The sacraments, while regarded as more than empty symbols, while looked upon as really effec- tual, and tending to combine with the nature of dramatic irapalioXal the nature also of a-qixiia (in the sense of the Fourth Gospel) permanent in the Church, were not, however, thought of as having any kind of magical affinity. The precise mean- ing of the word ' magic ' is difficult to define ; and in this connexion its elasticity has led to a con- troversial use much to be deprecated. The charac- terization of sacramental theory as magical too often takes the place of serious argument. But the spiritually effectual and the magical are not synonymous terms. The really salient feature of magic, which ' has been ingeniously defined as the strategy of animism' (F. Cumont, Les lieligions orientates dans le paganisms ronuiin, Paris, 1906, p. 224), may be recognized in its claim to possess the secret of commanding unseen powers. From the sacraments this feature is excluded by the institutional authority which they assert. The sacraments obey ; they do not command. They operate not of necessity, but through the uncon- strained agency of the Holy Spirit, who chooses them as His instruments. Their virtue resides not in material elements or ritual actions, but in the covenant of promise attached to their faitliful ob- servance. To magic, unless the name be stretched beyond its legitimate connotation, the sacraments of the Apostolic Church have no more substantial resemblance than prayer has to incantation. It is beyond doubt that in the world which Christianity
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SACRAMENTS
SACRAMENTS
entered the practice of magic and tlie circle of ideas associated with it were familiar. But the stories of .Simon Majjus (Ac 8°''-"), of Elynias the sorcerer (13""'-), of the damsel possessed of a spirit of divination (lU"'"'"), of the nia^'icians of Kphesus (19""'"), as well as the condemnations of itfolatry and sorcery contained in the Epistles (Gal 5-'°, 1 P 4», 1 Co 1U'^ Col 3" ; cf. Kev 9-^- =' 18=^), illustrate the attitude of antagonism which the Church assumed towards magic from the first. Nor was tliis antagonism tliat of rivalry. Cliristianity was in no true sense a mystery-religion. Its sacra- mental system ditl'ered fundamentally from that of the mystery rites (but see J. E. Harrison's derivation of livffTrjs, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek lieliqion, Cambridge, 1903, p. l.')3f.). Ex- cept when forced into seclusion as a relifjio iUieita, it worked openly. It knew of no magical secrets to be kept from all but the initiated. It knew only of life-giving secrets to be declared. In the Apostolic Church no trace e.\ists of the discipUna arcani ; and even when, at a later date, that discipUna was introduced, it was introduced in connexion with the institution of the catechumen- ate, and was employed as a method of education, as a device of rhetoric, as an expedient for the promotion of reverence, and_ not as implying any esoteric cult (see BatiH'ol, Ettides d'kistoire et de thfologie positive, pp. 1-41). It is perhaps only fair to add that, in the opinion of some competent scholars, the mysteries themselves, in their ulti- mate forms, and as understood by cultivated votaries, seem to have outgrown their original magic, and to have approximated, at least, to a sacramental character. The Christian polemic directed against them in the early centuries implies alleged resemblances. 'In tlie sacraments of Mithra, Tertullian and other Apologists perceived a diabolic parody of the usages of the Church ' (S. Dill, Koman Suciety from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, London, 1904, p. 613). Modern apology will incline rather to interpret such resemblances as disclosing in the sacramental system of the faitli a Divine adaptation to the experienced requirements of human nature, a Divine response to the longing of the human heart for assured cleansing, for help in the pursuit of holiness, and for the promise of eternal life. That which the more relined mystery conceptions sought after, the sacraments actually supijlied. It may well be tliat, not only in the syncretistic philosophies of the Roman Empire, but also in its 'conflict of religions,' the Spirit of Truth was secretly at work, opening many doors of prepared receptiveness for the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. From any alliance with magic the Christian sacraments, at any rate, were safeguarded from the first by the personal relation wliich they involved as between members of the Church and the Person of her living and exalted Head, by the predominant empliasis laid upon the grace of Christian faith as an indispensable condition of every spiritual bless- ing, and by the intensely ethical requirements which were invariably associated with their observance.
Tlie etieet ascribed to the sacraments w-as partly of the nature of Divine assurance and promise. They operated so as to establish or confirm a new relationship of privilege which contained in posse a dower of future blessings — grace to be realized in this age and the hope of the world to come. The specific use of the word a(ppayli to designate the initiatory rites — a use common in post-apostolic times — does not yet appear as conventional. But the idea — more probably connected with Jewish revelation than with mystery conceptions — is already found in St. Paul's Epistles (2 Co P'-ss, Eph 1'^ 4^"). Baptism is the outward sign of the