Chapter IV. Holy Orders

I QUOTE from the preface to this section of our Liturgy:

“Holy Orders is the Sacrament by which, in their various degrees, ministers of the Church receive power and authority to perform their sacred duties. Our Lord works through human agency, and to the end that those who are chosen for this sacred ministry as Bishops, Priests, or deacons shall become readier channels for His grace, He has ordained that they shall be linked closely with Him by this holy rite, and shall thereby be empowered to administer His Sacraments and act as almoners of His blessing. but it is most important that the people should remember that they receive all Sacraments from the hand of Christ Himself, and that the Priest is but an instrument in that hand.”

Among students of Church history widely divergent views are held about the origin of Holy Orders. The Roman Church has always maintained that the three Orders (Bishop, Priest and deacon) were instituted by Christ Himself, and that the first Bishops were consecrated by the apostles. Presbyterians and others, not themselves possessing the apostolic succession, contend that in the earliest times Bishops and presbyters were synonymous terms. They advance the idea that if a church was founded under Jewish influence its officers were called elders, but if Gentile influence predominated, the name of Bishop was used. Some of them attached great importance to the tactual succession, but consider that it is conveyed through the unbroken line of presbyters from Christ's day to this, and that there is consequently no need of the intervention of the Bishop. Bishop Lightfoot wrote a painstaking and scholarly essay on the question, taking the view that the priesthood and the diaconate were probably first instituted, and that the episcopate was added very soon afterwards, as the needs of the growing Church required it. When St. Ignatius wrote in the year A.D. 107 the three orders of Bishops, Priests and deacons were already considered necessary to the very name of a Church.

A document called the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, to which reference is made in the writings of some of the Fathers, was rediscovered in 1883 by Bryennios, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia. In this treatise there are some obscure passages bearing on this subject, which suggest that the earliest Orders were apostles, prophets and teachers, who were appointed charismatically or by direct inspiration, but that in addition to this there was a local and administrative ministry. The date and origin of the Didache, however, are unknown, though it must have been a very early production, and some writers are therefore not disposed to attach much weight to it. Bishop Gore, for example, speaks of it as emanating from a semi-Christian community, and Dr. Swete says that at best it illustrates the practice of some remote Church, and its trustworthiness as a historical monument has been called in question.

It appears to be true that in the earliest days of the Church there existed bodies of believers (indeed, one such is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles) who were unacquainted with sacramental rites, though some fragments of the preaching of the Christ had penetrated to them. It is quite possible that the Didache may represent the belief of such a body. The Rev. A. E. J. Rawlinson, in his essay in the will known book Foundations, graphically describes the position of the argument as one of stalemate. The historical evidence available is insufficient to prove any of the theories. On p. 384 he says: “All are more or less legitimate interpretations of the evidence; none is certainly demonstrable.” That fairly sums up the result of the large amount of minute and careful study which has been devoted to the question. Those who wish to read for themselves an impartial statement by scholars whose learning gives weight to their opinions may be referred to Essays on the Early History of the Church and the Ministry, edited by Dr. Swete. I select the following remarks from those of the editor, when epitomizing in his preface the conclusions at which the essayists arrive: “Primitive Christianity recognized . . . no assured gifts of grace outside the Catholic community. In the earlier stage the Bishop is a presbyter distinguished from other presbyters by his power of ordination. The theory of a charismatic ministry based upon the Didache is found to have no support from St. Paul's Epistles. It was the Gnostic peril of the second century which gave prominence to the principle of apostolic succession. When Gnosticism laid claim to a secret tradition derived from the apostles, the Catholic Church replied by pointing to churches whose Bishops could show an unbroken succession from apostolic founders. There is no ground for thinking that prophets were ever admitted to the presbyterate without ordination.” Another book on the subject is The Government of the Church in the first Century, by the Rev. William Moran; and a clear, terse statement of the Roman doctrine will be found in the article on Holy Orders in The Catholic Encyclopædia, from which I extract the following paragraph:

“The New Testament does not clearly show the distinction between presbyters and Bishops, and we must examine its evidence in the light of later times. Towards the end of the second century there is a universal and unquestioned tradition that Bishops and their superior authority date from Apostolic times. Towards the end of the second century there is a universal and unquestioned tradition that Bishops and their superior authority date from Apostolic times. It throws much light on the New-Testament evidence, and we find that what appears distinctly at the time of Ignatius can be traced through the pastoral epistles of St. Paul, to the very beginning of the history of the Mother Church at Jerusalem, where St. James, the brother of the Lord, appears to occupy the position of Bishop. Timothy and Titus possess full episcopal authority, and were ever thus recognized in tradition. No doubt there is much obscurity in the New Testament, but this is accounted for by many reasons. The monuments of tradition never give us the life of the Church in all its fullness, and we cannot expect this fullness, with regard to the internal organization of the Church existing in Apostolic times, from the cursory references in the occasional writings of the New Testament. The position of Bishops would necessarily be much less prominent than in later times. The supreme authority of the Apostles, the great number of charismatically gifted persons, the fact that various Churches were ruled by Apostolic delegates who exercised episcopal authority under Apostolic direction, would prevent that special prominence. The union between Bishops and presbyters was close, and the names remained interchangeable long after the distinction between presbyters and Bishops was commonly recognized, e.g., in Iren., Adv. hæres, IV, xxvi, 2. Hence it would seem that already, in the New Testament, we find, obscurely no doubt, the same ministry which appears so distinctly afterwards,”

Clairvoyant investigation into those early periods absolutely confirms the contention of the Roman Church.¹ In the minds of those who have learnt how to look back into the indelible records of the past there can be no doubt whatever that the Christ definitely intended and founded ² the three Orders of His Church; so for them this historical discussion is not of primary interest. They know that there has been no break in the apostolic succession, but they also know that the Gnostics were right in claiming the existence of a secret tradition—that the Christ, not only after His resurrection but even after His ascension, taught His apostles many things concerning the kingdom of heaven, and that of these “many things” some at least were by His order kept secret among the members of the Essene community to which He had belonged. The further explanation of all this, however, belongs rather to our later volume on Christian doctrine.

There are two groups of Orders in the Christian Church as it stands to-day—the minor and the major; and there is a preliminary stage leading up to each group. The minor Orders are four, and the ancient names may be translated as doorkeeper, reader, exorcist and acolyte. The preliminary step leading up to the first of these is the cleric.

The major Orders of the Church are three—deacon, Priest and Bishop. The step leading from the minor group to the major is that of the subdeacon. Let us tabulate them that we may have them clearly in mind.

These three last-mentioned are the only Orders universally recognized in the Church—the only Orders in the true and higher sense that they put the recipient in relation with the Christ as His representative, and confer definite powers. Minor Orders have their uses, but they do not do that, nor are they part of Christ's original institution, as are the major Orders.

The Minor Orders

There are many ways in which laymen can help in the Service of the Church, and it is a natural and beautiful idea that those who devote themselves to such work, as regularly and constantly as their worldly occupations will allow, should receive the Church's especial blessing on their labours. It was in this manner that minor Orders originally arose. They were not then intended as stages of progress, nor was it expected that any one man should pass through all of them; but each man was blessed for the work that he undertook to do. The doorkeeper had his little blessing, the lay-reader had his. Those who were found to be men of great faith and strong will, and so capable of curing cases of obsession, received a benediction which was aimed at strengthening them still further for that work; while those who showed especial devotion, purity and holiness of life were chosen and blessed for the actual service of the Altar.

So these four Orders came into existence, and it was only at a considerably later date that they were arranged in their present order, and regarded as necessary or at any rate desirable preliminaries to the greater Orders. Though the Roman Church places them thus consecutively, her Services for these minor Orders take no note of the fact, and are evidently relics of the time when each stood alone. In the Liberal Catholic Church, we have thought it well to emphasize their sequence, and to make clear the precise effect which each is intended to produce. The charges put in the mouth of the Bishop in our Liturgy explain this so well that it will be enough for our present purpose to reproduce them almost without comment.

The Orders of Cleric

The cleric dedicates himself to the divine service, and is willing to make some sacrifice for it; go give up a good deal of his spare time, for example, to helping in religious work, or to put aside worldly ambition in order to devote himself to the needs of the sanctuary. In older days he cut off his hair as a token of this readiness to sacrifice, for at that time long and scented hair was considered a great glory. The real reason for the tonsure, which however was never mentioned and probably not even widely known, was to leave uncovered the force-centre at the top of the head (the gateway to which we referred when considering the Sacrament of Baptism) so that there might be not even the slightest hindrance in the way of the psychic force which in their meditations the candidates were intended to try to arouse.

In the charge which he gives to the clerics the Bishop outlines for them the whole course which lies before those who wish to take minor Orders, laying stress upon the control and care of the physical body which marks this first step on the upward path. He speaks as follows:

Those who in ancient days desired to dedicate their lives to the service of Christ's holy church were admitted, as a preliminary step, to this Order of Cleric. Being set apart from the life of the world, they were admonished to put away worldly distractions and secular desire, the abandonment of which, as typified by outer adornment of the person, was indicated by the shaving of hair from the head and the relinquishment of secular garb.

You, who now come before us, are likewise minded to dedicate yourselves to the service of Christ, and desire to enter this ancient Order that you may receive help and instruction in preparing yourselves for the life of service. In these later days it is no longer necessary to be tonsured or to wear a special dress outside of the Church; but none the less is it true that he who wishes faithfully to serve the Christ must set himself apart from the world, in that considerations of Christ's work must take pre-eminence over the fulfilment of merely personal desires.

