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Cadet's Personal Confidences and Confesssions
by General Albert Orsborn

Cadets' Personal Confidences And Confessions By General Albert Orsborn Extract from International Training Staff Council Notes of Lectures - 1951

(1) By confidences I mean the personal and private revealing of themselves by Cadets to Training Officers.
a.- Usually on a selective basis at Cadet's own discretion. This is a right we are concerned to preserve and defend. The Cadet can and must choose his own confidante: no Training machinery, or questions of rank or precedence must be permitted to hinder this.
b. - Such confidences are usually of a spiritual nature, or have to do with character, habits or temptations.

(2) By confessions I mean only one thing; the uncovering by the Cadet of wrongdoing that has been either deliberately or in ignorance hidden from the light. For the purpose of this lecture, it is not necessary to deal with confessions, which really amount to conviction by examination, of wrong things done in Training. These are usually easier to deal with.

(3) I think it is necessary to keep steadily in mind the sacredness and indispensability of secret prayer, the value of silence. We should teach the Cadet to cultivate a deep reticence regarding the affairs of the soul.

2.
(a) The importance of secret prayer cannot be overestimated. This rests securely on the Master's own instructions.
(b) Cadets must become spiritually strong, able to face and deal with themselves in prayer. It is a good thing for every Officer to carry two pieces of heart furniture:
i. - A judgment bar, at which he obliges himself to self-examination.
ii.- A mercy-seat, where he settles accounts, day by day, beneath the sheltering blood.
iii. - There must always be the principle and fact of confession in every day's prayers. The General Confession of the C. of E. is good, if sincerely spoken: 'Spare Thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore Thou them that are penitent.' Yet we need a greater particularity, to make confession personal and real.
(c) The Protestant - and we are spiritually akin - chose an open, independent, and hazardous way when he:
i. - Shook himself free of the aid of priests.
ii. - Elected to carry his own burden.
iii. - Wesley saw this and appointed class leaders, who were Spiritual directors and admonishers, to a small group. They met them weeky, enquiring, probing, rebuking.
iv. - Undoubtedly our Founder saw the same danger and need. All the evidence shows they believed in confession. But ours is not a confessional: our penitent-form is not intended to be the place where our people come constantly to make confession. (Though better come often than grow hard and impenitent).

3.
I. – THE TRAINING APROACH TO THIS QUESTION.
(a) We believe that confession is necessary to conversion. Wm. James says the sinner must ' exteriorise his rottenness. ' But the confession of New 'Testament is clearly not to any official of the Church: much less to one professing to give absolution.
(b) We believe that - for the Cadet:
i.- Being right is the important thing.
ii. - More than creating an impression of goodness.
iii.- Actual, factual rightness. A kind of inward wholeness that unifies and makes effectual the whole man.
(c) No enthusiasm can atone for lack of this.
i. - Genuine enthusiasm is a manifestation of a clean heart and clear conscience.
ii.- Enthusiasm without rightness is spurious and damaging. In fact at times a blatant or denunciatory note arouses the suspicion that the Cadet is trying to shout himself down.
(d) Sacrifice cannot substitute for rightness.
i. - God does not want such offerings: in fact they anger Him.
ii. - 'The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite spirit.' Some Cadets never get there. They go on, proud and unbowed and never attain that eminence of character which comes when a man beats upon his breast and cries for help and mercy.

II. - BUT BE CAREFUL TO AVOID:-
(a) Over-anxiety. This would have a bad effect on Cadet. Nothing communicates itself more surely than anxiety.
i.- You may be wrong: you often are.
ii.- You may have things out of focus.
iii.- In any case, anxiety creates an unsuitable approach, breeds impatience and indiscretion: raises barriers in the Cadet.
(b) The undue, unwise, unfair, untimely use of the moral ascendancy of the College. (If there is anything I regret in my own Training work, it is my too early, too general, and too strong use of truth as a searchlight on the past).
i.- Most Cadets are inexperienced, undeveloped, never before searched and chastened by sudden penetrating light. Many Cadets are weak, too weak for major operations.
ii.- One may easily and quite honestly use personal, positional, and psychological pressures, and be mistaken in thinking they are the work of the Holy Spirit.
iii.- Undoubtedly any Training College can get striking responses; many at the Mercy Seat, immediate or consequent confessions.
iv.- Nevertheless, approach these times and seasons with fear and trembling. Quietly, prayerfully, with restraint. Eschew strong emotions, drama, appeals to fear. Keep back! Restrain yourself. You are on dangerous, delicate ground. If drastic reactions come too soon, the recoil may be evasive, defensive, and in any case, spiritually disastrous.
You may never again get that soul to open up!

