Is not that the effect of the Lord's Supper? I
appeal now to the convictions of communicants -- and ask such persons
whether they have not been occasionally conscious of a painful
confusion of thought between the worship due to God and the
commemoration due to Christ. For, the service does not stand upon
the basis of a voluntary act, but is imposed by authority. It is an
expression of gratitude to Christ, enjoined by Christ. There is an
endeavor to keep Jesus in mind, whilst yet the prayers are addressed
to God. I fear it is the effect of this ordinance to clothe Jesus
with an authority which he never claimed and which distracts the mind
of the worshipper. I know our opinions differ much respecting the
nature and offices of Christ, and the degree of veneration to which
he is entitled. I am so much a Unitarian as this: that I believe the
human mind cannot admit but one God, and that every effort to pay
religious homage to more than one being, goes to take away all right
ideas. I appeal, brethren, to your individual experience. In the
moment when you make the least petition to God, though it be but a
silent wish that he may approve you, or add one moment to your life,
-- do you not, in the very act, necessarily exclude all other beings
from your thought? In that act, the soul stands alone with God, and
Jesus is no more present to the mind than your brother or your child.
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