In the Old Testament the Ark of the Covenant was the central object of the temple, the temple was the center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem of the Holy Land, and the Holy Land was the historic and religious center of the world. The Holy Eucharist now is the ultimate central object to which all things in the Church and the world, in the Old and the New Dispensation, converge. Religion gradually condenses from its vague natural forms into Judaism and Christianity; and its operation is completed by union at last with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Calvary is the place where Jesus was lifted up, and where He draws all devout hearts unto Himself; it is the mountain of the house of the Lord to which all nations were to flow (Isa. ii. 2). Calvary is in the Holy Eucharist, and is in every land and every village where the red light glimmers before the tabernacle. There is the center to which all the devotion of the Church is drawn, there is the center of all doctrine, of all moral life, of charitable works, of progressive ideas, and, above all, of spiritual life. The church-building may be a triumph of architecture, made more splendid by painting and music and ceremony, or it may be almost a hovel; yet in each alike the devout soul finds strength, peace, safety and delight. Let the tabernacle be the center of your life. "How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord God of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. . . . For better is one day in Thy courts above thousands" (Ps. Ixxxiii. 2, 11).
