Yet, on the other hand, if God's Presence was now Real, it was more hidden and mysterious. Hitherto the apparitions of God had been objects of sight rather than of faith. They could be seen alike by sinner as by saint, by the man of faith as by the infidel; or, rather, he who saw them could not be an infidel, for the miracle convinced him even against his will. But it was not so with the Word made flesh. Many who saw Him believed that they gazed on a mere man; some even saw Him and despised Him, and called Him an impostor; and they scourged Him and crucified Him in their incredulity, and they knew not, as the Apostle says, that they were crucifying the Lord of Glory. It was not by His external appearance, but by His mighty works, by His divine wisdom, by His spotless life, by His loving heart, that Jesus Christ was known to be God, living in the midst of us. Externally He was like other men, and before He began to manifest Himself it was necessary that the finger of St. John Baptist should point Him out: 'Behold the Lamb of God.' St. John Baptist could say to the crowd, 'There hath stood One among you whom you knew not.' God had come down on earth, and He had stood in the midst of a crowd of His own creatures, and He had been lost in the crowd, and been crushed, and jostled, and pushed hither and thither in the crowd; so hidden and mysterious is now the Presence of God.

Consider, again, how much more gentle and loving is this manifestation of God's Presence. When the lightnings flashed through the thick clouds of smoke which rose from Mount Sinai as from a great furnace; when the thunder-peal rolled around its summit; when the loud trumpet-note pierced the ears and made the hearts of the Jews tremble with fear, they prayed that God might no longer speak to them thus immediately, lest they should die, but that He would make known to them His will by the human lips of Moses. Then were the eyes of Moses opened, and he saw a great mystery which should be in days to come. He understood that the God who now appeared in such terrific majesty would one day lay aside all His terrors and appear as a man on the earth. And Moses replied to the people's prayer, 'You wish that I should speak

to you. Well, God will raise up a Prophet like to me, and to Him you shall give heed' (Deut. xviii.). Like to Moses, not in majesty, power, or holiness, but in human form, in humility, and weakness.

And when the day of which Moses had spoken at length came, how changed was the scene! Instead of the dense clouds of smoke that rested on Mount Sinai, was the overshadowing of the Spirit of God on the bosom of the Blessed Virgin; instead of the flashes of lightning, were the loving glances interchanged between Mary and her Babe; instead of the piercing trumpet, were the plaintive cries of the Divine Child; instead of the peals of thunder making the people's hearts die within them for very dread, were the angelic songs on the hills of Bethlehem, saying, 'Fear not, we bring you tidings of great joy.'

Emmanuel had come. At His first appearance He sought hospitality, and was refused even at the inn. Then He became the guest of Mary and of Joseph. When He left their roof, sometimes He had not a place to lay His head, and sometimes He went to be the guest of the publican or the pharisee. Alas, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But when they were preparing His death He was preparing the divine memorial by which it should be shown forth until His second advent; and He gave His Body and His Blood, and He said, 'Do this;' and He promised, I am with you all days to the consummation of the world.'

We have seen that a special Presence of God on earth is a great mercy of God, exactly suited to our nature and our wants. We have seen that the frequency and permanence of this Presence was God's original plan of dealing with His sinless creatures in Paradise. We have seen that this plan was broken by the irruption of sin, but that it was gradually restored in the course of ages, becoming more and more perfect as our redemption drew nearer. We have brought down this history to the Incarnation, when the Presence took a more real though in some sense more hidden form. We have come to the times of which Isaias said, 'Rejoice and praise, O habitation of Sion, for great is He that is in the midst of thee, the Holy One of

Israel.' Is this history now complete? Has it come to an end? Is there to be any longer a special and sensible Presence of God upon the earth, or is it henceforth to cease? To these questions the Protestant answer would be, These apparitions, these special manifestations of God, came to an end with the Incarnation. On that day on which Jesus Christ ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet, and when the cloud hid Him from the longing gaze of His Apostles, vanished from the earth the last sensible token of God's Presence amongst men. The days of apparitions are gone by. Henceforth the world is more spiritual, and needs no sensible signs; and so in the Christian Church, for the last eighteen hundred years, there has been no place, as among the Jews, where the glory of God has dwelt.

