The Gray Brethren and Other Fragments in Prose and Verse by Michael Fairless
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page 5 of 68 (07%)
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inherited mysticism, ordered contemplation, and spiritual vision;
we need them for ourselves. The mother they have left yearns for them, and with all her faults--faults the greater for their absence--and with the blinded eyes of their recognition, she is their mother still. "What advantage then hath the Jew?" asked St Paul, and answered in the same breath--"Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." What advantage then has the Churchman? is the oft repeated question today; and the answer is still the answer of St Paul. The Incarnation is the sum of all the Sacraments, the crown of the material revelation of God to man, the greatest of outward and visible signs, "that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life." A strange beginning truly, to usher in a purely spiritual dispensation; but beautifully fulfilled in the taking up of the earthly into the heavenly--Bread and Wine, the natural fruits of the earth, sanctified by man's toil, a sufficiency for his needs; and instinct with Divine life through the operation of the Holy Ghost. "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread." "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood ye have no life in you" "And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." |
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