5.
v.- Perhaps we should do more to inform ourselves, our Officers, and the Cadets of the principles governing Confession... 'That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which is past,' says Ecclesiastes. But Why?
i.- Because life is one and indivisible.
ii.- The past may cripple the present and ruin the future. That's why God wants it. The doctor wants the past to diagnose the case. The historian wants the past to light the future. The judge wants the past to measure his sentence. God wants the past to forgive it and to destroy its power over present and future.
(c) Giving the impression that everyone is wrong until they have been to the T. C. Mercy-Seat. I only mention this without enlarging: it is a very real danger.
(d) Aiming at conviction - putting Cadet in wrong.
i.- We are not after a verdict.
ii. - Our aim is voluntary confession, self-condemnation, Anything short of that is an institutional victory, but valueless and destructive to the Cadet!
iii.-- In some S.A. enquiries an irresistible impression Officer out to prove accused wrong and would be disappointed to fail.

6.
(e) Undue haste in extracting. Inducing, encouraging - even permitting, and receiving confessions of a very private nature.
i.- Use patience, guidance and restraint.
ii. - Undressing the soul before another is a risky business and may be followed by shame and inferiority. Be careful.

III.- THE ACTUAL HANDLING OF CONFESSIONS.
(a) How far can we promise and give privacy?
i.- There must be a strict code of honour among Training Officers. No whispering..not even that weighty and suggestive silence that suggests a suppressed secret. Not a hint to anyone but the Officer most strictlv responsible.
ii. - There are confidences of which one should be able to say 'No one will ever know of this..' If we err, do it with this bias. When it is obviously impossible to do this, because of possible serious implications, the Officer should plainly state, 'I shall have to tell the C.S.O., or 'the Principal of this'.. and suggest ' Perhaps you would prefer to do it yourself. '
iii.- The under Officer having to report a serious confession, should first do so by private interview. Then take the C.S.O's or Principal's directions as to how much to commit to writing. Such confessions must be enveloped and sealed to go with papers.
iv. - There is a danger of too many people, with differing notions of confession and justice, coming in on cases.
(b) It is sometimes wise:
i. - To advise the emotionally distraught Cadet to take time before talking.

7.
ii.- To advise the intending confessor that a T.C. Officer cannot receive a confession under pledge of secrecy. Duty to College, to Army, to Cadet/s must be remembered.
(c) We cannot expect the Cadet to understand the principles of confession: but we do expect the Officer to know and apply them.
i.- To distinguish between pro-conversion and post-conversion wrong-doing.
ii.- That confession must be made to the person/s wronged: sometimes includes the Army.
iii.- That our methods of confession is not R.C. - continual confessions, and absolutions, or penances.
iv.- That confession should not be a repeated act, except to God.
v. - That attrition and contrition are somewhat different. A visit to the Mercy Seat may be an anodyne (pain killer) to conscience. The Officer must pray for especial wisdom to decide what, if any action is necessary, in addition to the mercy-seat confession.
vi.- That confession - to one another - is a means of cleansing and relief. 'Open confession is good for the soul.' But this refers more to faults and mistakes, venial offences; not to deadly sins.
vii.- That excessive self-condemnation is merely a form of vanity. ' Behold a humble man . . . Behold a completely successful failure...' Wallowing in self-exposure must always be suspect, and corrected. In this the R.Cs are right; one of the rubrics of the confessional requires that never again shall the penitent discuss what has once been confessed, either with his confessor or anyone else.

8.
(d) Always decide on the minimum of exposure necessary to faithfulness and justice.
i.- Some confessions can be closed at once - to spread them will only cause damage.
ii.- Confession does more harm than good when you can only give information to third parties, causing distress without possibility of restitution, i.e. rectification.
iii.- I would say as a general rule it is never the responsibility of the Training College to inform third parties of a Cadet's confession, except where Army discipline requires. Then only the main fact, without detail.
(e) In the process of elucidation.
i.- Do not examine by leading questions: deal with evidence. Questions designed to put the Cadet in the wrong must be resolutely avoided.
ii.- Questions arising from the evidence are permissible.
iii.- Never ask the confessor/accused to take oath. Not our method - a Salvationist is entitled to have his word accepted.
iv.- Be careful how you judge truth and falsehood. In judging truth or falsehood stick to motives and intentions. Be slow to call any person a liar or any statement a lie. There are gradations of truth and falsehood, a thing is not intentionally false because it is not strictly true. Try not to cause prevarication arising from sudden questions, surprise, fear, confusion.
v. - Distinguish between typical and untypical wrongdoing.

9.
IV. SENDING CADETS HOME.
(a) In last Training Council the General gave a whole Session to this.
(b) We are not doing that but I direct your attention to this important subject: especially in relation to confessions.
(c) Allow for fear in the Cadet.
(d) Avoid it if possible: if it must be – do it kindly.

 

 

 

 

   

 

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