“I perfectly agree with you, Florry, in believing that St. Peter had miraculous powers bestowed on him by our Saviour; but it seems absurd to suppose that these powers were perpetuated in the ministers of the Roman Catholic Church.  Our Saviour said, what ’Peter loosed, should be loosed in heaven,’ and not what Peter’s successors loosed should be observed and loosed in heaven.  We should not judge of Christ’s views by isolated passages, but rather from all his teachings; for if we did, what would you say to the verse just below those already quoted, ’And he said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan:  thou art an offense unto me:  for thou savorest not the things which be of God, but those that be of men.’  But this is wandering from the subject.  In St. Augustine’s Confessions, though I admit somewhat abridged, I find nothing relating to confessing to priests.  This passage alone appears:  ’O Lord, thou knowest!—­have I not confessed my sins to thee? and hast thou not pardoned the iniquity of my heart?’ Speaking of a sudden illness during his boyhood, he says he eagerly desired baptism, fearing to die, and his mother was about to comply with his request, when he quickly recovered.  Now, had he considered confession necessary, would he not have urged it upon all who read his Confessions, which you will mark, Florry, were not made to a priest, but obviously to God himself,”

There followed a long pause, while Florence dropped her face in her hands and sighed heavily.

“Florry, it is very late; our candle has burnt low—­see, it is flickering in the socket; we have not heeded the lapse of time.”  She rose and replaced the books she had been consulting.

“Mary, Mary! why have you shaken my faith?  I had thought to find comfort in future, but you have torn my hope from me, and peace flies with the foundations which you have removed!”

“Florry, you have been blinded, deceived.  They have cried unto you, Peace! peace! when there was no peace.  But oh! there is a source of rest, and strength, and comfort, which is to be attained not by confession, or the intercession of the dead or living, but by repentance for the past, and an active, trusting faith in the mediation of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ”

CHAPTER XVII.

      “The purple clouds
  Are putting on their gold and violet,
  To look the meeter for the sun’s bright coming. 
  How hallowed is the hour of morning!  Meet—­
  Ay! beautifully meet—­for the pure prayer.”

  WILLIS.

Morn broke in the East; or, in the beautiful language of the Son of Fingal, “Sol’s yellow hair streamed on the Eastern gale.”  Awakened by the first chirping of the feathered tribe, Florence rose as the gray morning light stole into her chamber, and seating herself at the window, looked out on the town before her.  Quiet reigned as yet, broken only by the murmuring and gurgling of the river, which roiled swiftly on, just below their little gate.  How delightful to her seemed