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Rh Catholic knows that confession, the "ministry of reconciliation," the "sacrament of peace," is a source of unspeakable blessings, of consolation in distress, of encouragement in despair, of advice in perplexities. With reference to our object, the English Jesuit Father Clarke (Oxford), in an article entitled "The Practice of Confession in the Catholic Church," points out the special advantages of confession for the moral training of the young. The passage is so beautiful and so much to our purpose that it is well to quote it in its entirety.

"It has probably occurred to the mind of most Catholics, as it has often occurred to my own, that if there were no other proof of the paramount claims of the Catholic Church, we should find a sufficient one in the elaborate care with which she watches over the innocence of the young. To guard from evil and corruption the lambs of the fold is one of her chief duties and privileges. This loving care she inherits from her Divine Founder, Who was the friend and lover of little children. Now, I do not think that it is possible for any unprejudiced and well-informed person, who compares the practical working of the Catholic system with that of any other religious system in the world, to deny her unrivalled and unapproachable superiority in this respect. She shields her little ones in their early childhood with all the jealous care of the most tender mother, and when the time comes for the safe seclusion of the parental roof to be exchanged for a freer intercourse with their fellows, she provides safeguards for their purity that are unknown, or almost unknown, outside her fold. For the due education of