In this grade of cleric you set before yourselves a great and glorious ideal—to become fellow-workers with God, to co-operate in His Plan for the perfecting of His creation. For this you must both learn self-control and acquire additional powers. Instead of allowing your body to direct and enslave you, you should endeavour to live for the soul. Wherefore as a first step you must learn in this grade of cleric to control, and rightly to express yourselves through, the physical body, as in the next stage, that of doorkeeper, it will be your duty to control and rightly to develop, the emotions, that whatever power in them lies may be used for the service of God. In the grade of reader you are taught to take in hand the powers of the mind and devote those also to God's service. Having thus diligently laboured at the training of the body, the emotions and the mind, you enter upon a higher phase of your work, and in the Order of Exorcist you develop more definitely the power of the will, that you may conquer evil in yourselves and such evil suggestions as may be imposed upon you from outside; also you will now the better be able to help others to cast out evil from their natures. Above the grade of exorcist lies that of acolyte, wherein your task is to quicken the intuition and to open yourselves to all manner of spiritual influence.

Beyond these grades, which among us are intended for the many, there lies for the few a higher, though straiter service in which the man is to set himself wholly apart for the service of the Christ, and, having passed the probationary grade of subdeacon, enters upon the greater Orders of deacon and Priest. but even should you elect not to enter upon this higher path, yet happy indeed will you be, for even in the minor Orders you will have unfolded many powers within yourselves, and with those powers rightly developed and trained will be able to offer acceptable service to Him in whose service there is perfect freedom.

In this Order of Cleric, then, you must learn self-control with regard to the body. It must be trained to habits of accuracy and neatness; it must be kept in perfect health, and cleanliness, and you must see that it devotes its energies to God's service, not in disorderliness and selfishness, but in harmony and rhythm. In your gesture, in your manner and your speech, strive to show forth the ideal of beauty, never forgetting that our physical bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Moreover, as you learn to respect your own body, so must you scrupulously respect the bodies of others, picturing them ever as the temple of the eternal Beauty.

The charge being ended, the candidates kneel before the Bishop, who rises and says:

O Lord Christ, who art ever ready to receive and to strengthen the earnest aspirations of Thy children, look down in Thy love upon these Thy servants who desire to become worthy to serve Thee as clerics in Thy holy Church. Sanctify them, O Lord, with Thy heavenly grace, that growing continually in virtue they can rightly practice the duties of their office and so be found acceptable in Thy sight, O Thou great King of Love, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  R. Amen

The ordinands kneel before the Bishop in succession. He places his right hand on the head of each, as he says:

In the Name of Christ our Lord, I admit thee to the Order of Cleric.

The Bishop places a surplice on each of the ordinands, saying to him:

I clothe thee with the vesture of holiness, and do admonish thee diligently to develop the powers that are in thee, that thy service may be of good effect.

Having ordained the several candidates, he blesses the new clerics in the following words:

The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost come down upon you, that you may rightly fulfil that which to-day you have undertaken.  R. Amen

The Order of Doorkeeper

The special object set before the doorkeeper for attainment is a general purification and control of the emotional side of his nature. The bishop's charge to him is as follows:

It was the duty of the doorkeeper in olden times to ring the church bells, to open the church at the appointed times to the faithful but to keep it even closed to unbelievers, to open the book for the preacher and to guard with diligence the church furniture, lest any should be lost. In our time these functions no longer appertain to the Order of Doorkeeper, but rather do we treat them as symbolical and invest them with a moral significance. It will thus be your duty as doorkeepers to keep the keys of your heart, to open the heart at all times for the expression of that which is noble and good, but sternly to keep it closed against evil and unworthy suggestions. As it is your duty to keep your own heart, so should you also seek to predispose the hearts of others to things which are beautiful, and seek in persuasive language to set forth to them the attractiveness of noble ideals. Thus may you, in these days, discharge the duties of service which marked the work of our earlier brethren.

In this degree you learn control of the emotions and passions, as before you learned to master the crude instincts of the physical body. There are those who have thought of emotions as necessarily evil, and have taught others to uproot it from the nature. Not for you is it to think thus. God had given us the power to feel emotion, and it, too, is a power which can become mighty in His service. At whatever stage a man's emotions may be, they represent the working of the divine power within him, and should not be suppressed, but raised and consecrated to the service of God. If through carelessness or selfishness the emotions have been allowed to become self-centered, it is our duty not to kill them out, but to purify and raise them; to substitute for devotion to our own pleasure devotion to God and humanity; to put aside, as far as may be, affection for self for the affection that gives, caring nothing for any return; not to ask love, but to give love. Hence it is your task as doorkeepers to train your emotions, laying them as a gift on Christ's holy Altar, that they too may be used in His service.

The Bishop then formally admits them to the Order, and hands each in turn a key and a bell. Each ordinand locks and unlocks the door of the church and rings the bell thrice. The Bishop says to him:

Like as he who bears the key throws open the church for the use of all mankind, so shalt thou throw open the doors of thy heart for the service of thy brethren. And as he who rings the bell summons men to divine worship, so by the force of good example shalt thou also summon men to the service of God.

The Order Of Reader

As in the last stage the candidate is intended to learn to control his emotional nature, so in this stage it is his business to learn to wield the forces of the mind, and the power which the Bishop pours into him is specially directed to strengthen him for that purpose. So the charge runs:

We learn from ancient tradition that it belonged to the reader in olden times to read for him who was about to preach, to intone the lessons, to bless bread and all first-fruits. The passage of time has stripped the office of reader of these duties and its functions, but it is still of the essence of his office that he dedicate the gift of his mind to the glory of God. You have learned in the preceding Orders that you should control the physical body and train the emotions for service; and you will have seen from experience that in so far as your affection has been bestowed upon others you have greatly helped to develop affection in them. It is now your duty at once to train your own mind and to influence for good the minds of others. As you have had to conquer and control wrong tendencies of emotion, so now is it also necessary to discipline your thought; for just as you know that the physical body is not yourself, nor your emotions, however glorious and beautiful they may be, so also the mind is not you. Your thought is a power, splendid and great, given to you for the service of God; it also has to be your servant and not your master. It needs careful training. and that training is the especial purpose of this step you are about to take. You will find yourself prone to wandering thought; this you must conquer. You must develop within yourself the power of concentration, that you may study effectively and communicate the results of that study to others.

As you had to learn to purify emotion, so also must your mind be pure. As you learned to perceive the necessity for physical cleanliness, or to throw off with repugnance the lower emotions, so also must you thrust away unworthy thought, remembering that all thought is unworthy that is impure, selfish, mean or base; such, for example, as would seek for flaws instead of gems in thinking of the character or work of another. All such thought is impure beside the white light of the thought of the Christ, Who is our pattern and perfect ensample. Wherefore as a reader it is your duty to train and develop the powers of your mind, to study and fit yourself that you may help to train and develop the minds of others.

The prayer and the form of admission are as before, and the Bishop hands a book to each ordinand, saying:

Study diligently the Sacred Science, that thou mayest the better be able to devote thy mind and all its powers to the service of God.

The Order Of Exorcist

The ordination of the cleric is intended to act principally on the etheric body, that of the doorkeeper on the astral, and that of the reader or lector on the mental. Continuing the sequence, the ordination of the exorcist is aimed at the causal body, and is intended to develop the will and to give the soul fuller control of the lower vehicle. The Bishop's exhortation is as follows:

It was the duty of the exorcist in the ancient Church to cast out devils, to warn the people that non-communicants should make room for those who were going to communion, and to pour out the water needed in divine service. The book of exorcism was handed to him with the words: “Take and commit this to memory, and receive the power to lay hands on demoniacs, whether they be baptized or catechumens.” The candidate was admonished that as he cast out devils from the bodies of others he should rid his own mind and body of all uncleanness and wickedness, lest he be overcome by those whom he drove out of others by his ministry. For then only would he be able safely to exercise mastery over the demons in others, when he should first have overcome their manifold wickedness within himself.

Such exorcism as is now performed in the Church is undertaken only by those who have been ordained Priest, and even for them a special authorization is usually required; also with the passage of time the other duties attaching to the office of exorcist have fallen into abeyance. Moreover, our conception of these matters is different in some respects from that entertained in former times. Men of old thought of temptation as being due to the attacts of demons from without. But in truth this not generally so. There lies behind each one of us a past which, since we are growing in grace, must have been less desirable than the present. There are habits, very instinct, built into the bodies, which rise against us when we try to live the higher life. This which we try to conquer is not a devil of great power attaching us from outside, not is it even inherent wickedness in ourselves. It is the consequence and relic of earlier action permitted in days of ignorance. In the grade of exorcist it is your duty by strenuous effort to develop the power of will, and by it exercise to cast out from yourselves the evil spirit of separateness and selfishness. Having learned to control your own evil habits, you will have greater power to help others to cast out the evil from themselves, not only by example but by precept, and even by direct action on our part. In olden times it was often true and still in rare cases remains true, that, through weakness or by persistence in evil, men allow their bodies to become obsessed or partially controlled by evil spirits. To some, especial power and authority is given to hold unclean spirits in check and to cast out this evil influence from the bodies of others. There are some, too, who possess the gift of healing, and are able by the virtue flowing from then to alleviate suffering and sooth afflictions of the body; this gift may likewise be strengthened in the Order of Exorcist; indeed, in ancient times the exorcist was regarded as a healer in the Church.

Wherefore, dearly beloved sons, strive diligently in this new office to which you are called to exercise mastery over yourselves, that you may the more effectively help others to gain a similar mastery over their weakness.

The symbols handed by the Bishop to the ordinand are in this case a sword and a book, and as he given them he says:

Take this sword for a symbol of the will, and this book for a symbol of knowledge, whereby thou shalt be strong in the warfare of the spirit.

