Page:Science and Health.djvu/311

Rh If all those partaking of the sacrament intended to commemorate the sufferings of Jesus, had drank “his cup,” they would have revolutionized the world; or if all who partake of these symbols to-day, were Christians, taking up their cross, healing the sick, casting out error and preaching Christ, Truth, to the poor, it would establish the millennium.

But all who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Christ, are not ready or willing to drink his cup, and to leave all for Christ, the Truth and Life, that is God. Then wherefore ascribe to this willingness with a dead rite, before showing forth in your body, that the Truth has come to your understanding, that heals the sick, and makes the body holy and acceptable, that Paul said, was “our only reasonable service.” And if Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no commemoration is requisite, for it is “God with us.”

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take eat, this is my body.’ And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink ye all of it.’ ”

The glorious sense or proof of that hour is lost spiritually, when confined to a literal sense, or the use of bread and wine. The disciples were eating when he prayed and gave them bread. Now this would have been improper in a literal sense; but in its spiritual, it was natural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; was “absent from the body and present with the Lord.” His followers silent, humble, patient, self-sacrificing, and strong, anticipating the approaching hour of their