Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/125

Rh Christians perceive that He is speaking of spiritual bread and spiritual life—the correspondents of the natural. When He says: "He that eateth me, even he shall live by me," few understand Him to speak of natural eating or living, but nearly every one thinks of the spiritual things to which such natural acts correspond. When He says: "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink," what Christian thinks of natural thirst or natural drinking, or of any movement of the body through natural space? Nearly every one thinks of the soul's thirst for the water of life, which only He can slake who is the Fountain of living waters,—the very thing signified, according to the revealed law of correspondence. When He says: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him," probably very few think of material flesh and blood, or of natural eating and drinking, but of the Lord's own truth and love—his divine-human virtues and graces, and their reception or incorporation into the spirit's life. When He says: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," do not all Christians perceive that He refers to a spiritual birth, a spiritual kingdom, and spiritual seeing? Yes—and that He means by man, not the material and perishable, but the substantial and immortal part—the soul or spirit which is the real man? And when (as in the