CONFIRMATION. The Biblical Feast of Weeks or Festival of the First Fruits was transformed by Rab binical Judaism into a historical feast when it was made the memorial day of the giving of the Ten Words on Mount Sinai. " The leaders of Reform Judaism surrounded the day with new charm by the introduction of the confirmation ceremony, thus rendering it a feast of consecration of the Jewish youth to the ancient covenant, of yearly renewal of loyalty by the rising generation to the ancestral faith " (K. Kohler). Kohler points out, however, that " Confirmation does not be stow the character of Jew upon the young, any more than the former rite of Bar Mizwah did upon the young Israelite who was called up to the reading from the Law in his thirteenth year as a form of initiation into Jewish life." The Jew becomes a member of the Jewish community by right of birth. In the Roman Catholic Church, Confirmation, conferred by the bishop, who lays his hands on the recipient, is held to be a sacrament : " a sacrament of the new law by which grace is con ferred on baptised persons which strengthens them for the profession of the Christian faith " (Oath. All baptised persons are qualified to receive this sacrament, and the twelfth year of age is considered the most suitable. The candidates are brought to the bishop by
god-parents. Ah the time of Confirmation it is usual to take another Christian name, but this is not used after wards in signing. In the primitive Church infants were confirmed immediately after baptism, and the practice still obtains in the Eastern Church. In the Protestant Churches, Confirmation Is not held to be a sacrament.
In the Church of England, where, as in the Church of Rome, the bishop confirms, it is an ordinance " in which persons come to years of discretion, and previously bap tized as infants, publicly take upon themselves the vows and promises made for them in their baptism by their godparents, and in which the gift of the Holy Spirit is specially sought for to strengthen in their resolutions those who submit themselves to the ordinance " (Prot. Diet.). It is administered also to persons baptized as adults. In the Greek Church the rite may be performed by a priest. In the Lutheran churches and in the Reformed Church of France, it is performed by pastors.