over-lamb, in the night when the first-born were slain, so there is no life for the sinner who does not eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood.
We may learn that faith in Christ's atonement unites us by the closest possible bonds to our Saviour, and entitles us to the highest privileges. Our souls shall find full satis- faction for all their wants : — " His flesh is meat indeed, and His blood is drink indeed." All things are secured to us that we can need for time and eternity : — " Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Last, but not least, we may learn that faith in Christ's atonement is a personal act, a daily act, and an act that can be felt. No one can eat and drink for us, and no one, in like manner, can believe for us. — We need food every day, and not once a week or once a month, — and, in like manner, we need to employ faith every day. — We feel benefit when we have eaten and drunk, we feel strength- ened, nourished, and refreshed ; and, in like manner, if we believe truly, we shall feel the better for it, by sensible hope and peace in our inward man.
Let us take heed that we use these truths, as well as know them. The food of this world, for which so many take thought, will perish in the using, and not feed our Bouls. He only that eats of " the bread that came down from heaven " shall live for ever.
Notes. John VI. 52—59.
52. — [The Jews therefore strove among themselves.] — This expression shows an increasingly strong feehng among the Jews. When our Lord tnlked of "coming down from heaven" they "mur- mured."— When He speaks of giving His "flesh to ent" they "strove." — It is the word rendered "ye fight," in James iv. 2. In what way the Jews strove it is not very clear to see. Wo cannot suppose that there were two contending parties, — one favourable to our Lord, and one opposed to Him. It probably weans thftt tU&y began to reason and argue among themselves in
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an angry, violent, and excited manner, such as St. Paul forbida when he says, " The servant of the Lord must not strive." (2 Tim. ii. 24.) The same word is used there as here.
[How can this man give.. .flesh to eat] The likeness should be observed between this question and that of Nicodemur, (John iii. 4), and that of the Samaritan woman. (John iv. 11.)
There is an implied scornful sense about the expression " this man."
Cyril in commenting on this verse, points out the unreason- ableness and inconsistency of the Jews, above all men, in raising difficulties and denying the possibihty of things, because they are hard to explain and preternatural. He summons the Jews to ex- plain the miracles in Egypt, and those in the wilderness, and He concludes, — " There are innumerable things, in which if thou inquirest 'how' they can be, thou must overthrow the whole Scripture, and despise Moses and the Prophets."
63. — [Jesus said... Verily, verily, I say.] We come now to one of the most solemn and important sayings that ever fell from our Lord's lips. Having brought the Jews step by step up to this point, He now declares to them the highest and most startling doctrine of the (jospel.
[Except ye eat the flesh... drink his blood.. .no life in you.] When our Lord uses this phrase " except" at the beginning of a sen- tence, we generally find something of more than ordinary import- ance in it. Thus, " Except a man be born again," — " Except ye be converted and become as little children," — "Except ye re- pent," (John iii. 3, Matt, xviii, 3, Luke xiii. 3.) Here He tells the Jews that they " have no life," — no spiritual life, no title to eternal Hfe, — that they are in fact dead, legally dead, spiritually dead, and on the way to the second death, if they do not "eat the flesh and drink the blood" of the Son of man, — that is, of Himself In a word. He lays down the principle that eating His flesh and drinking His blood is a thing not only possible but abso- lutely necessary to salvation — is a thing without which no man can go to heaven.
Considering that the Jewish passover was nigh at hand, and that many of our Lord's hearers were probably on their way to Jerusalem to attend it, it seems highly probable that our Lord desired to direct the minds of those He addressed to Himself as the true passover and sacrifice for sin.
The latent idea of the sentence, I firmly believe, is that first passover in the land of Egypt, which was kept on the night when the first-born was slain. The flesh and blood of the lamb slain that night were the means of life, safety, and deliverance to the Is^raelitcs. In like manner, I believCj our Lord meant the Jewa