may I be a Mason in life as well as in profession.

The third step is Confirmation. I am to be confirmed in my initiation and illumination. I am to be strengthened in my discipleship, that I may keep the good things committed to my charge. As a technical Mason, and as an instructed Mason, I am to receive the imprimatur of my calling.

What does Confirmation mean? The heading of the Confirmation service suggests the answer: "Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those who are baptized, and come to years of discretion." Confirmation and laying on of hands each have a meaning of their own, and the full meaning of either is found in the meaning of both. The first prayer in the Confirmation Service tells us what Confirmation is : "Almighty and ever-living God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these Thy servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins, Strengthen Them, we beseech, Thee, O Lord." Confirmation is strengthening; to be confirmed is to be strengthened, to be made strong.

What does the laying on of hands mean? In both the Old and the New Testaments the laying on of hands signifies the reception of a blessing. You remember the story in Genesis, xlviii : Israel, when he was a very old man, and about to die, told Joseph to bring his two sons, Israel's grandchildren, to his bedside, in order that he might bless them. And as Manasseh, the elder one, stood at his right hand, and Ephraim, the younger, at his left hand, he crossed his arms, and laid his right hand upon Ephraim's head, because he wanted him to have the better blessing, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh. So, in many passages in the Bible, we find that the laying on of hands always meant the act of blessing, and that the people upon whom the hands were laid received a blessing. I remember, just before leaving Oxford for my ministry on this side of the water, going to say good-bye to Canon Ottley, the Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology. The good Canon, one of the most learned men in Christendom, author of a book upon the Incarnation which is said to be the greatest theological production in English since the appearance of Hooker's wonderful Treatise, bade me kneel at his feet. I did so; and then he placed both hands upon my youthful head and blessed me in the Name of the Triune God. I often think that I owe more to the blessing of that Godly man than might well be estimated in conventional phraseology. So pastors bless the people committed to their charge; and fathers their sons as they leave the paternal roof for adventure in the battle of life. The laying on of hands signifies the act of blessing, and those upon whom hands are laid receive a blessing.

We are, therefore, taught two important truths about Confirmation. The first is that if Confirmation is to be strengthened or made strong, it is not something you do, but something that is done to you. So with the laying on of hands: it is the reception of a blessing, so far as you are concerned — not the bestowal of a blessing. It is not something that you do ; it is something that is done to you. It is well for us to remember this, because so often people say, when they are asked to be confirmed, "No; I am not good enough to do it." This, you see, is altogether invalid as an objection, when confirmation is something that is done to them.

The second truth is this, and it is closely allied with the former : The laying on of hands teaches that you are coming, not to give, but to get — to get a blessing. There are those who say that they are afraid to be confirmed. But surely no one need be afraid to get a blessing. We need all the good things that we can get; we need, urgently need, all the help that we may receive, for God knows it is hard enough to be good; we demand, if we have any recognition of our spiritual condition at all, the best gifts, and no one is so cowardly that he will run away from a proffered acquisition.

But if Confirmation is something done to us, if it is a gift given, who is the Doer, and who is the Giver? We find the answer again in the First Prayer of the Confirmation Service : "Strengthen them, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and daily increase in them Thy manifold gifts of grace." It is God who strengthens; it is God who bestows the blessing. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights." But we may not rest here. How does God bless men; how does He strengthen men? He gives His blessing; He vouchsafes His strengthening through His Bishops. This, when you come to consider God's normal manner of working, is reasonable. The mediatorial system, the indirect method, is written large in nature, and the God of Nature is the God of Grace. Our temporal blessings come to us indirectly. Bread is the staff of life. It is the gift of God. But how does it come to us ? We receive it through the instrumentality of our fellow-men. The farmer, the laborer, the miller and the baker are the middlemen, so to speak, between God's gift of bread and our reception of the gift. Take education: What a wonderful thing it would be if there were, indeed, a royal road to learning; if the infant at birth were endowed with all the wisdom of the ages. The opposite, however, is the truth. We must go to school through laborious years and sap the wisdom of our teachers. We must attend the university and assimilate the instruction of our professors. We must read books, think thoughts, form conclusions, and learn slowly so long as life may last. Knowledge is a gift from God, but it is achieved indirectly through our fellow-men, and in the greatest of all universities — the University of Experience. It is so in all gifts for the body, and for the mind. God's method is indirect. The same is true in spiritual affairs. How does God make His Blessed Gospel known to men? It is not implanted in the heart of the new-born child; it is not written in flaming letters across the sky; it is not carved upon the undulating waters, nor blazed across the pathless forests. It comes to man through men. God gives us these things largely through His Church and His ministers. Bishops, priests and deacons are the ordained messengers of God, sent by God to bring His tidings and gifts to the souls of men. We are strengthened, then, in confirmation; we receive a blessing in confirmation; from God, through His appointed servant, the Bishop.

