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Counsels to Candidates

for Confirmation.

FOUNDED UPON

"The Order of Confirmation"

ACCORDING TO THE USE OF

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

BY

JOHN W. BARDSLEY, M.A.
Archdeacon of Warrington; Incumbent of St. Saviour's,
Liverpool; and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of
Liverpool.

London:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCLXXXII

141. n. 2971

8 MAY

OXFORD

INTRODUCTORY.

"No bishop is ever heard to complain of the weariness of Confirmations. Often as I have spoken with my brethren in all Christian confidence, I have never heard in my life any expressions on that subject save the consciousness, as life goes on, of a deepening interest in Confirmations. And this arises, in a great measure, from a feeling of the greatness of the opportunity."

T is not easy to realize the contrast which this statement, recently made by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, presents to the infrequency and irreverence of the administration of Confirmation during the last century.

One of the most cheering features of our own day is this more frequent and reverent administration, and in no respect is this improvement more marked than in the patient, prayerful preparation of the candidates by the parochial clergy. It is no small help in this more effectual preparation that well nigh all our young people can read, thanks to the spread of education, and that thus the instruction orally imparted by the clergyman can be largely supplemented and

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