Lesbia Newman (1889)/Chapter 44
CHAPTER XLIV.
In Church With the Mylittists.
Eleven a.m. on the following Sunday found our two friends among a number of other visitors admitted by card, looking down from the gallery in the spacious church. The service commenced as usual with the choir chanting in the original Greek the opening verses of the Johannic gospel, which contain in wonderfully few words the whole doctrine of transcendent philosophy, that is, the unreality of matter. This was followed by the regular special psalms, also in the original Hebrew of David; next came the extempore sermon. Not to weary the reader, we shall give only the finishing sentences.
‘The rule of Divine Order,’ said the preacher, in conclusion, ‘is that all relations of the kind specified must be those of reverence toward woman, and that the degree of delight in communion with her must rise or fall with the intensity of that reverence or worship. Thus, and thus only, do we really ‘crucify the old man and abolish the whole body of sin,’ namely, by creating in ourselves the New Man of Divine Order, whose code of theology is at once as simple as that of the nursling, and as complex as that of the archangel. The man regenerate by Divine Order needs no creeds and catechisms to be thrust down his throat; his wisdom comes spontaneously, according to the mould of his mind and temperament. Yet let none imagine that the work of self-discipline in Divine Order is light and easy; how can it be? For it is no less than the struggle of an animal in human shape to convert himself — into a human being proper, the struggle of one who is carnally minded to become spiritually minded, because he has come to perceive that to be carnally minded is death, while to be spiritually minded is life and light and liberty, the only pleasure which fully satisfies and which never palls.
‘I do not see, then, my friends, that I can usefully detain you any longer this morning. You know that the purpose of these services is not to let society down into vulgar licentiousness, but, on the contrary, to raise it into the purity and beauty of Divine Order. But please to bear this in mind, that amatory intercourse between women and men can never be of a neutral character. If it do not raise you upwards, it will drag you downwards; it is either a sacrament or a profanation. Let us pray then to Her whose image stands before you on the high altar that Her spirit may guide us aright. It is only the feminine Wisdom who can decide which desires are harmful and which are beneficial, and under what conditions they may become the one or the other. If the teachers of old were right in their opinion that all are harmful together, then we may be sure that the higher education of women will lead them to stamp out those inclinations, both in themselves and in men. While if, on the other hand, few or none are harmful when properly regulated, then we shall have walked in a vain shadow and disquieted ourselves for nought, by listening to those self-appointed and utterly misguided apostles of a false theology and, in this respect, false morality.’
‘He’s right anyhow in acting in the latter assumption, observed Mr Bristley to his niece, in a rather loud whisper.
‘Perhaps so,’ she returned.
‘To the care and guidance of Mylitta,’ ended the preacher, ‘I now commit you, my hearers, in thought, word, and deed. Grant, O Mother and Daughter of the Universe, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve thee with a quiet mind; that they may be nourished with thy grace, and ever grow in thy holy wisdom more and more, until they reach to thine eternal glory!’
The choir chanted an elaborate Amen; and as Mr Mountjoy descended from the pulpit to his stall in the chancel, the orchestra and organ struck up Mozart’s well-known minuet in Don Juan, and presently the choir sang to that rich and voluptuous music a special hymn of the Mylittic ritual, with solos in it for the different voices. It was curious to observe the solemnifying effect of this upon the faces of the congregation; so many of whom had been accustomed to associate the same air only with the adventures of vulgar and brutal intrigue. The sound of the minuet was the regular signal for the corps de ballet to mount the raised dais which stood in the centre of the chancel before the statute of Mylitta. Eight girls, of magnificent figure and clothed outwardly in sea-blue gauze, walked the minuet, in full view from every part of the church; and the ladies who at the same signal had entered their vestry came forth in the thick white and blue Mylittic robe, to take their places each in the door of her confessional, and to receive there the homage of their appointed suppliants for the day, who came to kneel at their feet.
‘Splendid!’ exclaimed Mr Bristley rapturously.
‘This ritual,’ said Lesbia, ‘must be very costly, but it is the sort of thing most likely to draw the purse-strings of wealthy people. I heard by a side wind that Dr Fairfax, the ex-Bishop of London, sent a cheque for one hundred pounds towards the expenses of the choir.’ And there he is, sure enough! on the north side of the chancel boxes. And who’s the lady he’s worshipping?’ she added, raising her operaglass, which she had had the forethought to bring with her. ‘Yes, upon my life! Rose Lockstable! Oh, Rose, the proper and pious Rose Lockstable, a Mylittist! Won't I roast her!’
‘The Lord gave the Establishment, and our Lady Mylitta hath taken it away, and its priests bear rule by their means,’ said Mr Bristley, loud enough to be heard by all his neighbours in the gallery, which in a few minutes was cleared, and some of the visitors waited in a shelter outside the church to see the Mylittists come out, which they did in about three-quarters of an hour, the ladies coming in a body and the gentlemen dispersing to their homes.
‘Good-morning, Rose the Mylittist!’ said Lesbia, shaking hands with her cordially. ‘I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed yourself?’
‘And I trust,’ added Mr Bristley, ‘that his disestablished and disendowed lordship has been established in the skies and endowed with your grace, Mrs Lockstable?’
Rose did not at first know what to answer; after a few seconds, she said,—
‘There’s no denying that Mr Mountjoy has succeeded in converting both me and Dr Fairfax to his views, so far as to acknowledge that religious men ought to be made the confidants of religious women. They call it here shriving, but it is rather—a—’
‘Yes, yes, we quite understand,’ said Mr Bristley, bowing to her, while he rubbed his hands over one another.
‘You're incorrigible, Mr Bristley,’ said Rose, biting her lips.
‘By no means,’ he returned, ‘and there’s nothing I should enjoy more than being corrected by you; I envy Dr Fairfax his shrift.’
‘I say, Mylitta, what does your husband think of it all, eh?’ asked Lesbia, nudging her friend maliciously.
‘Oh, Athelstan—bless you! he doesn’t interfere; we don’t agree about religion—he votes it all a bore, except the dinners on feast days; and so, as we can’t agree, we agree to differ. So long as I let him spend Sunday morning smoking in bed, and the rest of the day at his club, he says nothing about my spending it where I like, especially at a fashionable place of worship. Not that it would make much difference, if he did.’
‘While I think of it, Rose,’ said Lesbia, ‘we intend getting up a sort of rout and dance—if the weather will permit a tent ballroom on the lawn—at Dulham on Friday week. I hope you'll both be able to come? We have already over thirty acceptances.’
‘Yes, you must manage to come, Mrs Lockstable,’ Mr Bristley joined in; ‘we should miss you greatly; I look upon you now as one of the elect.’