The herald., 1894-02-26


the conservation the body and blood.
soul and divinity OF our Lord Jesus
Christ are contained truly, really and
substantially in the sacrament of the
most holy Eucharist" and it snathema-
tics those who assert that Christ's body
and blood are there in sign or figure
only, or virtually.
The real presence is clearly taught in
the scriptures. just one year before
His passion, as recorded in the 9th
chapter Of st. Johns gospel, Christ uses
these remarkable words: THE bread
which / will give is Ny flesh. He who
sateth My flesh and drinketh My blood
hath eternal life." The Jews evidently
understood Christ's words in the literal
sense, for they at once exclaimed:
How can this man give us His flesh to
eat" Whereupon Christ reiterated
His previous assertion in the most en-
phatic manner: amen, amen, l say
to you, unless you eat the flesh OF the
Son of Man and drink His blood you
have not life in you. My flesh is truly
food and My blood is truly drink"
There is evidently here no toning down
or modifying the mysterious promise,
because we read that many of Christ's
disciples went back and walked no more
with Him.
At the last supper Christ instituted
the Eucharist, and then explained the
mysterious eating His flesh and drink
ing His blood, which He had announced
year before in the synagogue of
Caphsrnaum. He said of the bread,
''This is Ny body" of the wine, This
is My blood" and He invited the
disciples to eat and drink of the banquet
prepared Tor them. st. Paul, in Cor. K,
testifies to the same doctrine. Among
the early fathers l will refer only to
Ignstius, the disciple OF St. John, AID.
Smyrn. z; st. 1ren@us, disciple OF
Polycarp, ut the close OF the second
century, Iren. w., 1872; JUSTIN Martyr,
in the year l66, Apol. ], Sc; all OF whom
express the same undertaking belief in
the real presence.
The words used by Christ at the last
nupper fairly prove transubstsntiation,
for il the substance of bread remained,
when Christ said, This is My body"
His words would have been false and
the only true proposition would have
been, This is bread"
Various objections are urged against
the Eucharist as taught and believed by
the Catholic church. For instance, the
ncomprehensibility OF the matter, in
other words, that it is a mystery; and
secondly that it seems incompatible
with the dignity OF the Savior to give
| Himself as our food. A third objection,
that the whole thing is absurd and con-
sequently impossible, is disposed of by
calling to mind that really only two fac
tors are needed id the whole matter,
divine omnipotence, and divine will.
| Tho f,xaf 10 odrnittaH hu al on ho halt vo
that Christ is God, and the second, to
their minds at least, should be sufi-
ciently apparent from the strong lam
guage used by Christ in promising to
institute this sacrament, and secondly,
at the last supper when He did insti-
tute it.
The objection that the Eucharist is @
mystery is puerile. For that matter
everything is mystery. God Himself
10 q mystery. The soul OF man is q
mystery. Even in the physical world it
would be impossible to mention a single
thing that is not mystery. Life is q
mystery, so is spaca, so is electricity, so
10 science in all it's diversified forms, n
you come to the basis or to the bedrock
on which it stands in fact, all the forces
OF nature are profound mysteries.
That Christ'e dignity 10 affected, by
giving Himself to His children as their
spiritual food, could be urged with still
greater force, with reference to the in
dignities which He endured during His
passion and death. The institution oil
the Eucharist ia simply proef of Christ's
love for man. BY becoming man He
annihilated Himself, rs st. Paul says.
There was, however, still another stop
which love suggested. Human nature,
though fallen, possesses after all a Ger.
tain dignity. To clothe Himself under
the form, not of an animate, but OF an
inanimate thing, and thereby to furnish
mans soul with the food of the highest
and purest type, that is, Himself, the
bread that He says came down from
Heaven, was at once the extreme of love
and the most effective way to bring
man into the closest possible communi.
cation with the Divinity.
Faith, love and purity of heart are
the dispositions required of the Chris.
tian to partske worthily OF this celestial
banquet. In it he will find strength ia
overcome temptation, consolation in
affection, confidence in Gods mercy
and the hope of glorious Immortality,
Y. w. G. A.
Over 200 persons gathered in the
Blanchard Fitzgerald recital hall ysster.
day afternoon to listen to Miss Mary G.
Burdette and were richly rewarded BY
the beauty of the whole service and oil
Miss Burdette's address.
Mrs. Mathuss, president, opened the
meeting by reading James 10. Prayers
were offered by Miss Reeder and
Miss Morse, after which the follow
ing quartette sang: Miss Pieper, Miss
| Goodwin, Miss Duncan and Mrs. Ben
der. Miss Emma Rider was the accom-
PIANIST.
Miss Burdette, who is at the head Of
q mission training school in Chicago,
has had wide experience and presented
to her audiedce in concise and cultured
way the practical and helpful views Of
life that such position would give her.
She said: II am deeply impressed by
the account given in Leviticus that all
sacrifices offered were young.
Why the young? And then
the offering upon Calvary of Christ was
a young man. He was but 80
years old when His life became
the supreme sscI6ce for mankind" She
spoke OF how the youth of Christ was
spent in seeking instruction that should
fit Him for His wonderful mission, snd
then when His work was begun how he
forgot hunger and thirst and all else but
doing IL apauaripO His discinlas, pro.