"
Ernest asked in what respects it was that his friend desired a
return to the practice of our forefathers.
"Why, my dear fellow, can you really be ignorant? It is just this,
either the priest is indeed a spiritual guide, as being able to show
people how they ought to live better than they can find out for
themselves, or he is nothing at all -he has no raison d'etre. If the
priest is not as much a healer and director of men's souls as a
physician is of their bodies, what is he? The history of all ages
has shown- and surely you must know this as well as I do- that as
men cannot cure the bodies of their patients if they have not been
properly trained in hospitals under skilled teachers, so neither can
souls be cured of their more hidden ailments without the help of men
who are skilled in soul-craft -or in other words, of priests. What
do one half of our formularies and rubrics mean if not this? How in
the name of all that is reasonable can we find out the exact nature of
a spiritual malady, unless we have had experience of other similar
cases? How can we get this without express training? At present we
have to begin all experiments for ourselves, without profiting by
the organised experience of our predecessors, inasmuch as that
experience is never organised and co-ordinated at all.
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