Chapter V - Prayer and Atonement
307:1
If all those partaking of the sacrament intended to
If all those partaking of the sacrament intended to
commemorate the sufferings of Jesus, had drank "his
cup," they would have revolutionized the world; or if
all who partake of these symbols to-day, were Chris-
tians, taking up their cross, healing the sick, casting out
error and preaching Christ, Truth, to the poor, it
would establish the millennium.
307:8
But all who eat bread and drink wine in memory of
But all who eat bread and drink wine in memory of
Christ, are not ready or willing to drink his cup, and
to leave all for Christ, the Truth and Life, that is
God. Then wherefore ascribe to this willingness with
a dead rite, before showing forth in your body, that
the Truth has come to your understanding, that heals
the sick, and makes the body holy and acceptable,
that Paul said, was "our only reasonable service."
And if Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstra-
tion, no commemoration is requisite, for it is "God
with us."
307:19
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and
blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples,
and said, 'Take eat, this is my body.' And he took the
cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
'Drink ye all of it.'"
307:24
The glorious sense or proof of that hour is lost spirit-
The glorious sense or proof of that hour is lost spirit-
ually, when confined to a literal sense, or the use of
bread and wine. The disciples were eating when he
prayed and gave them bread. Now this would have
been improper in a literal sense; but in its spiritual, it
was natural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; was "ab-
sent from the body and present with the Lord." His
followers silent, humble, patient, self-sacrificing, and
strong, anticipating the approaching hour of their Mas-
308:1
ter's betrayal, sat eating the manna, that before had
ter's betrayal, sat eating the manna, that before had
fed the persecuted followers of Truth in the wilderness.
Their bread came down from heaven; it was the great
Truth of spiritualized being, that often had healed the
sick, and cast out error; their Master had broken, ex-
plained it to them before, and now it was feeding, sus-
taining them; they also had borne it from house to
house, "breaking," explaining it to others; and now
it comforted them. For this Truth their Master was
about to suffer violence, and his cup of sorrow he must
leave to them; he had drank it even with thanks, after
a momentary weakness that said, "Let this cup pass
from me," and now remembering also the cross and
crown it bore, he said to his followers, "Drink ye all of
it." Professors of Christ, are you drinking this cup?
has the blood of the New Testament, the sufferings and
persecutions that attend a new understanding of God,
been shared by you? have you drank this cup? if not,
have you commemorated Jesus in his "cup?" When
the human struggled with the divine, our great ex-
emplar said, "Not my will but thine be done"; not
personal sense, but Soul be represented by me. This
new understanding of the Love that is impersonal, gives
up all for Christ, Truth, blesses them that curse it,
heals the sick, casts out error, raises those dead in be-
lief, and preaches to the poor.
308:27
The rabbi and priest taught a material law, and it
The rabbi and priest taught a material law, and it
was "An eye for an eye," and "whoso sheddeth man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed "; not so did
Jesus, the new testator of God, copy his will; his law
was Love, and "Greater love hath no man than this, that
he lay down his life for a friend," but he did this for his