Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/128

108 which endureth unto everlasting life.” How plain then is it, that there is a spiritual deglutition as well as a corporeal one, and that the latter was intended of the Divine providence of the to call mankind perpetually to the recollection of the former! I wish only to observe further on this subject, that as the act of bodily swallowing requires a distinct exertion on the part of man, since the bodily food will not descend, of itself, into the stomach, in like manner, and for the same reason, a distinct exertion is requisite in regard to the swallowing, or interior reception, of spiritual food, and that probably this exertion is excited in every state of mental trial and trouble.

Having thus then, I hope, convinced you, my dear Sir, that the bodily act of eating and drinking is not only a most extraordinary act in itself, and on that account deserving of all serious consideration, but is also a figurative act, as pointing to the reception of mental food, by which the soul or spirit of man is nourished and kept alive, I shall now leave you to your own reflections on the important subject. Only let me be allowed to add, that this figurative character of the above bodily act, is another stupendous proof of the goodness