Page:Heavenly Bridegrooms.djvu/100

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Now the Eucharist, or the use of bread and wine in a sacred rite, was an old Pagan custom bound up with the idea of entering into blood brotherhood of which Jesus made use to emphasize his own brotherhood with his disciples. The ceremony of the Eucharist was found in Peru and when Jesuits first landed. In fact, it is a very, very ancient rite existing in widely separated countries. The Christian writer, Arnobius rebukes in cutting terms the Pagan mock modesty which blushed at the mere mention of "bread and wine" a matter which indicates some folklore connection between the Eucharist and sex: and if so, then between the Eucharist and the ancient mysteries of Phallicism. Inasmuch as by far the greater part of all that was pure and holy in Phallicism is bound up with Borderland wedlock, it is possible that the Eucharist may have esoterically a wider significance than either Arbnobius or Zanchius was aware.

Modern believers in the union with Christ have taken a less mystical and more practical view of it, than did Zanchius. Mrs. M. Baxter of the well known institution for Divine Healing, Bethlehem, London, issued a little pamphlet on that text of 1st Corinthians VI. 13., "The body * * * for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." In it, she says:

"One of the most successful devices of Satan has been his attempt to divorce our bodies from our souls in their relation to God. 'Your soul is the Lord's of course, but your body is your own. You must serve the Lord with your soul, but /enjoy yourself with your body.' Such is his counsel to those whose tendency is gross and carnal, such as easily become drunkards, fornicators, or prostitutes, and form the large class of fallen men and fallen women in our midst. To another class he comes and says, 'You are religious; but it is your soul with which you can serve God; all you can do with your body is to punish it, and destroy it by slow degrees/ Many look upon this as religious heroism; but it is as much a lie to the truth of God, as is the grosser misuse of the body for lust or appetite. God comes with his glorious claim. "The