* H. L. Goudge, The Holy EuchaHst, 14.
' Stopford A. Brooke, Sunshine and Shadow, 214,
444 IN REMEMBRANCE
III.
For what He Is.
1, The mode of remembrance appointed by our Lord reminds us that it is to the same kind of personal connexion with Him as the first disciples enjoyed that we are invited. We have the same symbol of our connexion with Him as they had. We are no more remote from His love, no more out of reach of His influence. All that He was to them He can be to us, and means to be to us. Our outward circumstances are very different from theirs, but the inward significance of Christ's work and His power to save remain as they were.
As, when our Blessed Lord made Mary Magdalene feel and know that He was really present with her, she poured out her whole heart in the burning fervour of that acknowledgment, " Eabboni." — my Master, my Lord, my All — so by our every act and word we try to express to the Blessed Jesus what He is to us. Our whole soul fastens on Him. Our spirit has no eye for any one, or anything else. Our gaze is fixed on Him. He is with us, and we are with Him. We know what He is in Himself, how pure, how fair, how holy, how perfect. We know what He has been to us, how loving, how tender, how compassionate, how full of healing, and pardon, and peace. And so every hymn is full of His praises; and every gesture is an act of loving reverence to Him ; and every sacred rite speaks of Him. We are in His court, and under His eye, and there is an interchange of love between Him and us. On our side there is the love of reverence. On His side there is the love of a gentle, fostering, soothing protection.
^ Above all, it was necessary for a right understanding, not only of Dr. Arnold's religious opinions, but of his whole character to enter into the peculiar feeling of love and adoration which he entertained towards our Lord Jesus Christ — peculiar in the distinctness and intensity which, as it characterized almost all his common impressions, so in this case gave additional strength and meaning to those feelings with which he regarded not only His work of Redemption but Himself, as a living Friend and Master. " In that unknown world in which our thoughts become instantly lost," it was (as he says in his third volume of sermons) his real
ST. LUKE XXII. 19 445
support and delight to remember that " still there is one object on which our thoughts and imaginations may fasten, no less than our affections ; that amidst the light, dark from excess of brilliance, which surrounds the throne of God, we may yet discern the gracious form of the Son of Man." ^
2. Again, He bids us " Do this," to remind us that we must daily renew our connexion with Him. He desires to be remem- bered under the symbol of food, of that which we must continually take by our own appetite, choice, and acceptance. We do not gather at the Lord's Table to look at a crown, the symbol of a king who governs by delegates and laws and a crowd of officials, and with whom we have no direct connexion. We do not assemble to view the portrait of a father, who gave us life, but of whom we are now independent. We do not come to garland a tomb which contains the mortal part of one who was dear to us and who once saved our life. But we come to renew our con- nexion with One who seeks to enter into the closest relations with us, to win our love, to purify our nature, to influence our will. It is by maintaining this connexion with Him that we maintain spiritual life; by taking Him as truly into our spirit by our affections, by our choice, and by our faith as we take bread into our body.
Soon, all too soon, from this blest Sacrament
Back to the glare of day our feet are bent;
Soon wakes the week-day sun, and brings along
The cares and clamours of our human throng;
The world's loud laughter, threats, or whisper'd spells,
Life's battles, burthens, weeping, songs, and knells.
But we who from that Paschal Chamber come
Still in its shadows find our quiet home,
Safe in its precincts, near our Master's heart,
'Midst all the stress of travel, school, and mart.
And still that Cross goes with us on our way ;
We feast on that great Sacrifice all day.
The sealing Symbol comes but then and there ;
The Truth is ever ours, and everywhere:
Faith needs but stretch her hand and lift her eyes.
And ready still for use her Banquet always lies.^
* A. P. Stauiley, Life, and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold^ i. 32.
* H. C. G, Moule, in the Eous& of the Pilgrimage, 68.
446 IN REMEMBRANCE
3. And the Holy Supper had its heavenly counterpart. The Jews were wont to picture the felicity of the Kingdom of Heaven under the image of a glad feast. " This world," said the Rabbi Jacob, " is like a vestibule before the world to come : prepare thyself in the vestibule that thou mayest be admitted into the festal chamber." And it is written : " Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." " Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." " Blessed are they which are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And the feast of the Passover was a foreshadowing of that heavenly banquet. It commemorated the exodus from the land of bondage, but it was more than a commemoration. It was a prophecy, and when the worshippers sat at the holy table, they thought not merely of the ancient deliverance but of the final home-gathering.