Far different from this is the Catholic faith. We believe that the fulness of times brought with it the fulness of God's sensible Presence amongst men. We believe that all that went before the Incarnation was but a figure and a prelude of what followed, of what now is and will be to the end. We believe that ere Jesus Christ took away from the eyes of men the sight of His sacred humanity, He took means to perpetuate to the end of time His Presence, in a certain sensible manner, on the earth. We believe that in the Holy Eucharist, He still dwells in the midst of us-that there especially He is Emmanuel, God with us. We believe that His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament is as real as when He lay in the manger, walked in Jerusalem, or hung on the Cross-that His Presence is permanent, and will never cease till the end of time; above all, that it is no longer confined to one place, but that it girdles the whole earth. This is our faith, and this is why we rejoice and praise, because He that is great is in the midst of us, the Holy One of Israel. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: I am returned to Sion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the sanctified Mountain' (Zach. viii. 3).

6

We are told by Protestant writers that the Jews 'manifestly expected the return of the Shechinah in the days of the Mes

L

15

siah.' 5

It was

Their expectation was most reasonable. founded on the conviction that the localised Presence of God was a great boon to man, and that the fulness of all God's gifts was reserved for the latter days. But, alas, they are like the Samaritan woman, in the presence of the Messiah whom they are expecting, yet disputing against Him. 'O, that they did but know the Gift of God!' (John iv. 10.)

To understand the fulfilment of ancient types we must remark that two things that were necessarily separate in the Old Law are united in the Christian Church. In the Jewish Tabernacle there was a Presence, and there was also Sacrifice. Between these two there were many intimate relations, but the Presence and the Sacrifice could not coalesce. Worship was offered by means of sacrifices, but it was offered to the Presence. But both Presence and Sacrifices pointed to Jesus Christ, in whom they were to meet. He was to be God-man

-on account of His Godhead the Object of our supreme adoration, and through His Humanity Priest and Victim to God. He is the Splendour of His Father's Glory; yet through the defacement of that Splendour He cleanses us from sin (Heb. i. 3). He is the eternal God whose years fail not, yet by His Incarnation He was able and willing to taste death for us (Heb. i. 12, ii. 9). When He comes into the world in the humiliations of His infancy, the decree goes forth: 'Let all the angels of God adore Him;' yet in the agony of His passion He prays with cries and tears, and an angel is sent to strengthen Him (Heb. i. 6, v. 7). He has entered within the veil, a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech; yet in fulfilment of His type He brought forth bread and wine, and changing them into His Body and Blood, said: 'Do this for a commemoration of Me' (Heb. vi. 20; Luke xxii. 19). There needs no more a succession of bleeding victims, which by their very multitude testify to their impotence. A Victim offered once for all on Calvary has wrought for us a perfect Redemption. The same Victim, offered in an unbloody manner a million times, testifies to the exhaustless nature of that Redemption which He is ever applying to the world.

5 Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, art. 'Shechinah.'

The last of the Old Testament prophets had said, 'From the rising of the sun even to the going down, My Name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My Name a clean oblation' (Mal. i. 11). And He who gave the New Testament renewed this promise when He said, 'The hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth' (John iv. 23); and He made the Testament which fulfils both when He said, 'This do for a commemoration of Me.'

SECTION III. OBJECTIONS AND THEIR Results.

Two objections, which, however, contradict each other, are continually cast against the Catholic belief in the Real Presence, and often by the very same lips. It is said that it is unspiritual, and that it is too spiritual.

There are some who pretend that those sensible tokens of God's Presence that were granted to men in old times were condescensions to their weakness, to their carnal and unspiritual state, and that therefore they are not granted to Christians who are to live by faith.

The answer to this objection is easy. The visible Presence of God was not granted to man because he was carnal and sensual. It was granted to him in Paradise, when his soul was pure, his mind undimmed by sin, his sensual nature in entire subjection to his soul. It was granted to him because it fitted his double nature of soul and body.

'Upon the breast of new-created earth

Man walk'd; and when and wheresoe'er he moved,
Alone or mated, solitude was not.

He heard upon the wind th' articulate voice

Of God; and angels to his sight appear'd,

Crowning the glorious hills of paradise,

Or through the groves gliding like morning mist
Enkindled by the sun. He sat and talk'd
With wing'd messengers, who daily brought

To his small island in th' ethereal deep

Tidings of joy and love. From these pure heights
Fell human kind, to banishment condemn'd.' 6

6 Wordsworth, Excursion, book iv.