Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/99

Rh divine-human truth symbolized by his blood—the truth which He Himself taught and lived and glorified, and thus accommodated to the needs of every human being. When we heartily receive into our understanding any divine truth, and by means of it fight against and overcome some evil within us which that truth reveals, we are so far washed and cleansed by that truth—washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, according to the spiritual and true meaning of this expression. And while we are doing this—cleansing our souls of their false persuasions and evil loves—we are at the same time building up a pure and virtuous character; or, what is the same, we are receiving into our hearts the good of that celestial love which is the very soul and substance of truth. And this good of love is what Christ's flesh corresponds to and signifies. From this brief explanation of these divine symbols, we may understand what it is to eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood. It is to receive into our understandings the heavenly truths which He taught and lived, and to so apply those truths to life, that we shall receive into our hearts the good of that unselfish love which is the substance and body of these truths. In short, it is to receive and have our souls fed and nourished by Christ's own unselfish life, which is the highest or heavenly life—the only true and eternal life.