Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/251

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THE COMMUNION.

I can not but regard it in its nature and character, as
only designed for the maintenance of a lively recollec-
tion of the sufferings and death of its Founder."
  "On the other hand, I must confess," replied Hold —
"so do judgments differ—that nothing seems more
strange to me than a ceremony in memory of him who
is the way, the truth, and the life for us ; in whom the
present improved condition of society had its rise and
progress, to whom we are consecrated in baptism, in
whose light we breathe, in whose congregation we live,
to whom we owe joy, peace, and blessedness, in life
and death. Can he who said, 'Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away/ and, 'I
am with you even unto the end of the world ;' can he
have intended to establish in this Supper, only a com-
memorative festival, such as one might have ordained,
who feared that his teachings and blessings would be
forgotten, and yet desired to live on in the memory of
man, as an individual who had been useful in his day ?
Must not, indeed, such an ordinance lose its signifi-
cance in the Christian church, in proportion as the
church more zealously cherishes the memory of its
Lord ? The more entirely a soul belongs to him, the
more deeply a soul loses itself in the fullness of his
blessings and promises, so much the less important
would be an ordinance which should only remind it not
to forget him.
  "The Apostle Paul speaks further of the Lord's Sup-
per in such a manner that all idea of regarding it
merely as a memorial, must vanish. He says, 'Where-
fore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup
of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body