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

tract of land may be the residence of the body; and that the thousands of
dollars were simply a sign of incorruptible treasures in the other world; and
that the testator meant only that it was his wish and will that M. N. should
have these good things of the other world, would he consider this sound
interpretation? When Christ gives us Himself, He gives us everything. His
body and blood are the organs of His Deity. In giving them to us He gives
all to us; but in giving to us the mere signs of them, He would give us very
little. All bread is, as such, equally a symbol of His body; all wine is a
symbol of His blood. Give us but these symbols at His Testamentary
Supper, and we have at the Lord's Supper only what we may have at every
meal. What we want is Christ Himself, not symbols of Him.
But were the case less clear in regard to the Testamentary words,
were it possible with equal propriety to embrace a strict or a loose
acceptation of them, still the law holds good, that where a dispute arises in
which it is impossible to settle which one of two meanings is the correct
one, the preference shall be given to the more literal of the two; and this
rule is good here. If we run the risk of erring, let it be by believing our
Lord too far, too closely, too confidingly, rather than by doubting or by
trying to explain away the natural import of His words.
3. The Lord's Supper is a Covenanting Institution. But in a Covenant
as in a Testament, the things mutually conveyed and received are not the
signs nor symbols of things, but things themselves. Whenever, as in the
case of a will, disputes arise as to a literal or a laxer meaning, that
interpretation, other things being equal, is always safest which adheres
most closely to the very letter of the terms.
But the character of the covenanting words is yet further settled by
their obvious allusion to the terms of the Old Covenant. "Moses took the
blood of calves and of goats, and sprinkled both the books and all the
people, saying: This is the blood of the Testament which God hath
appointed unto you." It is with these words in His mind that our Lord says:
"This is My blood (not the blood of calves and of goats) of the