THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST.
The best preparation for taking this sacrament, better than any or
all of the books or tracts composed for this end, is to read over and
over again, and often on your knees--at all events with a kneeling
and praying heart--the Gospel according to St. John, till your mind
is familiarised to the contemplation of Christ, the Redeemer and
Mediator of mankind, yea, of every creature, as the living and self-
subsisting Word, the very truth of all true being, and the very being
of all enduring truth; the reality, which is the substance and unity
of all reality; THE LIGHT WHICH LIGHTETH EVERY MAN, so that what we
call reason is itself a light from that light, lumen a luce, as the
Latin more distinctly expresses this fact. But it is not merely
light, but therein is life; and it is the life of Christ, the co-
eternal Son of God, that is the only true life-giving light of men.
We are assured, and we believe, that Christ is God; God manifested in
the flesh. As God, he must be present entire in every creature;--
(for how can God, or indeed any spirit, exist in parts?)--but he is
said to dwell in the regenerate, to come to them who receive him by
faith in his name, that is, in his power and influence; for this is
the meaning of the word "name" in Scripture when applied to God or
his Christ.
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