The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

—oOSTHE EUCHARIST, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, THE MASS.way endowed with the attribute of infallibility, and is addressedand obeyed as God. Bread and wine, when placedupon the altars of the Romish Church, with a few prayersmumbled over them by the priest, and a few muttered wordsof consecration, arestraightway changed into the real fleshand blood of Christ, and are commanded to be adored withthe worship that is due to God. What a difference betweenthe Eucharist of the primitive Church and the mass of thepopish Church ! And yet the latter is but the former disguisedand metamorphosed by the evil genius of Popery.In nothingperhaps do we find a more striking illustrationof the sad change that Romanism works on all that is pure,simple, and holy ! How completely has it succeeded inchanging the character and defeating the end of the ordinanceof the Supper ! A memorial at once affecting andsublime, designed to commemorate the most wonderful eventthe world ever saw, it has transformed into a rite which revoltsby its absurdity and shocks by its impiety, and whichrobs of all its value and efficacy that death which it wasdesigned to commemorate, and which, on the ground of itsefficacy alone, was worthy of being commemorated.The sum of what the Church of Rome holds under thishead is, that the bread and wine in the Eucharist arechanged into the real flesh and blood of Christ the momentthe priest pronounces the words, " This is my body ;" thatthe host is to be adored with the adoration usually given toGod, and, in fine, is to be offered up to God by the priest, asa true propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the quick andthe dead. The subject then resolves itself as follows :firsts the dogma of transubstantiation ; second, the adorationof the host ; and third, the sacrifice of the mass.The origin of the term mass is involved in obscurity. Themore common opinion is, that it signifies " a sending away."It was the custom anciently, at the conclusion of the sermon,and before proceeding to celebrate the Supper, for the officiatingdeacon to pronounce aloud, " Ite, missa est,'''' in orderthat catechumens and strangers might retire. From this