CHAPTER I

A NEW IDEA OF CHURCH WORSHIP

Unquestionably the greatest of the many aids which Christ has provided for His people is the Sacrament of the Eucharist, commonly called the Mass -the most beautiful, the most wonderful, the most uplifting of the Christian ceremonies. It benefits not only the individual, as do the other Sacraments, but the entire congregation; it is of use not once only, like Baptism or Confirmation, but is intended for the helping of every churchman all his life long; and in addition to that, it affects the whole neighbourhood surrounding the church in which it is celebrated.

Men may ask us, as their children asked the Israelites of old: "What mean ye by this service?" What is this Eucharist which you celebrate? We ought to be able to answer such a question intelligently; but in order to do so we must study certain aspects of the subject which have been generally forgotten; we must abstract ourselves altogether from any limited or selfish point of view; we must realize that our religion is primarily intended to enable us to do loyal and fruitful service to our Lord and Master.

It must be remembered that true religion has always an objective side; it acts not only from with.

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in by stimulating the hearts and minds of its votaries, but also from without by arranging that uplifting and refining influences shall play constantly upon all their vehicles; nor does it confine its efforts to its own adherents, but also seeks through them to influence the ignorant and heedless world around. The temple or church is meant to be not only a place of worship, but also a centre of magnetic radiation through which spiritual force can be poured out upon a whole district.

It is necessary that such radiation should be done as economically as possible. The curious unscientific idea of miracles which has obtained among Christians for centuries has had a paralysing effect upon ecclesiastical thought, and has prevented intelligent comprehension of the methods adopted by Christ in providing for His Church. We should realize that such provision is made through the action of intermediate Powers, whose resources are by no means infinite, however stupendous they may be in comparison with ours. It is consequently the actual duty of such Powers to economize that force, and therefore to do what They are appointed to do in the easiest possible manner. For example, in this outpouring of spiritual force, it would be distinctly wasteful to pour it down indiscriminately everywhere like rain, because that would require the effort of its materialization to a lower level at thousands of places at once. It is obviously far more practical to establish at certain points definite magnetic centres, where the machinery of such materialization may be permanently arranged, so that when force is poured out from above it can be at once distributed without un

necessary machinery.

waste in the erection of temporary

The plan adopted by the Christ with regard to this religion is that a special compartment of the great reservoir of spiritual force is set apart for its use, and that a certain order of officials is empowered, by the use of appointed ceremonies, words and signs of power, to draw upon it for the benefit of mankind. The scheme chosen for passing on this power is the Sacrament of Ordination, which will be explained in a later chapter. Any one to whom the whole idea of a reservoir of spiritual force is quite new, is referred to the account there given.

Through the ceremony of the Eucharist, each time it is celebrated, there passes forth into the world a wave of peace and strength, the effect of which can hardly be overrated, and we can scarcely be in error in regarding this as the primary object of the service, for it is achieved at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist, whether it be High or Low, whether the priest be alone in his private oratory or ministering to a vast congregation in some magnificent cathedral.

This idea is confirmed by the fact that when we thus meet together in the church we say that we have come to join in divine service. I believe that many people when they employ that phrase think that the service meant is the ascription of praise and worship to God; but it is hardly correct to describe that as service. It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty that we should offer praise, humble worship and thanksgiving to the utmost of our power to the great Lord of all. It is a most excellent thing

for us and a great benefit to our evolution; yet it would be unworthy and even blasphemous to suppose that an Infinite Being can derive any gratification from mere adulation; but when we meet together in order to build a thought-form or eucharistic edifice (as will later be described), through which His power can more easily be outpoured, we see at once the appropriateness of the word "service," for we realize that we are literally offering ourselves as volunteers in His great army, and that in however humble a capacity, at however infinite a distance, we are actually becoming fellowworkers together with Him-surely the highest honour and the greatest privilege that can ever fall to the lot of man. It is significant that the literal meaning of the word "liturgy" is public work, the latter part of the word having precisely the same derivation as "energy."

Another object is the effect produced upon those who are present at the service, and a third is the still greater result obtained in the case of those who partake of the Holy Sacrament; but about these I shall write later. We have also to bear in mind its aspect as a wonderful and stately symbol, reminding us of the descent of the Second Person of the Trinity into matter, and also of the sacrifice of the Christ in taking a body and living a painfully restricted physical life in order to set before us in a new form the good news of the Ancient Wisdom. Devout fathers of the Church have thought that in the ritual of the Eucharist they could trace an allegorical representation of the alleged earthly life of the Christ. I am not in any way concerned to

deny the truth of such suggestions or even to minimize their importance, but I wish to emphasize the aspect of the ceremony as an opportunity offered to us an opportunity of work for God and for the world; to consider its actual effect upon various planes, and to describe something of the mechanism by means of which the effect is produced.

If this mechanism is clearly understood by Church members, they will find that they can usefully and efficiently co-operate with the clergy in a wonderfully beautiful piece of unselfish work, thereby not only greatly advancing their own evolution, but also distinctly ameliorating the mental and moral atmosphere of the city in which they live. When we realize how fine an opportunity is here offered to us, we shall see that it would be foolish, and indeed wrong, not to take advantage of it as often and as fully as we can. But in order to do that, some study and some mental effort are needed; and it is to help those who are in earnest to a fuller comprehension of the subject that this little book is written.

The particular method devised for the reception and distribution of this downpouring of energy is derived from the Mysteries of some of the older religions. It has been a favourite plan with them to convey influence from the Deity to His worshippers by means of specially consecrated food or drinkan obviously useful expedient, when the object is that the force should thoroughly permeate the man's physical body, and bring it into tune with the change which is simultaneously being introduced into the higher vehicles. To express in the strongest manner

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