Now who ought to be confirmed? Obviously, those who are not as good as they ought to be, and who require all the help that they may receive to live a life consistent with profession. The people who think that they are good enough — although, as a matter of fact, no one is good enough — ought not to be confirmed. It would be, to say the least, dangerous for them to undertake such a step. The people who know that they are not nearly as good as they might be if God were to give them of His supernatural grace, ought to be confirmed. They are ready for the strengthening; they are ripe for the blessing. The definite qualifications are given in the heading of the Confirmation Service: "those who are baptized, and come to years of discretion." Baptism and Divine Sense are the requisites. If you have not as yet been baptized, I hope that you will speak to me at the conclusion of the class today, that we may make a date for your baptism, for you must be baptized, as we shall see at a later meeting, before you present yourself for confirmation. What do we mean by "years of discretion ?" Simply this : when we are old enough to be, in the old sense of the word, discreet, and to know the difference between right and wrong and to adhere to the right, we have reached the proper age for confirmation. This, of course, depends upon the individual. Some individuals are old enough to be confirmed at eleven years of age; others are too young for confirmation at seventy years of age! The reason why the Church lays stress upon "years of discretion" is because in the Ancient Church those who were baptized were immediately confirmed — not only adults, but infants as well. This is the rule still in the Eastern Church. Our branch of the Church believes in waiting until the individual knows something of what he is about when confirmed. No definite age is mentioned, because the Church would not forestall even the unintelligible operation of the Holy Ghost in the life of the youngest child. And now let us sum up.

We have found Confirmation to be: the Confirmation of our baptism; and instruction in the elements of the Christian religion. Confirmation means to be strengthened, or made strong. Laying on of hands, an alternate name, signifies the reception of a blessing. Confirmation, then, is something that is done to us. It is a receiving — not a getting. Who strengthens us; who gives us the blessing? God. But God works indirectly, as a general rule, in grace as well as in nature. We receive the gift of Confirmation through God's authorized channel of communication, the Bishop.

Who ought to be confirmed? Those who desire to live the Christ life, and who, appreciating their own weakness, reach out hands for the strength that comes of God. Those who have been baptized, and who have reached years of discretion; who are wise enough to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

Chapter Two

WE considered together in the previous chapter the question, "What is confirmation?" The subject for our discussion now is, "Why should I be confirmed?"

First — In order that we may clear the ground, let us consider some of the current objections against the advisability of being confirmed. One objection is that confirmation is an invisible, intangible something, in opposition to the material, pragmatical requirements of the present day. It is necessarily invisible in its essence, because it has to do with the welfare of the soul, and the soul is invisible. The outward form, the laying on of the Bishop's hands, is visible, and, taking into account the sacramental nature of confirmation, is the "outward and visible sign" of the grace bestowed. The grace, however, "the inward and spiritual grace," is invisible. This invisibility is no argument against the reality of the gift given in confirmation, but the reverse. The presumption is, metaphysically, that because a thing is unseen, it is most real.

We have many illustrations of this in every-day life. Take love: Love makes the world go round. It is the greatest force in individual and corporate life. But love, in its essence, is invisible. Nobody has ever seen love. We know what love does; we may witness the external evidences of love; in the spoken word of endearment, in the clasp of the hand, and in the look of the eye; but love itself is intangible and ungraspable.

Or take electricity: You cannot see electricity. It is so truly mysterious that even the expert does not as yet know what electricity is. But electricity runs our street cars, moves the variegated machinery of our factories, and lights our houses.

Or take personality: The constituent elements of personality are reason, emotion, and will. Who has ever seen Reason; who has ever looked upon Emotion, and who has ever viewed Will in its naked semblance? The fact, however, remains that personality is the greatest power on earth.

Or think of the wind : "The wind bloweth where it listeth, but . . . thou canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth." We know, nevertheless, what wind may do, and actually does accomplish. It lashes the waters of the ocean into relentless fury; it bathes the shores of our inland seas with foamcrested breakers; it is involved in the clemency or the inclemency of the weather, and it uproots, in its consuming anger, the forests where the wild animals dwell, and the cities in which live the sons of men.

