The statement of this objection leads me to say that I think
this difficulty, wherever it is felt, to be entitled to the greatest
weight. It is alone a sufficient objection to the ordinance. It is
my own objection. This mode of commemorating Christ is not suitable
to me. That is reason enough why I should abandon it. If I believed
that it was enjoined by Jesus on his disciples, and that he even
contemplated making permanent this mode of commemoration, every way
agreeable to an eastern mind, and yet, on trial, it was disagreeable
to my own feelings, I should not adopt it. I should choose other
ways which, as more effectual upon me, he would approve more. For I
choose that my remembrances of him should be pleasing, affecting,
religious. I will love him as a glorified friend, after the free way
of friendship, and not pay him a stiff sign of respect, as men do to
those whom they fear. A passage read from his discourses, a moving
provocation to works like his, any act or meeting which tends to
awaken a pure thought, a flow of love, an original design of virtue,
I call a worthy, a true commemoration.
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