ity which is mentioned in it.

Lastly, as to the twentieth chapter of St. John, on the authority of
which it is supposed and asserted that Christ left power with His Church
and priests to forgive sins. Of this we may say, He has not delegated
any such powers at all. When He gave commissions to His disciples (not
exclusively to the apostles), He said, "Lo, I am with you." Our power is
not imparted to us from Him, but is in Him. We have no power at all, but
in Him, and no grace but 'that which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1). It
is His presence, His real, promised presence by the Holy Ghost, which is
spiritual power; and this is given directly to individuals by God
Himself, and is not transmitted through other channels.

The Lord Jesus, on His resurrection day, said to His disciples, in the
upper room--and, be it remembered, that all the eleven were not there
(and some women may have been)--"Peace be unto you. Receive ye the Holy
Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, 'they are remitted unto them; and
whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23).

Is it possible or reasonable to suppose that our Lord intended by these
words to constitute all that assembly absolving priests? The apostles
and early Christians (both men and women) never thought so, either
before or even after the day of Pentecost, when they were taught and led
by the Holy Ghost. The apostles did not exercise any so-called priestly
functions; they all preached the Gospel, and as ministers and witnesses,
declared, through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins. Their testimony
was then, as such testimony will ever be, the savour of life or the
savour of death. It was thus they remitted and retained sins; and yet
not they, but God by them.

While I was thus ruminating, a book came into my hands which interested
me greatly. This I read and re-read, and made an abstract of it. It was
the "Life of Adelaide Newton." What struck me in it so much was, to find
that this lady was able to hold spiritual communion with God by means of
a Bible only. Is it possible, I thought, to have such close communion
with God, apart from the Church and her ministrations? I do not hesitate
to say that this was the means, under God, of stripping off some remains
of my grave-clothes, and enabling me to walk in spiritual liberty,
instead of legal and sacramental bond age.

Human reasoning would say, "What, then, is the use of ministry and
sacraments? Let us dispense with th