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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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typical force of the prohibition is made manifest. Under the Old Testament<br />

they actually ate of the body of the sacrifice, but only drank a symbol of its<br />

blood. It is manifest that the reservation of the blood pointed to something<br />

yet to be accomplished, <strong>and</strong> hinted that the perfect communion in the<br />

whole sacrifice was reserved for another dispensation. Only in the light of<br />

this can we fully appreciate the startling character of our Lord's comm<strong>and</strong>,<br />

when, for the first time in the history of the chosen race, He gave the<br />

comm<strong>and</strong> to drink that which He declared to be blood--<strong>and</strong> solved the<br />

mystery by calling it the blood of the New Covenant.<br />

3. <strong>The</strong> Supernatural <strong>and</strong> Natural eating.<br />

When the three men, Gen. xviii., one of whom is called Jehovah,<br />

appeared to Abraham, the patriarch set before them bread, flesh, butter, <strong>and</strong><br />

milk, <strong>and</strong> they did eat; Verse 8. Here was the supernatural eating of the<br />

natural; the eating of natural food with the natural organ of an assumed<br />

body, <strong>and</strong> that body of course supernatural. <strong>The</strong>se same three heavenly<br />

persons did eat (Gen. xix. 3) of unleavened bread in the house of Lot.<br />

Is there a greater mystery in the sacramental eating, in which the<br />

supernatural communicates itself by the natural, by the natural bread to the<br />

natural mouth, than there is in this true eating, in which the supernatural<br />

partakes of the natural? If God can come down <strong>and</strong> partake of human food<br />

by human organs, so that it is affirmed of Jehovah that He did eat, He can<br />

lift the human to partake of what is divine by a process which, though<br />

supernatural, is yet most real.<br />

4. <strong>The</strong> relations of covenant to sacrifice.<br />

<strong>The</strong> relations of sacrifice to covenant in the Old Testament suggest<br />

instructive parallels to the Lord's Supper. In Gen. xv. we have the covenant<br />

between God <strong>and</strong> Abraham sealed with sacrifice. In Gen. xxxi. 44-46, is<br />

presented the idea of eating as an act of covenant. Laban said to Jacob:<br />

"Let us make a covenant," "<strong>and</strong> they did eat there upon the heap;" where<br />

eating is the crowning act of the covenant. But more than this is presented<br />

in this chapter, for in the particulars of the ratification of the covenant, we<br />

are told (verse 54), "<strong>The</strong>n Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, <strong>and</strong><br />

called his brethren to eat bread: <strong>and</strong> they did

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