The Order Of Acolyte

This is assuredly the most important of the four minor Orders, not only because it qualifies its recipient for direct service at the Altar, but because its special outpouring of force is intended to develop and stimulate within him the power of the higher intuition. The charge is this:

It was the duty of the acolyte in olden times to carry the candlestick, to light the tapers and lamps of the church, and to present wine and water for the eucharistic offering. These duties are no longer confined to the acolyte, but are usually discharged by lay boys or men; therefore, as in the case of the previous Orders, we treat the duties as symbolical and invest them with a moral significance. Where the acolyte served before the Altar of the church you now serve before the altar of the human heart, on which each man must truly offer himself as a sacrifice to God. You will have noticed that in the former degrees the training consisted partly in the cultivation of your own powers, but also in learning to exercise those powers for the helping of others. Assuredly this training through which you have passed were vain did it not lead you for Christ's sake to consecrate your powers to wider interests of humanity. Remember the words of the Christ, how He said: “Whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant: even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.” Wherefore as you are about to offer yourself to Him to be enrolled in the fellowship of those who seek to be in very truth spiritual servers of the world, do you endeavour in singleness of heart to perform the office you now undertake. For then only will you meetly present wine and water to be used at the sacrifice of God, when by the continual practice of unselfishness you shall have offered yourself as an acceptable sacrifice to God.

In the ancient symbolism of this Order the candidate, in addition to receiving a cruet as the visible token of this sacrifice, is also given a candlestick with a candle, and told that he is bound to light the lights of the church in the Name of the Lord. That lighting of lights may be your duty in the literal sense, and it should bear ever with you the spiritual light of Christ's holy Presence, and strive to enkindle that sense of His Presence within the hearts of your brethren, who form the great catholic Church of humanity. In many forms of religious faith light has been taken as a symbol of Deity—the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. That Light is universal, but it also dwells in the heart of man. It is our duty to see that Light in every one, however dimly it may burn, however veiled and darkened it may appear to our ordinary perception. And having learned thus to recognize the Light both in ourselves and in others, we may help them to cause that radiance of their inner Divinity to shine forth in its pristine glory and splendour, till the Light within becomes one with the universal Light without. To this end, indeed, are we constantly admonished in the words of the Christian Scriptures: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, but they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” Or as the Apostle Paul Speaks: “In the midst of 'a crooked and perverse generation' among whom shine ye as stars in the world.” Or again: “Let then your loins be girded about and lamps burning in your hands, that ye may be children of light.” “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”

This degree of acolyte is intended to help you to quicken your spiritual faculties, and especially the intuition through which the light of the divine love and wisdom may lighten your understanding. As you fulfil worthily your ministry by helping others, so shall you be helped by those Great Ones, whose ears are never deaf, whose hearts are never closed against the world They love.

At the end of his charge the Bishop presents to each ordinand two objects; first, a candlestick with a lighted candle in it, with the words: “As thou dost bear this visible light, so shalt thou ever shed around thee the brightness of the divine Light”; and secondly, a cruet, saying: See to it that thou dost pour out thy life in union with the great Sacrifice by which the world is maintained.”

It will be seen that with us the minor Orders represent a series of definite opportunities for spiritual progress. A common custom in later centuries has been to confer them all on the same day; but one can see that they might effectively be separated by periods of some months, during which the candidate might make a determined effort towards the unfoldment of the characteristics required by each stage, and might be assisted therein by selected meditations, by special advice, or by a course of classes or lectures. The admission into one of these Orders cannot of course confer the qualities assigned to it; but the Bishop, as he lays his hand on the head of the ordinand, pours into him a current of force calculated to stimulate their growth, and to provide a reservoir of energy upon which the recipient can draw for that purpose.

As stated in our Liturgy, lay boys or men are now frequently permitted to serve at the Altar, and a little Service for the admission of a layman to that office is provided in our prayer-book; but when at all possible it is eminently desirable that those who do so should take these minor Orders, that they may be to some extent set apart for the holy work which they are privileged to do. It is obvious, however, that no one should be recommended for such Orders unless he is known to be of good character and really devoted to the work of the Church.

It is appropriate that those who have taken one or other of these steps should, while taking part in the Services of the Church, wear some small badge or token of their Order—say, a key for the door-keeper, a book for the lector, a sword for the exorcist, a sun with rays for the acolyte. Such badges might either be embroidered on silk and attached to the surplice or cotta, or made of metal and suspended by a chain or ribbon.

The Major Orders

We come now to the consideration of the greater Orders of the Church—those which definitely confer power. Putting aside the subdiaconate, which is purely preparatory and confers no power, these major Orders are three—Bishop, Priest and deacon. The deacon is practically a kind of apprentice or assistant Priest. He has not yet the power to consecrate the Sacrament, to bless the people or to forgive their sins; he may baptize children, but, as I have already explained, even a layman is permitted to do that in case of emergency. After a year in the diaconate he is eligible for ordination as a Priest, and it is this second ordination which confers upon him the fuller power to draw forth the force from the reservoir to which I have already referred. To him is then given the power to consecrate the Host and also various other objects, to bless the people in the Name of the Christ, and to pronounce the forgiveness of their sins. In addition to all these powers, the Bishop has that of ordaining other Priests, and so carrying on the apostolic succession. He alone has the right to administer the rite of Confirmation and to consecrate a church, that is to say, to set it apart for the service of God. These three are the only Orders which mean definite grades, separated from one another by ordinations which confer different powers. You may hear many titles applied to Christian clergy, such as those of Archbishop, archdeacon, dean, canon, prebendary, rector or vicar, but these are only the titles of offices, and involve differences of duty, but not of grade in the sense of spiritual power.

The clergy exist for the benefit of the world; they are intended to act as channels for the distribution of God's grace. Priests and Bishops have sometimes forgotten that primary fact, and have yielded to the temptation to seek power for themselves and for the branch of the Church to which they belong. Their duty is to explain the truth as they see it and to offer guidance and advice where it is needed; never under any circumstances have they the right to attempt to dominate the minds of others, or force them into any course of action. Any branch of the Church which entangles itself in politics thereby betrays its spiritual heritage and departs from the path which our Lord has marked out for it; and in so doing it lays itself open to the just condemnation of honest and right-thinking men.

I fear there is little doubt that the great Roman Church has laid herself open to this charge in the past, and is even now open to it in various parts of the world. The condition existing in the Middle Ages is well expressed in a recent book of considerable influence. “The Roman pontiff, clinging to political claims, unable to conceive the Church's function as essentially spiritual, became merely one in a crowd of jostling monarchs. The Church became one of the great powers of Europe, and fell into grave danger of ceasing to be the channel of the power of God. The energies and genius of faithful churchmen were required in the service of upholding her political interests, bargaining and plotting with the mob of diplomats, winning worldly allies, brow-beating weak foes and fawning upon strong ones. The Church began to look as if she were existing for her own sake, and for her own sake not as the Bride of Christ, but as a political and financial corporation whose hand was at one time or another against every nation, and every nation's hand against her.”[1]

Most sincerely do I hope, most firmly do I trust, that our Liberal Catholic Church, which begins its career under such benign auspices, may never thus be false to Christ our Lord and Master; for His kingdom is not of this world; His throne is the heart of man.

The grace of God is the life of God, and it is poured incessantly upon the world in many ways and at many levels. It is one of the purposes of every religion to provide its people with channels for this outpouring, and to prepare them to take full advantage of it. It is obviously the will of God that as His people climb higher and higher up the ladder of evolution, and so learn to see Him more clearly and to comprehend His plan better, they should have the opportunity and the privilege of co-operating in this mighty and wonderful scheme of His. To understand how they can do this we need a little knowledge of what may be called the physics of the higher worlds—the laws under which these mighty forces act, and the way in which advantage can be taken of them.

On every plane of His solar system God pours forth His light, His power, His life; and naturally it is on the higher planes that this outpouring of divine strength can be given most fully. The descent from each plane to that next below it means an almost paralysing imitation—a limitation entirely incomprehensible except to those who have experienced the higher possibilities of human consciousness. Thus the divine life flows forth with incomparably greater fullness at the mental level than at the astral; and yet even its glory in the mental world is ineffably transcended by that at the intuitional level. Normally each of these wondrous waves of influence spreads about its appropriate plane (horizontally, as it were), but it does not pass into the obscuration of a world lower than that for which it was originally intended.

Yet there are conditions under which the grace and strength peculiar to a higher plane may in a measure be brought down to a lower level, and may be spread abroad there with wonderful effect. Repeated experiment and long-continued patient investigation show us that this happens only when a special channel is for the moment opened; and that work must be done from below and by the effect of man. When a man's thought or feeling is selfish, the energy which it produces moves in a closed curve, and thus inevitably returns and expends itself upon its own level; but when the thought or feeling is absolutely unselfish, its energy rushes forth in an open curve, and thus does not return in the ordinary sense, but pierces through into the plane above, because only in that higher condition, with its additional dimension, can it find room for its expansion.

But in thus breaking though, such a thought or feeling may be said to hold open a door of size equivalent to its own diameter, and thus furnishes the requisite channel through which the divine force appropriate to the higher plane can pour itself into the lower with marvellous results, not only for the thinker but for others. An infinite flood of the higher type of force is always ready and waiting to pour through when the channel is offered, just as the water in a cistern may be said to be waiting to pour through the first pipe that may be opened. The result of such a descent of the divine life is not only a great strengthening and uplifting of the maker of the channel, but also the radiation all about his of a most powerful and beneficial influence. This effect has often been described as an answer to prayer, and has been attributed by the ignorant to what they call a special interposition of providence, instead of to the unerring action of the great and immutable divine law.

It will be readily understood that the great Saints and Angels have a power of devotion far above our own, and that their efforts can reach higher levels than we can at present hope to attain. There have been Saints in all religions, and for millenniums these great ones have been flooding the world with spiritual power of the most exalted type, so that what may be called a great reservoir of such force has been formed, which is under certain conditions available for the helping and uplifting of humanity. Many holy men and women, especially those of the contemplative orders, devote themselves all unconsciously to this work; and even we, in our humbler way, may share that glorious privilege.

