the form to which His audience was accustomed, which could not fail to convince those who heard it. Spoken at the end of a speech or a prayer, it conveyed the entire agreement and approbation of those who used it: "By Amen, it is so," or "By Amen, we agree to it;" and so it finally comes to be considered as equivalent to "So be it," or "So it is.' An example of its earlier use may be seen in Isaiah lxv., 16, where the English Authorized Version translates: "He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, and he sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth." The Hebrew word here translated "of truth" is Amen; so the real statement is simply that people shall swear by the God Amen, precisely as was done in ancient Egypt.

The priest then sings the versicle: "O Lord, open Thou our lips," and the choir responds: "And our mouth shall shew forth Thy praise." This versicle has been used from an early period in Church history at the beginning of one of the morning services, though not in the Mass. Its underlying idea is that it is only by the help of the divine power in our

selves that we can hope to praise or worship at all worthily. When we speak of the help of the Lord we should try to understand that we can draw upon the divine Power withoutupon what is commonly called the Power of God-only because we ourselves are God also, because we are fundamentally part of Him. The intention of this versicle is that the Divine within man may be aroused to come into harmony with the Divine without, while the response tells us that after our lips are unsealed, the first use we should make of speech is to offer praise unto the Lord. It is important to notice that not prayer for benefits, but praise, is the first thing we should offer. The celebrant then sings: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?" meaning by this: Who can usefully and suitably ascend the steps leading to the altar? Immediately the answer comes: "Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart." Now, with this conviction firmly implanted within himself, the celebrant turns to the people and for the first time in the service gives the Minor Benediction.

Any one who watches attentively the Roman service of the Mass can hardly fail to notice the fre quency with which the celebrant turns round to the congregation and utters the words: Dominus vobiscum "The Lord be with you." The people

reply: Et cum spiritu tuo-"And with thy spirit,' a sentence which seems to need revision, since the spirit is the sole possessor, and can never by any possibility be the thing possessed. A more accurate expression would be: "And with thee as a spirit." The early Church, however, did not speak with such careful precision, but adopted rather the phrasing of the Hebrew psalmist, who not infrequently adjures his soul to bless the Lord, apparently identifying himself with his body. St. Paul was better instructed, for he writes of body, soul and spirit as the threefold division of man, though even he still puts them as possessions of the man. A more scientific statement is that the Spirit (sometimes called the Monad) is the divine Spark in each of us which is the cause of all the rest, and consequently the true man; that this Spirit puts down into levels. lower than his own a partial manifestation of himself which we call the soul or the ego; that this soul unfolds its latent divine qualities by many successive lives in a still lower world, in the course of which it clothes itself in vehicles suitable to that world, to which we give the name of body. So at any given moment of physical life man, the Spirit, possesses a soul and body-indeed, several bodies, for St. Paul further explains: "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." These words are not well translated; but the context makes it clear that by the "natural body" he means this garment of flesh with which we are all well acquainted, and that by the term "spiritual body" he means what the Hindus call the "subtle body"-divided by later investigators into the astral and the mental vehicles.

However much the idea may have been obscured in the course of the ages, it is certain that the service of the Holy Eucharist is intended to be a coherent ceremony, moving steadily onward to a climax, and skilfully calculated to produce certain magnificent effects. Regarding the ritual scientifically from that point of view, one might perhaps wonder a little at the frequent repetition of a remark which, though beautiful in itself, seems at first sight to have no obvious connection with the splendid purpose of the great spiritual act of which it forms a part.

The phrase occurs no less than nine (in the shorter form, three) times in the course of the Liturgy, with a slight but important addition in one case the salutation of peace to which I shall refer when we come to it. The service as a whole centres round the tremendous outpouring of power which comes at the Consecration. All that is said and done before that moment is intended in various ways to lead up to it, and all that happens afterwards is concerned with the conservation or distribution of the power. The idea of preparing the priest to perform the great act is undoubtedly present, but also, and more prominently, that of preparing the congregation to receive it and to profit by it. This preparation of the people is achieved largely by drawing them more and more closely into magnetic harmony with the priest-by bringing them mentally and emotionally into sympathy with him in the mighty work which he is doing. To assist in the steady augmentation of power all the time, and to promote the ever-increasing harmony of vibration

between priest and people, are the objects of this constantly repeated Minor Benediction.

To one possessing clairvoyant vision its value is clearly apparent, for when the celebrant turns to the people and sings or speaks the prescribed words, a powerful current of force rushes down over the congregation, and then a moment later surges back towards the altar, greatly increased in volume, because it sweeps up and bears with it all the little jets of force which individual worshippers have generated, which would otherwise float upward and be dissipated. It all converges upon the priest with the words: "And with thy spirit;" and the rush is sometimes so strong that, if he be at all sensitive, he is almost staggered by it, but his duty is to receive it into himself and hold it for the use of the Angel whom he is about to invoke. This interaction is most effective in welding celebrant, assistants and congregation into one. harmonious whole-a veritable living instrument to be used in the magic of the Eucharist. These words are repeated throughout the service whenever the priest has performed some act or uttered some prayer which will exalt his emotions or fill him with some particular force, the idea being that he is able through the Minor Benediction to share this exaltation or force with the people, and thereby lift them nearer to God. In this case it is the idea and realization of purity and concentration which is to be shared; the comprehension of the necessity of those virtues, and the determination to attain them. This being thoroughly impressed upon his people, the