anges are made in the materials used. They are made
the vehicles of energies higher than those which naturally belong to
them; persons approaching them, touching them, will have their own
etheric and subtle bodies affected by their potent magnetism, and will
be brought into a condition very receptive of higher influences, being
tuned into accord with the lofty Beings connected with the Word and the
Sign used in consecration; Beings belonging to the invisible world will
be present during the sacramental rite, pouring out their benign and
gracious influences; and thus all who are worthy participants in the
ceremony--sufficiently pure and devoted to be tuned by the vibrations
caused--will find their emotions purified and stimulated, their
spirituality quickened, and their hearts filled with peace, by coming
into such close touch with the unseen realities.

CHAPTER XIII.

SACRAMENTS (_continued_).

We have now to apply these general principles to concrete examples, and
to see how they explain and justify the sacramental rites found in all
religions.

It will be sufficient if we take as examples three out of the Seven
Sacraments used in the Church Catholic. Two are recognised as obligatory
by all Christians, although extreme Protestants deprive them of their
sacramental character, giving them a declaratory and remembrance value
only instead of a sacramental; yet even among them the heart of true
devotion wins something of the sacramental blessing the head denies. The
third is not recognised as even nominally a Sacrament by Protestant
Churches, though it shows the essential signs of a Sacrament, as given
in the definition in the Catechism of the Church of England already
quoted.[334] The first is that of Baptism; the second that of the
Eucharist; the third that of Marriage. The putting of Marriage out of
the rank of a Sacrament has much degraded its lofty ideal, and has led
to much of that loosening of its tie that thinking men deplore.

The Sacrament of Baptism is found in all religions, not only at the
entrance into earth-life, but more generally as a ceremony of
purification. The ceremony which admits the new-born--or adult--incomer
into a religion has a sprinkling with water as an essential part of the
rite, and this was as universal in ancient days as it is now. The Rev.
Dr. Giles remarks: "The idea of using water as emblematic of spiritual
washing is too obvious to allow surprise at the antiquity of this ri