Tiny though our efforts may be as compared with the splendid outpouring of force of the Saint or Angel, we also can add our little drops to the great store in that reservoir, and we can do it by the unselfish love or devotion of which I have just written. Not only does such a thought or feeling hold open the door of heaven, as I have described, but the grandest and noblest part of its force ascends to the very throne of God Himself, and the magnificent response of benediction which instantly pours forth from Him falls into that reservoir for the helping of mankind. So that it is within the power of every one of us, even the weakest and the poorest, to help the world in this most beautiful manner. It is this adding to the reservoir of spiritual force which is the truth that lies behind the curious idea of works of supererogation.

The arrangement made by the Christ with regard to His new religion was that of a kind of special compartment of that reservoir should be reserved for its use, and that a set of officials should be empowered by the use of certain special ceremonies, certain words and sign of power, to draw upon it for the spiritual benefit of their people.

The scheme adopted for passing on the power is what is called ordination, and thus we see at once the real meaning of the doctrine of the apostolic succession, about which there has been so much of argument. To this I shall return later.

The economy and efficiency of the whole plane of the Christ depend upon the fact that much greater powers can easily be arranged for a small body of men, who are spiritually prepared to receive them, then could possibly be universally distributed without a waste of energy which could not be contemplated for a moment. In the Hindu religion, for example, every man is a priest for his own household, and therefore we have to deal with millions of such priests of all possible varieties of temperament, and not in any way specially prepared. In Christianity the scheme of the ordination of the Priests gives a greater power to a limited number, who have by that very ordination been specially set apart for the work.

Carrying the same principle a little further, still higher powers are given to a still smaller number—the Bishops. They are made channels for the force which confers ordination, and for the much smaller manifestation of the same force which accompanies the rite of Confirmation. The hidden side of these ceremonies is always of great interest to the student of the realities of life. There are many cases now, unfortunately, where all these things are mere matters of form, and though that does not prevent their result, it does minimize it; but where the old forms are used as they were meant to be used, the unseen effect is out of all proportion to anything that is visible in the physical world.

It is by this Sacrament of Holy Orders that a man is endowed with power to draw for certain definite purposes upon the reservoir of which I have written. The three stages of deacon, Priest and Bishop represent three degrees of this power, and at the same time three degrees of connection with the Lord. Each ordination confers its own special powers, and as the ordinand rises from one rank in the Church to the other he draws nearer and nearer to his great Master the Christ. He comes more and more closely into touch, and he controls more and more of the mighty reservoir. In that reservoir itself there are different levels and different degrees of power. The working of the whole scheme can be to some extent indicated or symbolized by a diagram, and we shall presently try to help our comprehension of it by that means; but naturally anything in the nature of a mechanical drawing can only very faintly adumbrate what is really taking place. For all these forces are living and divine; and though there is a mechanical side to their working, there is always also another which can never be portrayed by drawings or by words.

This reserved portion of the reservoir is not easy to describe. It extends through several planes or states of matter, and if we try to represent it by a form confined to our three dimensions, the nearest we can come to an expression of it is a vast bell-shaped object not unlike a Buddhist dagoba. (Diagram 10.) It is divided into three parts, which we have labeled A, B and C. The ordination of a deacon puts him in touch with the rim of the bell, marked C, and enables him to draw strength from it—strength, primarily, for his own progress and for his preparation for the reception of that which is to come; yet he may also to some extent pass it on to others by an effort of his will, and so he can help people both astrally and mentally.

But it is at the next stage, that of the priesthood, that the real power begins. The Priest draws from the part marked B, the main body of the form; by his ordination the ego (or soul) has been more definitely awakened, and thus he can act directly upon other souls at the level of the causal body. It is this relation which gives him the power to straighten out the distortion caused by deviation from the path of right, and so it is said that he can remit sin. In him also is vested the power to bless, and to offer the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist. The strength which the Priest brings down is not for himself, but for the flock which is committed to his care.

The spire of the dagoba, the handle of the bell-form (marked A ) reaches up into the intuitional and spiritual planes; and it is upon this that the episcopate can draw. The Bishop is intended to be a veritable manifestation of the Christ principle, capable of radiating that upon all with whom he comes into contact. The power for good which lies within his reach is not easily to be exaggerated.

so there are two aspects of ordination—the gift of the Holy Ghost, which provides the key to the reservoir, and the personal link of the Christ Himself with His minister. The former of these is the official connection which enable a Priest, for example, to consecrate the Host and to dispense absolution and blessing. This is the irreducible minimum of power, which is equally possessed by all properly ordained Priests, and is quite independent of their acquirements in other directions—their spiritual or devotional development, for example, or their comprehension of the mechanism of the Sacraments which they administer—just as a man may be a rapid and accurate telegraphist, even though he does no know what electricity is, and though his moral character is not above reproach.

Many people think this strange, because they have not grasped the nature of the Priest's relation to the Sacrament. If the Host were a talisman into which he had to put his personal magnetism, obviously the nature of that magnetism would be all-important. There is, however, here no question of magnetization, but of the due performance of a certain ceremony, in which the character of the performer has nothing to do with the matter. If the faithful had to institute an exhaustive enquiry into the private character of a Priest before they could feel certain of the validity of the Sacraments received from his hands, an element of intolerable uncertainty would be introduced, which would practically render inutile this wondrously-conceived device of the Christ for the the helping of His people. He has not planned His gracious gift so ineptly as that. To compare great things to small, to attend a celebration of the Holy Eucharist is like going to a bank to draw out a sum of money in gold; the tellers' hands may be clean or dirty, and assuredly cleanliness is preferable to dirt; but we obtain the gold all the same in either case. It is obviously better from all points of view that the Priest should be a man of noble character and deep devotion, and should thoroughly understand, so far as mortal man may, the stupendous mystery which he administers; but whether all this be so or not, the key which unlocks a certain door has been placed in his hands, and it is the opening of the door which chiefly concerns us.

I cannot do better than repeat here some part of what I wrote in The Hidden Side of Things on this subject, when I first investigated it:

“First, only those Priests who have been lawfully ordained, and have the apostolic succession, can produce this effect at all. Other men, not being part of this definite organization, cannot perform this feat, no matter how devoted or good or saintly they may be. Secondly, neither the character of the Priest, nor his knowledge or ignorance as to what he is really doing, affects the result in any way whatever.

“If one thinks of it, neither of these statements ought to seem to us in any way astonishing, since it is obviously a question of being able to perform a certain action, and only those who have passed through a certain ceremony have received the gift of the ability to perform it. Just in the same way, in order to be able to speak to a certain set of people one must know their language, and a man who does not know that language cannot communicate with them, no matter how good and earnest and devoted he may be. Also his ability to communicate with them is not affected by his private character, but only by the one fact that he has, or has not, the power to speak to them which is conferred by knowledge of their language. I do not for a moment say that these other considerations are without their due effect; I shall come to that later, but what I do say is that no one can draw upon this particular reservoir unless he has received the power to do so which comes from a due appointment given according to the direction left by the Christ.

“I think that we can see a very good reason why precisely this arrangement has been made. Some plan was needed which should put a splendid outpouring of force within the reach of every one simultaneously in thousands of churches all over the world. Perhaps it might be possible for a man of most exceptional power and holiness to call down through the strength of his devotion an amount of higher force commensurate with that obtained through the rites which I have described. But men of such exceptional power are always excessively rare, and it could never at any time in the world's history have been possible to find enough of them simultaneously to fill even one thousandth part of the places where they are needed. But here is a plan whose arrangement is to a certain extent mechanical; it is ordained that a certain act when duly performed shall be the recognized method of bringing down the force; and this can be done with comparatively little training by anyone upon whom the power is conferred. A strong man is needed to pump up water, but any child can turn on a tap. It needs a strong man to make a door and to hang it in its place, but when it is once on its hinges any child can open it.

“Being myself a Priest ordained in the Church of England, and knowing how keen are the disputes as to whether that Church really has the apostolic succession or not, I was naturally interested in discovering whether its Priests possessed this power. I was much pleased to find that they did; but I also soon found by examination that ministers of what are commonly called dissenting sects did not possess this power, no matter how good and earnest they might be. Their goodness and earnestness produced plenty of other effects which I shall presently describe, but their effects did not draw upon the particular reservoir to which I have referred.

“I was especially interested in the case of one such minister whom I knew personally to be a good and devout man, and also a well-read student of the inner things. Here was a man who knew much more about the real meaning of the act of consecration than nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand of the Priests who constantly perform it; and yet I am bound to admit that his best effort did not produce this particular effect, while the others as unquestionably did. (Once more, of course, he produced other things which they did not—of which more anon.) If we think of it, we must see that it could not have been otherwise. suppose, for example, that a certain sum of money is left by a rich Freemason for distribution among his poorer brethren, the law would never sanction the division of that money among any others than the Freemasons for whom it was intended; and the fact that other poor people outside the Masonic body might be more devout or more deserving would not weigh with it in the slightest degree.

“Another point which interested me greatly was the endeavour to discover to what extent, of at all, the intention of the Priest affected the result produced. In the Roman Church I found many Priests who went through the ceremony somewhat mechanically, and as a matter of daily duty, without any decided thought on the subject; but whether from ingrained reverence or from long habit they always seemed to recover themselves just before the moment of consecration and to perform that act with a definite intention.

“I turned then to what is called the Low Church divisions of the Anglican community to see what would happen with them because I knew that many of them would reject altogether the name of Priest, and though they might follow the rubric in performing the act of consecration, their intention in doing it would be exactly the same as that of ministers of various denominations outside the Chruch. Yet I found that the Low Churchman could and did produce the effect, and that the others outside did not. Hence I infer that the “intention” which is always said to be required must be no more than the intention to do whatever the Church means, without reference to the private opinion of the particular Priest as to what that meaning is. Indeed, there was once a Bishop so blatant in his ignorance as explicitly to state to his unfortunate candidates for ordination that he did not ordain them as sacrificing Priests, but only as gospel ministers. Yet even in a case so extreme as this, his ill-directed will was unable to render nugatory what his Church intended him to do. Verily it is true that all Sacraments are received from the hands of Christ Himself, no matter how weak and ignorant may be the instruments through whom they come. I have no doubt that many people will think that all this ought to be quite differently arranged, but I can only report faithfully what my investigations have shown me to be the fact.

