27). He there tells the Jews, "Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no
life in you." And when the Jews on that occasion complained that they
did not comprehend what he meant, he added for their better
understanding, and as if for our understanding, that we might not
think his body was to be actually eaten, that he only meant, _we
should live by his commandment_. He closed his discourse with these
explanatory expressions: "The flesh profiteth nothing; the _words_
that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life."
Whilst I am upon this topic, I cannot help remarking that it is
not a little singular that we should have preserved this rite and
insisted upon perpetuating one symbolical act of Christ whilst we
have totally neglected all others -- particularly one other which had
at least an equal claim to our observance. Jesus washed the feet of
his disciples and told them that, as he had washed their feet, they
ought to wash one another's feet; for he had given them an example,
that they should do as he had done to them. I ask any person who
believes the Supper to have been designed by Jesus to be commemorated
forever, to go and read the account of it in the other Gospels, and
then compare with it the account of this transaction in St.
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