So we cannot see confirmation; it is invisible and intangible; but we may exhibit, so that all may behold the transformation, the fruits of confirmation in our lives.

Another objection closely allied with the former is that people are no better after confirmation than they were before. This is, of course, a charge aimed against Christianity in general. So many people refuse to have anything to do with organized Christianity, because, as they say, they have known many Christians who were hypocrites. The point is that the difficulty does not reside in confirmation, or in Christianity, but in the person who is confirmed, and in the individual who professes Christianity. Christianity is judged by the saints, by those who have, to the uttermost degree, co-operated with all that Christianity has to offer. It is the same thing with confirmation. If people are no better after confirmation than they were before, it is not because there is no efficacy in confirmation, but because the person confirmed has not worked with the added help given through confirmation. To take a homely illustration : Here is a man with two sons. He sends them both to Western Reserve University. One boy makes the most of his opportunities. He attends all his lectures; he reads all the prescribed textbooks upon the subjects which he is called upon to study; he applies himself day by day, and far into the night watches, to the assimilation of all available knowledge. He takes an excellent degree, and goes out into the world to reflect glory upon his alma mater, and to achieve honor for himself. The other son is a slacker. He skips as many lectures as the legal requirements in the case permit. He seldom, if ever, opens a book. He spends his days in frivolity, or in an excess of athletics. The consequence is that he gets far behind his fellow students in his studies, fails in his examinations, and is ultimately asked to leave the institution before he has had the opportunity of standing for his final tests. Western Reserve University is the same in either case. All that it has to offer is offered to both young men. But one makes the most of his privileges, and the other makes the least of his advantages. The virtue and the fault is an individual virtue and an individual fault. The university stands or falls by the quality of its best students.

So is it in confirmation. God the Holy Ghost does come to take up His abode in our lives. He is resident within us to give us of His supernatural strength. But unless we work with the new power in our lives, we cannot expect to be any better after confirmation than we were before. The chances are that, having failed to live up to our added opportunity, we shall be worse off than if we had never undertaken the step.

Another objection is that other churches do not have confirmation. In this connection I always think of Our Lord's answer to Simon Peter in the last chapter of St. John's Gospel. Jesus was foretelling, in veiled language, the manner and method of St. Peter's death, namely, that he would be crucified, even as his Master. And St. Peter, who had always been somewhat jealous of St. John, the disciple who leaned with his head on Christ's bosom at supper, and who no doubt was more often in the intimacies of Christ than the rest of the other disciples, turned to Jesus and said, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Then came the famous answer, "If I will that he tarry till I come, What Is That to Thee? Follow Thou Me." It is not for us to question the wisdom, or the lack of wisdom, of other churches in not having confirmation. It is for us to find out what we consider to be the right thing for us to do, and, in accordance with our educated conviction, to Follow Christ. Surely, the presumption is in favor of confirmation when we realize that for the first fifteen and a half centuries of the existence of the Christian Church confirmation was the rule, and the universal practice. It was not until the Reformation, in the Sixteenth Century, that certain bodies of people, cutting themselves off from the historic Episcopate, gave up the custom of confirmation. Is it conceivable that for centuries, inclusive of the purest ages of Christianity, when the stream, of Christian truth was nearest its source, confirmation should have been persisted in, if confirmation were wrong? I hope that as our course of instruction progresses we may come to believe in the advisability of confirmation, even though other churches than the great Catholic Church, in its several branches, do not believe in the necessity of the rite.

Another objection is, of course, the old, hoary-headed affirmation: "1 am not good enough." It is just because we are not as good as we ought to be, and are painfully conscious of the fact that we ought to be much better than we are, and recognize the prime necessity of divine assistance if we are to begin to approximate the measure of the stature of our possibilities of goodness, that we come to confirmation to be strengthened, and to receive a blessing. The gifts of God are forever given to those who need them — not to those who are so self-reliantly perfect that they do not need them. This is, of all objections, the most inane. It makes one realize that in religious matters people are more or less content to rest upon excuses which they would not in common sense tolerate for a moment in their secular avocations. There are three current ideas of spiritual success: One is that we need not do anything; that God will do everything; that we have merely to sit down and let God "get in His good work." Another is that we are altogether sufficient unto ourselves; that the might of our own right arm gaineth for us the victory; that the aid of God is superfluous and unnecessary. The true idea is that God and man together, co-operating as partners, may achieve perfection. This idea is illustrated in the intent and moment of confirmation.