“I must not for a moment be understood as saying that the devotion and earnestness, the knowledge and the good character of the officiant make no difference. They make a great difference; but they do not affect the power to draw from that particular reservoir. When the Priest is earnest and devoted, his whole feeling radiates out upon his people and calls forth similar feelings in such of them as are capable of expressing them. Also his devotion calls down its inevitable response, and the down-pouring of force thus evoked benefits his congregation as well as himself; so that a Priest who throws his heart and soul into the work which he does may be said to bring a double blessing upon his people, though the second class of influence can scarcely be considered as being of the same order of magnitude as the first. This second outpouring, which is drawing down by devotion itself, is of course to be found just as often outside the Church as within in it.

The additional power of helpfulness which the Priest may develop depends largely upon his cultivation of the second gift which he receives at ordination—the personal link established between himself and his Lord and Master. This also was explained by the Christ to His apostles; He tells them that He has prayed to his Father that they may be one with Him in the same way that He is one with His Father. People think of such sayings quite vaguely, and do not realize that they refer to definite scientific facts. Again He says with absolute clearness: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

If we examine the inner side of the ceremony of ordination, we shall see that there is a special sense in which this promise is kept. It is not merely that there is the Christ principle in the Priest, as there is in every man; so great is the wonderful love, and condescension of the great World-Teacher that by the act of ordination He draws His Priest into a close personal union with Him, creating a definite link through which the divine force can flow, making them channels for Him in imitation, at an almost infinitely lower level, of the mysterious and wonderful way in which He is a channel for the Second Aspect, the Second Person of the Ever-blessed Trinity. Of course there are many Priests who are entirely unconscious of this; unfortunately there are also many who so live as to make but little use of the splendid possibility which this channel opens for them. Nevertheless this statement is entirely true; and therefore to describe Him as still present with His Church, is still definitely guiding those who lay themselves open to His influence, is no mere figure of speech, but the expression of a sublime reality.

A diagram cannot express this great spiritual truth, but it may help us to understand a little of the method of its working. Anything which does that has its value, because the fact becomes more real to us when we are thus enabled to see a little more of it. Those who have not yet opened within themselves the power of clairvoyant sight cannot actually see these processes taking place, as some of us can; but they can form their own opinion as to the reasonableness of what is reported by those of us who do see, and they can also obtain a good deal of corroborative evidence on various points—sometimes from their own feelings, sometimes from those of others. For those who know me I offer my assurance that all which is here recorded is the result of oft-repeated observation and experiment, so that I have no doubt of its accuracy as far as it goes.

I have remarked in an earlier chapter that God made man in His own image, and that consequently the soul in man shows a threefold manifestation corresponding at his level to the threefold manifestation of the Deity; and also that in this case the lower is not a mere reflection or symbol of the higher, but actually in some way an expression of it.

The true man, the Monad (marked 1 in Diagram 11), is a spark of the divine life existing on a plane to which, because of that, we give the name of monadic. That plane is at present beyond the reach of our clairvoyant investigation, and the highest which any of us actually know of man from direct observation is the manifestation of that Monad as the Triple Spirit a stage lower. Each of the three aspects or division of this spirit has its own qualities and characteristics. The first stays at ist own level, while the second descends (or more correctly, moves outwards) to the intuitional plane; the third moves down (or out) through two stages, and shows itself in the higher part of the mental world as intelligence. It is these three manifestations (numbered 2, 5 and 7 in the diagram) taken together which constitute the soul or ego in man; it inhabits the causal body, and in that body is often called the augoeides. It passes from life to life unchanged, except for such development as may accrue to it from the good deeds of each incarnation. Behind the principles marked 5 and 7 (the intuition and the intelligence) there remain three others, in us still latent and undeveloped, which are marked 3, 4 and 6 (fig. 1, Diagram 11). It must of course be understood that 2, 5 and 7, though not actually latent like the others, are very far as yet from the full development which they will attain in the perfected spirit. (Fig. 10, Diagram 11.)

Christ our Lord is Perfect Man, as we are told in the Anthanasian Creed. In Him also therefore these principles exist in exactly the same order, but in His case all are fully developed and mystically one with the Second Person of the Ever-blessed Trinity. The second of the gifts conferred by ordination is the linking of certain of these principles in the ordinand with the corresponding principles of his Lord and Master, so that a definite channel is made down which spiritual strength and wisdom will flow, up to the fullest limit of the ordinand's receptivity.

This opening of a channel is so great a departure form ordinary life that it can be done only by stages, and the first step towards it is practically a psychic surgical operation. This is performed in the ordination to the diaconate, while the subdiaconate (Fig. 2, Diagram 11) is a time of preparation intended to bring the patient into a condition favourable to the success of the operation. The giving of the Holy Ghost described above, which confers priestly power, is full, definite, final for each of its stages, and the same in all cases; but this operation of linking the man to the Christ, while it can never fail, may yet succeed more fully in one case than in another, because of the subject's greater or less advancement along the path of evolution, which governs the degree of his sensitiveness to the divine influence. Also this sensitivity is cultivable; it can be very greatly increased after ordination by earnest aspiration and devotion, and the determined effort of the Priest to bring his human nature into harmony with the divine Nature—to live the life of the Christ.

In the ordination of a deacon, (Fig. 3, Diagram 11) the first drill is driven through the rock, and a definite link is made, the intelligence (marked 7 in the diagram) being joined to the corresponding principle in the Christ, so that the latter can influence the former, and stir it into beneficent activity. It does not at all follow that it will so affect it; that depends upon the deacon; but at least the way is laid open, the communication is established, and it is for him to make of it what he can. It is for him to acquire as much knowledge as he can of these inner things of the soul, and to strive earnestly to develop both the higher and the lower mind within himself, that in both he may reflect and express the thought of his Lord. “Let the same mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus.” He must endeavour to adapt himself to his new condition, to take full advantage of the opportunity which is offered to him. So will he be ready in due course to receive the higher benediction of the priestly Order.

DIAGRAM 11—The Awakening of the Human Principles at Ordination. In the diagram 1 represents the Monad; 2, 3 and 4 the Triple Spirit manifested in the spiritual world; 5 and 6 the dual Intuitional nature in the intuition world; 7 the Intelligence in the causal or soul body; 8, the link between the individual and the personality; while 9 represents the mind in the mental body.

 Fig. 1. In an intelligent and cultured layman the causal body is only partially awakened. There may also be slight awakening of the Intuition, 5, and even of the Spirit, 2. The link, 8, between the individuality and the personality is slight.

Fig. 2. At the ordination of the subdeaconate the connection, 8, is widened to prepare it for the sudden expansion which takes place at the next ordination.

Fig. 3 At the ordination to the deaconate the connection is widened to become a channel, and the Intelligence, 7, is linked with the corresponding principle of the Christ. Principle 5 may also in some case be awakened and made to low slightly, thereby establishing a slight line of connection between it and 7.

Fig. 4. At the first imposition of hands in the ordination of the priesthood principle 2 and 5 are made to glow, a line between 2 and 5 is established, while that already existing between 5 and 7 is intensified. The glow is usually slight in 2 but more marked in 5. The channel 8 is widened.

Fig. 5. At the second imposition of hands principle 5 in the new Priest is linked with that of the Christ, while the link previously made with 7 is strengthened. The oblique line between 2, 5 and 7 is intensified and 7 is opened still more to permit the flow of more force coming from the oblique line.

Fig. 6. The development of an ideal Priest is possible to a man of great determination who for years works at strengthening the connection between his own principles and those of the Christ. He can intensify the link made with 6 and 7, and can arouse to vigorous action principles 2 and 5, thereby making himself a channel of extraordinary power.

Fig. 7. At the consecration of a Bishop, when the actual words of consecration are said, principles 4 and 5 are linked with the Christ, and the links already made with 6 and 7 greatly increased

Fig. 8. When the head of the Bishop is anointed with chrism, his principles 2 and 3 glow out most wonderfully. The three lines connecting principles 4, 6 and 7 indicate that a Bishop can draw down into the causal body, and thus ray forth in blessing, the threefold power of the Triple Spirit.

Fig. 9. The development of an ideal Bishop is possible to one who takes advantage of every opportunity. All of his principles become responsive channels to the power and love of the Christ, and he becomes a veritable sun of spiritual energy and blessing.

Fig. 10. The perfect man is not only linked up with the Christ with his own Highest Self, the Monad, but becomes ever more and more an epiphany of the Logos, the Deity, who brought forth the solar system. He becomes the Master, for whom incarnation is no longer necessary.

The responsibility of the Priest is far greater, because so much more power is in his hands. For him the connection is pushed a stage higher, and the hitherto latent principle which we have numbered 6 is called into activity, and linked with that of the Christ. (Fig. 5, Diagram 11.) This also involves a widening of the tube from 7 which was previously opened, so that it can transmit a far greater volume of power. Furthermore, another type of connection comes into play, which is to the former as Marconi's discovery is to the ordinary form of telegraphy. To clairvoyant vision a clearly distinguishable line of fire links principles 6 and 7 in a Priest to his Master; but in addition to this, the spirit and intuition in him (marked 2 and 5 in Fig. 4, Diagram 11) are made to glow by sympathetic vibration in harmony with the blinding light of the corresponding principles in his Lord.

