III.

(Holy things for the holy, [355]p. 559.)

Bingham ¹ has so fully elucidated this by quotations from Chrysostom (Hom. vii.) and others, that one might think it useless to attach to it any other meaning than that which Chrysostom understands in it; viz., "Holy things for holy persons." It occurs just before the communicating of the faithful, and has nothing whatever to do with the "elevation of the host,"--a Western ceremony of the fourteenth century. ² Yet, in an otherwise (generally) useful manual of liturgies, an attempt is made to give it this meaning; and the preceding prayer of "Intense Adoration," addressed to the Great High Priest in the heavens, is debased to eke out the weak idea. Nothing could be more averse to the primitive principle of worship; ³ but it is sufficient to note the fact that the "elevation of the host" revolutionized the eucharistic worship of the West as soon as it was established. (1) It abolished the Eucharist practically as the synaxis, or communion of the faithful, and made it only a sacrifice for them in their behalf; (2) not to be eaten and received, but to be gazed at; (3) not for all the faithful at all times, excluding even catechumens from beholding it, but to be displayed to all eyes in pompous ceremonials, carried through the streets, and dispensed only in half-communion, once a year, to the individual communicant. All these ancient liturgies, corrupted as they are in all the mss. we possess, are yet liturgies for communicating the faithful, in their turns, ⁴ one and all; and, so far, they are true to the Scriptures and the precepts of Christ and His Apostles. But well does the pious Hirscher exclaim, with reference to the Mass, as he was obliged to celebrate it in his own gorgeous cathedral at Freiburg in the Breisgau: "What would an Apostle think we were doing, should he enter during our ceremonies?" Also, "I know all that can be said in their favour. I know just as well that by them the spirit is turned apart from internal godliness, and borne away; and that, with such appeals to sense, withdrawal from things of sense becomes impossible....God is a Spirit: He looks to be adored in spirit and in truth, and all ceremonial which dulls the adoration ⁵ of the spirit is odious to God. To glorify self, as His minister, before the King of kings, before the majesty of the Creator, before His Christ, naked and crucified,--is it not an absurdity, a ceremony of contradictions? The people no longer comprehend the ceremonial...to see them satisfied by mere corporal attendance, is it not deplorable? They do not understand Latin. Is it not melancholy that they take no real part in the touching offices of the Holy Week? Is not a deplorable indifference the result; in France, for example? Nay, at Rome also?" ⁶

His remonstrances were vain; he was cruelly censured, yet he died in the Papal communion. Dear Hirscher! The venerable man kissed me when I parted from him in 1851, ⁷ and gave me his blessing with a primitive spirit of Christian charity. I gratefully quote him here.

In Germany a passing stranger often sees the pious peasantry at Mass, singing with all their hearts their beautiful German hymns. It misleads, however. They are not attending to the Mass, but consoling themselves by spiritual songs, while it goes on without their assistance. The bell rings: they adore the host, but that is all their relation to the worship of the Christian liturgies. Hirscher loved their hymns, but bewailed the utter loss of their liturgic communion, once common to the faithful. ⁸