Now: Why Should We Be Confirmed? There is, as I see it, a three-fold answer to that interrogation. (1) Because the Church — the Episcopal Church in which I have been brought up, or which I desire to join — commands it. (2) Because the Bible in which I believe teaches it. (3) Because in confirmation I receive a gift.

(1) Because the Church commands it. The Church commands it in two places: In the baptismal office, where the priest, after the baptism, at the end of the service, says to the god-parents, "Ye are to take care that this child be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him, so soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and be further instructed in the Church catechism set forth for that purpose;" and in the insertion of the confirmation service in the Prayer Book, with its title, "The Order of Confirmation."

Let us consider the first command. We must be able to say the Creed, and not only say it, but understand what we say. The Creed is a brief summary of the doctrines of the Christian faith. It comes from the word "Credo": I believe. Such a summary is also called "symbol"; that is a watchword against error in the faith; also "canon"; that is a rule or standard whereby to judge rightly of what ought to be believed.

Creeds — for there are three Creeds: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed — are the crystallized expression of the universal consciousness of the Church. Creeds originated in the baptismal formula, St. Matthew, xxviii, 19: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations; baptising them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." The Creeds were originally baptismal tests. Converts, in their preparation for baptism, were taught the Creed orally. The Creed was publicly recited when the convert was baptised. In the New Testament we find several summaries of a Creed.

Romans, vi, 17: "The form of doctrine which had been delivered unto them." Galatians, vi, 16 : "The rule." Revelations, xi, 13: "Thou holdest fast My Name, and hast not denied My Faith." Then, in Hebrews, vi, 1 and 2, as we shall see later, there is an outline of the faith for elementary instruction. Forms of doctrine are also found in the Oldest Christian Fathers — in Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, etc.

There are, as we have already said, three Creeds.

There is The Apostles' Creed. There is a legend to the effect that the Apostles' Creed came into being in the following manner: One day all the apostles sat round in a circle, and gave individual expression to their Christian conviction. One said, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth"; another said, "and in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord." When the circle was completed the Creed took shape as we have it today. This is, of course, but a legend, and is divorced from the truth. The Creed is called the Apostles' Creed because it embodies the doctrine which the apostles taught. It is found first in its present form in the middle of the Eighth Century, and seems to be composed of forms of doctrine current before the end of the Second Century. This is the simple Creed, the Creed, so to speak, for the Christian man in the street; It is direct, and, so far as possible under the necessities of the case, non-metaphysical. It is the Creed in common use by all Christian people of whatever church or denomination. We have it incorporated in our morning and evening prayer.

There is The Nicene Creed: This Creed was drawn up by the Church in council assembled in the year 325 A. D. It is called the Creed of Nicaea, because of the name of the city in which the council was held. It was drawn up in refutation of the heresy of Arius. Arius was a priest of Alexandria, who denied the eternal divinity of the Second Person in the Trinity. He said, "The Son of God was produced from things non-existent, and there was a time when He was not. He was a creature — a Thing produced." This error spread far and wide. To combat it the Emperor Constantine the Great summoned a council of the whole Church, so that by general conference upon the matter the real faith might be proclaimed. Three hundred and eighteen bishops, besides priests and deacons, w r ere assembled, and the Nicene Creed was the result, with the exception of the filio que clause, "and the Son," which originated in the west at a later date. We recite the Nicene Creed in the Holy Communion service. This is appropriate and of the fitness of things, because (1) it is the unity ot the faith which links us to Christ's saints in all ages, and so we are able to offer in truth a corporate act of worship. (2) It reminds us that The Son, whose Glorified Humanity we plead, is of one substance with the Father to Whom our worship is offered. (3) It reminds us that The Son humbled Himself in the Incarnation as now He forever humbles Himself in the bread and wine.

There is The Athanasian Creed. The date and authorship of this Creed are uncertain. It was written in Latin, but probably not by St. Athanasius, as we would gather from its name. It embodies the truth for which Athanasius stood, contra mundum — against the world. It is the stiff est Creed of the three, and in its uncompromising affirmation of the truth, leaving no liberty of private opinion on pain of eternal damnation, is unwelcome to many worthy people in the Twentieth Century Church. It is to be remembered, however, that the Athanasian Creed was originally a hymn, not a creed, and that it has been poorly translated from the original tongue in which it was composed. We are not called upon to recite the Athanasian Creed in the Protestant Episcopal Church, but in the Anglican Communion at large it is supposed to be said in public worship thirteen times during the course of the church year.