This effect is usually but slight in the case of the spirit, but is very marked in the intuition. Anyone in whom the faculty of clairvoyance is developed will at once understand the difference between these two methods of connection, but for a man who has not yet unfolded that inner sense it is probably impossible to indicate it except by the clumsy symbolism which I have just adopted. The result is that by this second aspect of ordination the Priest is united with his Master, and becomes “His man,” in a very real sense an outpost of His consciousness, a channel for His grace, an almoner to distribute His force to the people—in English country speech, the parson, which means of course nothing more than the person who represents Christ in a certain parish.

If we remember the derivation of the word person from the Latin per (through) and sona (a sound), and further bear in mind that persona was used to designate the mask which a Roman actor wore, through which came the sound of his voice, we shall begin to realize what the old word parson was intended to convey. Obviously it is the parson's part to vivify this sacred inner connection, and become more and more a personal manifestation of his Lord. All the more sad is it to have to recognize that thousands of Priests use only the mechanical link with the reservoir which enables them to do their official duty, and remain ignorant of this direct individual connection with the Christ whose ministers they are. Happily there are also many Priests who, without knowing anything about the science of it all, are nevertheless really beautiful and Christ-like in their lives, so that His power flows through them mightily and sweetly for the healing of His people.

The consecration of a Bishop represents the highest possibility of attainment along this line of Holy Orders. In his case two more very important links are added to those possessed by the Priest. In the first place, the line of the intelligence, first opened at the diaconate, and pressed a stage further up in the priesthood, is now immensely widened and pushed up to the furthest limit at present within our reach, the third aspect of the Triple Spirit, marked 4 in Diagram 11, Fig. 7.

Secondly, a direct connection is opened between the intuition (which we have marked 5) and the corresponding principle in our dear Lord. It is this function which gives the power to pass on the Orders, and it means also the potentiality of awakening the Christ principle to the second stage (3). In the Bishop, then, we find the direct connection operative for 4, 5, 6 and 7, and a strong sympathetic glow in 2 and 3. We see at once how closely affiliated is the Bishop to the Lord for whom he acts as legate, and what a tremendous power for good is put into his hands.

We shall now examine and comment upon the Services for the various stages of these major Orders.

The Subdiaconate

This is so essentially merely a preparation for what is to follow it that it has many of the characteristics of the minor Orders, and indeed it seems to have been counted among them until the middle of the Twelfth century. The earliest historical mention of the order is in a letter from Pope Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch in the year A.D. 255. St. Cyprian, writing in the same century, also refers to it, as does the synod of Elvira in Spain fifty years later. The Greek Church stills regards it as a minor Order, and the Church of England ignores it altogether. There is no reference to it in the New Testament, and it is not claimed that it was instituted by the Christ during His earth-life, or even by His immediate apostles. From the inner point of view it confers no power, but it does assist in preparing the way for what we have called the surgical operation of the diaconate.

In the Service of the Roman Church for the admission to this Order there is no imposition of hands, but there is in the Greek Service. In this respect we have followed the example of the latter, for our ritual directs the Bishop to lay his right hand upon the head of the ordinand, and admit him solemnly in the Name of Christ our Lord, just as was done in the case of the minor Orders. The Roman Church regards this Order as binding its recipient to celibacy and to daily recitation of the divine Office. The general purpose of the rite is clearly to enable the ego to express himself more freely through the personality. I will proceed, as before, to quote the Bishop's charge.

Dearly beloved sons, this Order of Subdeacon is a grade of probation of the greater Orders of Deacon and Priest. It gives to those who receive it greater strength and steadfastness of purpose, to the end that with singleness of heart they may dedicate their lives to Christ in His holy Church. So great, indeed, is the responsibility laid upon those who in these greater Orders become Christ's representatives, that a season of trial in this preparatory grade of the subdiaconate is oft-times appointed, wherein they who aspire to so sublime an estate may test themselves if need be, more especially if they be young in body or in experience of matters ecclesiastical, that they enter not lightly or unadvisedly upon so solemn an undertaking.

You, well-beloved sons, having already offered yourselves to the service of God and to help forward His kingdom upon earth, are now moved in your hearts to devote yourselves still further to His service and to that of your brethren. On this purpose we invoke the divine blessing; and, with the help and ready concurrence of the faithful here assembled, shall now proceed in the exercise of our office to bring you as a holy oblation into the Presence of Christ, not doubting that at the latter end you, having the witness of faithful service, will shine, pure and lustrous, as jewels in the crown of our Master.

In the Roman rite there follows here a wearisome and inappropriate litany, full of slavish appeals for mercy and deliverance. For this we have substituted a metrical litany of the Holy Spirit, which may be supposed to take, in this preparatory Service, the place occupied in the greater ordinations by the Veni Creator. The importance of these litanies, whether Roman or Liberal, centres in three petitions offered by the Bishop, in the course of which he makes a special effort, by the use of the sign of power, to purify the physical, astral and mental bodies of the candidates. One cross is made for the physical body, two for the astral and three for the mental. These three verses of the litany are sung by the Bishop alone; and for the more effective achievement of his task he rises from his knees, assumes his mitre and holds his crosier, so that, thus fully panoplied, he may be a more perfect channel for the divine force.  The verses are:

The closing verse of the litany is then sung by all, and the Bishop resumes his charge as follows:

Dearly beloved sons, who are about to be admitted to the Office of subdeacon, you should know what manner of ministry was in former times committed unto your Order. It appertained to the subdeacon to provide water for the service of the Altar, to minister to the deacon, to wash the Altar cloths and corporals, to present to the deacon the chalice and paten to be used at the sacrifice, to guard the church doors or the gates of the sanctuary, and in later times to read the Epistles before the people. Endeavour, then by fulfilling readily with neatness and diligence such of these visible ministries as are still part of your office, to show true reverence for the invisible things they may be said to typify. For the Altar of holy Church is the throne of Christ Himself, and it is indeed fitting that they who minister before it should walk circumspectly, and realize that upon them is laid the high honour of its guardianship. Do you therefore take heed that you be watchful sentinels of the heavenly warfare, so that, growing ever in virtue you may shine, lustrous and chaste, in the company of the saints. Strive earnestly to pattern yourselves after the ensample of our divine Master, that you may meetly minister at the divine sacrifice, as well in the invisible sanctuary of your hearts as in the visible sanctuary of holy Church.

From ancient times, also, it has been required of those who enter this Order that they strive to acquire certain virtues of character, such as are typified by the vestments delivered unto them. By the amice, control of speech; by the maniple, the love of service or diligence in all good works; by the tunicle, the spirit of joy and gladness, or freedom from care and depression, that is to say, confidence in the Good Law, which may be interpreted as a recognition of the Plan revealed by Almighty God for the perfecting of His creation.

The Bishop then asks from the ordinands a solemn promise that they will, as far as in them lies, order their lives in accordance with the precepts which he has laid down; and upon their assent, he extends his hands towards them and prays that their hearts and minds may be so opened to receive that which he is about to give them that they may be steadfast in Christ's service, and may so grow in knowledge that they may offer their lives as a holy and continual sacrifice unto Him. Herewith he makes over them the sign of the cross; and immediately thereafter each candidate kneels before him and is formally admitted to the Order of Subdeacon, just as in the minor Orders.

The effect of the subdiaconate must be considered in reference to what is to follow at the next step. At the ordination of a deacon a serious operation is to be performed, and it is felt that this will be more successful if a certain preparation has been undertaken. The Bishop attempts gently to widen the connection. (Fig. 2, Diagram 11) between the soul and the body, so that the former may be able more fully to work upon and through the latter.

The Bishop then proceeds to give to each neophyte what may not inappropriately be called the working tools of his degree, and to invest him with its especial badges. First he hands him an empty chalice and paten, admonishing him so to demean himself in his ministry as to be commendable in the sight of God. Then in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and with the triple sign of power he endures him with the amice, the maniple and the tunicle, in each case again referring to the virtues which these vestments are respectively supposed to signify. He then hands to each the book of Epistles, giving him authority to read them in God's holy Church both for the living and the dead; and he closes the ordination by a solemn blessing, giving especially to the end that the neophytes may preserve with steadfastness and zeal in the life which they have undertaken.

The degree of subdeacon can be conferred only during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and immediately after the recitation of the Collects; and after the ordination one of the newly-made subdeacons is appointed to read the Epistle of the day.

The Diaconate

The ordination of deacons takes place after the Epistle, and before the Gradual is sung. The Service begins with the presentation of the candidates by a Priest, who brings them before the Bishop and says:

Right Reverend Father, our holy Mother the Church catholic prays that you would ordain these subdeacons here present to the charge of the diaconate.

The Bishop asks whether he knows them to be worthy of this advancement, and he replies:

As far as human frailty allows me to judge, I do both know and attest that they are worthy of the charge of this office.

The Bishop then addresses the congregation as follows:

Dearly beloved brethren, these subdeacons here before you are presented for the Order of the Diaconate, to be irrevocably set apart for the service of the Christ by the gift of God's most holy Spirit. Mindful of the sacred trust reposed in us, we have sought to ensure that only such as may be profitable to Christ's holy Church be thus presented; yet for further precaution it is seemly that we should enquire if any know cause or just impediment why these persons should not be admitted to the exercise of the deacon's office. If, then, any of you know aught against them, in the Name of God and for the benefit of His Church, let him boldly come forward and speak; howbeit, let him be mindful of his own estate.

This last clause is intended to warn any possible objector of the danger of libel, and the necessity of being sure of his ground before venturing upon any adverse criticism. If no one speaks, the Bishop proceeds with the following short exhortation:

Dearly beloved sons, who are now about to be raised to the Order of Deacon, do you endeavour to receive it worthily, and blamelessly to fulfil its duties when you have received it. It appertains to the deacon to minister at the Altar, to read or intone the Gospel, to preach, and in the absence of the Priest to baptize. Wherefore, dearly beloved sons, as now you are charged to minister to the flock of Christ, be you raised above all unworthy propensities which war against the soul; be seemly, courteous in demeanour, and full of noble desires and of love for God and man, as befits the ministers of Christ and stewards charged to dispense the mysteries of God. And as you now have a share in offering and dispensing the Body and Blood of the Lord, as Holy Writ has it: “Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.” Be it your care to set forth to others, by living deeds, the gospel your lips will proclaim to them, that of you it may be said: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.”

