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They entered the church, and she knelt on the penitent's side of the confessional. Later she told all that had happened. "What troubles you?" asked the priest. "Have you been to confession of late?" "Three years ago," and she shuddered, "I was to confession. It was before I married him, never since. Yes, yes, I ought to be known to you. Listen now, for there isn't very much time."
She flung herself down in the penitent's place; and, tremulously, passionately, with sobs, tears, and the turbulent overflow of emotion too long repressed, she poured out the dark story which had infused its poison into her innocent life. Hilda had not seen, nor could she now see, the visage of the priest.
"Thank you for that," he said mournfully; "it may be so; at any rate I have got thus far I shall not cease to cry, so long as I have breath, `God be merciful to me a sinner." And these were the last words on the poor penitent's lips. For three days after this interview he lingered in much pain, but without a murmur.
The Prophet anticipates the clear accents of the New Testament call to repentance in his expansion of what he meant by returning. He has nothing to say about sacrifices, nor about self-reliant efforts at moral improvement. 'Take with you words, not 'the blood of bulls and goats. Confession is better than sacrifice. What words are they which will avail? Hosea teaches the penitent's prayer.
The martyr's blood, the penitent's tears, The inspired word of Judea's seers, The name of God on the sacred mount, The river that poured from rocky fount In the burning sands beneath the rod, Obedient to the will of God; The prayers and sighs in Gethsemane, The red tide gushing on Calvary, The radiant smile when life is done Of saint that tells that heaven is won Shall we say 'tis all a priestly lie And like soulless beasts lie down to die?
Next to him that shrewd and severe face is probably that of Baruch, the judge, and here, barefoot and burthened with a penitent's satchel, you see Saint Louis, who loaded the cathedral with gifts and inaugurated its use.
The priest then received the penitent's confession of sin, expressed in a faint and feeble assent to the words of contrition which the Church prescribes, and this was followed by a pardon a true and actual pardon, as the sinner supposed, granted and declared by a commissioner fully empowered by authority from heaven both to grant and declare it.
It graciously accepts the penitent's petition, and assures him that the companionship, begun on the Cross, will be continued there. 'With Me' makes 'Paradise' wherever a soul is.
When, from tests ofttimes repeated, we are satisfied that the penitent's reform is complete, she is received with open arms by the highest of her rank, as though she had been ever spotless; and at any time to remind her of the past, or even to make to another the slightest allusion to what had occurred, would be looked upon as a heinous offence, and punished accordingly.
"It is a damned lie," cried one of them, a handsome, over-dressed fellow who had been conspicuous for his public insolence towards me. "Nay," said I, "our penitent's tale has the note of truth. One word to you, gentlemen. I am hospitably inclined, and if any one of you will so far honour me as to come himself instead of dispatching his servant, his welcome will be the warmer.
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