sely
impregnated with higher magnetisms, which affect the subtle bodies as
well as the physical. If we would understand the meaning and use of the
Eucharist we must realise these facts of the invisible worlds, and we
must see in it a link between the earthly and the heavenly, as well as
an act of the universal worship, a co-operation, an association, with
the Law of Sacrifice, else it loses the greater part of its
significance.

The employment of bread and wine as the materials for this
Sacrament--like the use of water in the Sacrament of Baptism--is of very
ancient and general usage. The Persians offered bread and wine to
Mithra, and similar offerings were made in Tibet and Tartary. Jeremiah
speaks of the cakes and the drink offered to the Queen of Heaven by the
Jews in Egypt, they taking part in the Egyptian worship.[342] In Genesis
we read that Melchisedek, the King-Initiate, used bread and wine in the
blessing of Abraham.[343] In the various Greek Mysteries bread and wine
were used, and Williamson mentions their use also among the Mexicans,
Peruvians, and Druids.[344]

The bread stands as the general symbol for the food that builds up the
body, and the wine as symbol of the blood, regarded as the life-fluid,
"for the life of the flesh is in the blood."[345] Hence members of a
family are said to share the same blood, and to be of the blood of a
person is to be of his kin. Hence, also, the old ceremonies of the
"blood-covenant"; when a stranger was made one of a family or of a
tribe, some drops of blood from a member were transfused into his veins,
or he drank them--usually mingled with water--and was thenceforth
considered as being a born member of the family or tribe, as being of
its blood. Similarly, in the Eucharist, the worshippers partake of the
bread, symbolising the body, the nature, of the Christ, and of the wine
symbolising the blood, the life of the Christ, and become of His kin,
one with Him.

The Word of Power is the formula "This is My Body," "This is My Blood."
This it is which works the change which we shall consider in a moment,
and transforms the materials into vehicles of spiritual energies. The
Sign of Power is the hand extended over the bread and the wine, and the
Sign of the Cross should be made upon them, though this is not always
done among Protestants. These are the outer essentials of the Sacrament
of the Eucharist.

It is important to understand the change which takes place in this
Sac