He receives their promise that they will strive to use worthily the power which he is about to entrust to them. and they then lie prostrate before the Altar while the metrical litany is sung—not this time that of the Holy Ghost, but a special appeal to the Lord Christ, recognizing His Presence, announcing that the Bishop is about to use the power conferred upon him by the same Lord at his consecration, and asking that his hands may be strengthened for this great work.

The Bishop then recites a prayer in the course of which he twice makes the sign of the cross over the ordinands. The first time he does this with the intent of holding strongly the three vehicles which have been cleansed in the litany, and working up through them to the link which connects the personality with the soul—the link which the Indian philosophers call the antahkarana. The object here, as in the subdiaconate, is to widen that connection, and so give the soul more influence over his bodies.

If the Bishop has the good fortune to be clairvoyant, and so can see the pituitary body, and watch the action of the force which he is sending out, so much the better, for he can then direct it more scientifically. Having thus opened more fully the way up to the causal body, he aims his second cross at that body itself, with the object of carrying the same process a little further, so that the candidate may be able to receive more of the power of the Holy Ghost. Having thus prepared the way as far as may be, the traditional call to God the Holy Ghost is sent out—-the Veni Creator; and immediately thereafter the Bishop (wearing his mitre, and holding his crosier in his left hand) lays his right hand on the head of the ordinand and says:

Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a deacon in the Church of God.

At these words comes the downrush of the power; yet that term gives but an imperfect picture, for in reality that power flashes downward and upward many times with inconceivable rapidity, just as lightning does. The amount that a man can receive depends upon the preparation which he has made, the extent to which he has opened himself to the divine influence. The crust is now broken through, the link with his Lord and Master is made, as far as principle 7 is concerned (Fig. 3, Diagram 11); the channel has been widened, and it is for him to hold it in that improved condition by keeping the divine grace constantly flowing through it for the helping of his fellow-men.

This idea is put prominently before the newly-ordained deacon when the Bishop invests him with a white stole, saying:

Take thou the white stole for a symbol of thine office; remembering that as for the service and love of man thou dost exercise the power which now is in thee, so will it flow through thee in ever greater fullness and glory.

As he says this, he makes the sign of the cross over the heart of the deacon, so that an awakening or strengthening of the intuitional principle (5) which may have taken place at the moment of ordination shall be conserved and increased. The stole, which is always supposed to symbolize the yoke of Christ, denotes the deacon's office only because of the sash-like way in which he wears it over the left shoulder, and fastened under the right arm. The Priest wears it over both shoulders, to show that he has fully assumed the yoke and the responsibility, only a small part of which rests upon the deacon.

The Bishop then in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and with the triple cross, invests each new deacon with a dalmatic, saying:

The Lord clothe thee with the vesture of gladness, and ever encompass thee with the dalmatic of justice.

In the same holy Name, and with the same triple sign of power, he gives him authority to read the Gospel in the Church of God, both for the living and the dead. In each of these cases the threefold influence of which the Bishop is so especially the custodian is energized, poured forth, called strongly into manifestation, so that by playing upon the corresponding principles in the ordinand it stirs them into sympathetic vibration, so that they are, at any rate for the time, enormously more active and receptive than ever before. It is for the deacon to see that this great temporary advance is maintained and increased.

The service concludes with a beautiful prayer referring to the close association with the angelic hosts which those enjoy whose happy work it is to minister within the sanctuary.

O Christ, the Lord of Love, who, by the heavenly and earthly service of Angels which Thou orderest, dost shed over all the elements the efficacy of Thy will, pour out on thee Thy servants of the fullness of Thy X blessing, that in the fellowship of these glorious Angels they may minister worthily at Thy holy Altars, and being endowed with heavenly virtue and grace they may ever be watchful and zealous in the service of Thy Church, thou Who reignest for ever and ever.  R. Amen.

The final cross made during this prayer produces a general intensification of all that has been done. Its especial purpose is to thicken the walls of the much-expanded link between the soul and the personality, to harden them and hold them more firmly in their new form. It is as though a sort of frame-work were erected within, a lining to prevent the widened channel from contracting. It will be readily understood that it is distinctly advantageous to have a considerable interval between the ordination to the diaconate and that to the priesthood, so that this link in its widened form may be consolidated. The first opening of this channel, which we have likened to a surgical operation, is so great a change, so radical a departure from all that has gone before, that the man needs time to adjust himself to the new conditions before any further strain is put upon him. Therefore the Church prescribes that when possible the neophyte should remain for a year in deacon's orders before being advanced to the priesthood.

It is again obvious how incalculable is the advantage possessed by those among the clergy who know what they are doing in these matters, and even still more by those who can see the effect of their operations. the vast majority of Bishops are working blindly, yet no one need doubt that their end is achieved; but unquestionably it would be far more fully achieved if they had greater knowledge of the spiritual world, and of the operation of its forces.

One of the newly-ordained deacons reads the Gospel, and the Holy Eucharist is then continued as usual, except the special mention is made in the prayer of consecration of those who in Christ's holy Name have just been admitted to the Order of the Diaconate. Such a clause is inserted in all the major ordinations, but not in the minors; indeed, these latter may be conferred apart from the celebration of the Eucharist, though it must be before the hour of noon.

The Priesthood

The ordination to the priesthood is solemnized after the singing of the Gradual, and begins with the presentation of the candidates by a Priest, just as in the previous Service. The Bishop then delivers the charge:

Dearly beloved brethren, as both the captain of a ship and the passengers it carries have equal cause for security or for fear, it behoves them whose interests are common to be of one mind. Nor has it without purpose that the Fathers decreed that the people also should be consulted touching the election of those who are to be employed in the service of the Altar, for what is unknown of the many concerning the life and conversion of those who are presented, may oft-times be known to a few, and all will necessarily yield a more ready obedience, to one when ordained, to whose ordination they have signified their assent.

If, then, anyone has aught to the prejudice of these men, in the Name of God and for the benefit of His Church, let them boldly come forward and speak; howbeit, let him be mindful of his own estate.

After a pause, the Bishop, addressing himself to the ordinands, charges them as follows:

Dearly beloved sons, it is now our part solemnly and for the last time, before the irrevocable act shall be accomplished, which shall lay upon you the sweet but heavy burden of the priesthood, to charge you how great is the dignity and responsibility of this office and how weighty are the duties to be performed by those ordained thereto. It appertains to the Priest to offer sacrifice, to bless, to preside, to loose and to bind, to anoint, to preach and to baptize.

Wherefore, dearly beloved sons, whom the award of our brethren has chosen that you may be consecrated to this office as our helpers, after solemn premeditation only and with great awe is so sublime an office to be approached, and great indeed must be the care with which we determine that they who are chosen to represent our Blessed Lord and to preside in His Church commend themselves by great wisdom, by worthiness of life and the persevering practice of justice and truth. Do you, then, dearly beloved sons, keep these things in remembrance and let the fruit thereof be seen in your walk and conversation, in chaste and holy integrity of life, in continually abounding in all manner of good works. Strive without ceasing to increase within yourselves the perfection of heavenly love, that having your hearts filled with the love of God and of man, you may be almoners of Christ's blessing and bearers of His Love to the hearts of mankind. Forget never how great a privilege is yours to bring the little ones to Him through the gateway of baptism and to lift the heavy burden of the sorrow and sin of the world by the grace of absolution. Consider attentively what you do, imitate those things which in the Church of God it is your duty to handle and to transact. And forasmuch as you will now be called upon to offer the Holy Sacrifice before the throne of God, and to celebrate the sacred Mysteries of the Lord's love, be earnest in ridding your members of all imperfections. Ye whose duty it is to offer unto God the sweet incense of prayer and adoration, let your teaching be a spiritual remedy unto God's people; let your words of blessing and consolation be their help and strength; let the sweet savour of your life be a fragrance in the Church of God.

Thus both by word and deed may you fashion the temple of God, so that neither shall we appear blameworthy before the Lord, who in His Name shall thus advance you, nor ye who shall thus be advanced; but rather may we all find acceptance and abundant recompense for this day's act, which of His infinite goodness and loving-kindness may He deign to grant.

The customary promise to strive to use the power worthily is then asked and given, and the special ordination litany sung, as at the previous Service, the candidates lying prostrate before the Altar. The prayer which follows begins with the same words as that used for the diaconate, but differs in its later petitions.

O Lord Christ, the Fountain of all goodness, Who by the operation of the Holy Spirit hast appointed divers Orders in Thy Church, and for its greater enrichment and perfecting dost pour down Thy gifts abundantly upon men, do Thou pour forth Thy sanctifying grace upon these Thy servants, who are about to be numbered among the Priests of Thy Church. May their hand be strong to achieve, may wisdom guide and direct their life, may the beauty of holiness sanctify them and shed a spiritual fragrance about their path, so that in all their works begin, continued and ended in Thee, they may show forth the abundance of Thy power and glorify Thy Holy Name, O Thou great King of Love, to Whom be praise and adoration from men and from the Angel host.  R. Amen.

Immediately after this prayer the Bishop amid perfect silence lays both hands on the head of each ordinand. The same is done after him successively by all the Priests present, each willing intensely to give all that he can of help and consecration to the candidate. The Bishop uses his power to pour into him the power of the Christ and to draw him into the closest possible relation to Him. Referring back to Diagram 11, Fig. 4, the three principles of spirit, intuition and intelligence (numbered 2, 5 and 7) in the ordinand are made to glow with indescribable fervour. The oblique line connecting them is opened up into activity, and greatly widened, so that not only does the spirit become much more one with the Christ-spirit, but he is also able to express himself far more fully than before through the intuition and intelligence.

