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29
but the administration of H^O and empty formula are
void of any value whatsoever.
We now come to the second Sacrament.
Confirmation is the completion of Baptism.
The Church declares that both can be received but
once in a lifetime, as they "imprint a character, or
mark, upon the Soul which can never be effaced."
This statement is absolutely true if the Sacrament
of Confirmation is accompanied
—
as it ought to be—hy
the actual bestowal of spiritual gifts. This was in-
variably the case in New Testament times.
The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, as described in the
twelfth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
are not in the least " miraculous " : they constitute the
natural budding and blooming of the Divine Germ
hidden in the Soul. Spiritual faculties which lie
dormant in carnal Man are brought into vigorous action
through the Sacrament of Confirmation: there is no
more miracle in that than in the fact that the Acoen
gradually develops into an Oak. The acorn remains
hidden in the soil —a potential but unmanifested tree
—until the day when the combined life-giving influences
of moisture and heat compel the seed to evolve and fill
its destination.
The Moisture and Heat indispensable to vegetable
life are the physical counterparts of the " Water and
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