drink eth my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him.
57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I hve by the Father : so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead : he that eateth of this bread shall hve for ever.
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Caper- naum.
52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us Ms flesh to eat ?
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Yerily, verily, I say unto you, Ex- cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and
Few passages of Scripture have been so painfully wrested and perverted as that which we have now read. The Jews are not the only people who have striven about its mean- ing. A sense has been put upon it, which it was never in- tended to bear. Fallen man, in interpreting the Bible, has an unhappy aptitude for turning meat into poison. The things that were written for his benefit, he often makes an occasion for falling.
Let us first consider carefully, what these verses do not mean. The " eating and drinking " of which Christ speaks do not mean any literal eating and drinking. Above all, the words were not spoken with any reference to the Sa- crament of the Lord's Supper. We may eat the Lord's Supper, and yet not eat and drink Christ's body and blood. We may eat and drink Christ's body and blood, and yet not eat the Lord's Supper. Let this never be forgotten.
The oj^inion here expressed may startle some who have
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