It does not at all follow that he will do so in daily life; that depends upon the individual effort of the Priest; but the potentiality is there, and he who knows of it may use it to great effect if he will. The whole aura of the ordinand expands prodigiously with this direct influx of power from the Christ; every atom within him is shaken as its various orders of spirillæ¹ are aroused. The influx rushes into 2, 5 and 7 through the corresponding principles of the Bishop himself, which is the reason why he lays both hands upon the head of the candidate, instead of using only the right hand to distribute what is drawn though the crosier in his left, as he does in the case of the deacon, or at Confirmation.

When the neophyte's aura is thus dilated and extremely sensitive, the Priests pour in their influence. They do not confer power as the Bishop does, but each gives his quota of good; and adds whatever he has that is of value, while the neophyte is in a condition to receive it. The Priests may quite probably be on different Rays, and at any rate are sure to differ in character, so each will have some quality to contribute. The bestowal of the priesthood is above all things the granting of a wonderful, colossal opportunity, and no effort is spared to help the recipient to take advantage of it.

The power of the Christ, the direct outflow from the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, comes always in the silence, for it has not yet descended sufficiently into materiality to manifest as sound; but the Holy Ghost came as a rushing, mighty wind and showed Himself in tongues of fire, conferring upon the apostles an unusual power of speech. So at the second imposition of hands later the word of power is employed as in the other Orders; but the tremendous gift of the first imposition descends in a silence that is felt. It is this act which actually makes the man a Priest and endows him with the power to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. The prayer which immediately follows the ordination beautifully refers to this:

O Lord Christ, whose strength is in the silence, grant that these Thy servants whom now Thou dost join unto Thyself in the holy bond of the priesthood may hence forward minister faithfully of the priestly power to those who ask in Thy Name.  R. Amen.

Let us pray, dearest brethren, that Almighty God may multiply the gifts of the Spirit in these His servants for the work of the priesthood.

In the Liberal Catholic Church we sing the Veni Creator here, and proceed at once to the second imposition of hands; but the Roman Church has quite a different arrangement. In her ritual there comes at this point an interesting prayer invoking upon the newly-made priests “the blessing of the Holy Ghost and the power of priestly grace”—a prayer which was originally intended to do the work now done by the second imposition—that is to say, to push upward the channel made for the deacon, and enormously to widen it. In the case of the deacon, principle 7 in our diagram was linked to the corresponding principle in the Lord Christ; now the same connection is made for principle 6 (Fig.5, Diagram 11), while that to 7 is greatly strengthened and increased. The diagonal line which was called into existence at the first imposition between 2, 5 and 7 is intensified; and 7 is opened out, so as to allow the force from that oblique line to flow out better, as without that there would be danger of a great congestion.

The single sign of the cross which accompanies the utterance of the words above quoted seems to have been found insufficient to do the work thoroughly, and so about the twelfth century the second imposition was introduced, with its definite scriptural formula. Some Roman books, indeed count this prayer for “the blessing of the Holy Ghost” (which is recited by the Bishop with his hands extended over the new Priests) as a second imposition, and call that which comes later in the Service the third.

After the recitation of that prayer in the roman rite the Sursum Corda is sung, but instead of “therefore with angels and archangels” come the words: “the source of hierarchical honours and the Dispenser of every dignity.” The prayer or exordium runs on through a sort of historical retrospect of examples of early priesthood, citing Moses, Eleazer and Ithamar. After that the Roman Bishop rearranges the stoles of the new Priests, and vest them with the folded chasuble. Then he recites a prayer which in the early Pontificals is called the Consecration, or sometimes the Consummation (or finishing touch) of the Priest. It invokes (with the sign of power) the grace of God's blessing upon the neophytes, and plays a useful part in the ceremony, as will be explained when we come to consider our own version of it, which we place just after the second imposition.

After this prayer (still according to Roman ritual) comes the Veni Creator, and while it is being sung the Bishop anoints and binds the hands of his new Priests, and gives them authority to offer sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass both for the living and the dead.

Then the ordinary course of the Eucharist is resumed with the Gospel, the Creed and the Offertory, the Priests reciting the words of the Service along with the Bishop from “Receive, O holy Father.” It is only after the communion has been received that the Bishop pronounces the words of tremendous import: “Receive the Holy Ghost.”

I have thought it well to make this long digression to explain the order adopted in the Roman ritual, in order that it may be clear that in our own we omit none of its salient points, though we arrange them as we find to be best from the consideration of the play of inner force. We will now resume the comment upon our own Service, from which we turned aside at p. 381. Immediately after the exhortation there quoted to pray that God will multiply the gifts of the Spirit, the people respond by singing the Veni Creator, and at once the Bishop rises from his knees and, laying both hands on the head of each new Priest in turn, says:

Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God; whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained.

We have already considered the effect produced by the down-pouring which accompanies these momentous words, and have only to add that the connection made with principle 6 enables the Priest to draw upon the great central chamber of the reservoir, which we have marked as B (Diagram 10). It is that connection which enables him effectually to give absolution and to bless in the Name of the Holy Trinity. The Church of England uses a somewhat longer form of ordination, for after the words “Church of God” she inserts, “now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands”; and at the end, after the word “retained,” she adds “and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God and of His holy Sacraments, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.”

In this place follows our version of the prayer called Consummation, to which I referred above. It runs thus:

O God, the source of all holiness, of whom are true consecration and the fullness of spiritual benediction, we pray Thee, O Lord, to X open to Thy heavenly grace the hearts and minds of these Thy servants, who have been raised to the priesthood, that through them Thy power may abundantly flow for the service of Thy people. May they be earnest and zealous as fellow-workers in our Order, and thus prove themselves worthy of the sacred charge committed unto them. And, as by a spotless blessing they now shall change for the service of Thy people bread and wine into the most holy Body and Blood of Thy Son, may they be ever watchful that they keep the vessel of their ministry pure and undefiled. May every kind of righteousness spring forth within them, and may their hearts be so filled with compassion for the multitude, that they may forget themselves in the love of others. Thus steadfast in that Thy most joyous service, may the radiance of Thy love and Thy glory shine ever more brightly in their hearts, till they rise unto mature spiritual manhood, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, when their lives shall be hid with Christ in God.  R. Amen.

The sign of power made at the word “open” is intended to clear the way between the higher principles and the physical brain. The blessing floods the etheric brain, and is meant to run up through the pituitary body, which is the point of closest junction between the dense physical, the etheric and the astral; but if the Bishop can at the same time pour the force into the mental body of the Priest and work downwards, so much the better.

We come now to the vesting and anointing. The neophytes are still wearing their stoles in diaconal fashion, so the Bishop rearranges them as a Priest should have them, and then crosses them over the breast as they are worn by the celebrant at the Holy Eucharist. The words with which he accompanies this act refer not only to the symbolism of the stole, but also to its actual use as a conductor of force:

Take thou this stole, for a symbol of the power of the priestly office, and as a channel of the ever-flowing stream to Christ's love.

He next vests each new Priest with the chasuble, saying:

Take thou the priestly vestment, that in it thou mayest offer with our Lord Christ the most holy sacrifice of His sacred Body and Blood.

He then proceeds to the anointing of the hands of the new Priests with the oil of the catechumens. The Priest lays his hands together, palms upward, upon the gremial spread upon the Bishop's knees, and the latter, taking some of the oil upon his right thumb, draws there with a line from the right thumb of the Priest across the palms and up the first finger of the Priest's left hand. Then he reverses the motion, starting down the Priest's left thumb, across the palms and up the first finger of his right hand. He makes a cross on each palm, and rubs the oil in all over with a circular motion, After doing all this, he says:

Be pleased, O Lord, to consecrate and hallow these hands by this anointing and our X blessing; that whatsoever they X bless may be blessed, and whatsoever they consecrate may be consecrated and hallowed, in the Name of our Lord Christ.  R. Amen.

The Bishop now closes the hands together, palm to palm, and they are bound together with a strip of white linen. This is a quaint and interesting symbolical ceremony, but it is also much more than that, for like all rites it has its practical side. The oil of catechumens is constructive, and is used in the building up of forms. The anointing with it is a setting apart of the hands for saintly service, a moulding of them for the transmission of that wondrous power. The hand of the Priest is a specialized instrument that can transmit blessing. The anointing brings the opening forces to bear upon the hands, and endues them with power whereby along the lines that are made in the anointing the influence can pour out; it will be noticed that the two fingers with which Bishop specially deals are precisely those that touch the Host.

It is not only that lines of force are set up in the aura; it is still more a matter of higher working altogether. It is something like a magnetization of steel: the anointing operates so that forces can pass through the hand, and at the same time tempers the hands so that they can bear those forces. It is not only a consecration, a setting-apart, but also a preparing of the spiritual side of the Priest so that he can conduct the power; and there is the idea associated with this of being able to transmit that power safely. It is like conducting lightning, and without the anointing this might well be dangerous. The power of the Host may work curious results in unworthy surroundings; for example, there are stories of the touch of the Host burning a vampire.

Of the two crosses which the Bishop makes while reciting the words, the first is intended to arrange for the distribution of the force which rushes down the diagonal line (2, 5, 7) in Diagram 11, Fig. 5, and the second for the dispensing to that which flows from principle 6. As this preparatory magnetism takes a little time to penetrate and permeate the hands, the plan of tying them together for a while has a distinct practical utility. The Bishop then holds out to the Priest a chalice containing wine and water, with a paten and a wafer upon it, these being the practical working tools of the degree in the Church which he has now attained. As the Priest's hands are bound together, he cannot grasp the sacred vessels, but he receives then between the tips of his fingers, taking care to touch both the chalice and the paten. The Bishop says to him:

Take thou authority to offer sacrifice to God, and to celebrate the Holy Eucharist both for the living and for the dead. In the Name of the Lord.  R. Amen.