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

oot in a failure to discern this body and blood) is not that of the abuse of
bread and wine, but of the indignity offered to His body and blood which
they communicate; therefore your punishment is not simply that of men
guilty of gluttony and drunkenness, but that of men guilty of a wrong done
to the body and blood of Christ; therefore sickness and death have been
sent to warn you of your awful crime, and if these warnings be not heeded,
your final doom will be to perish with the world (v. 32).
The sacramental communion was ordained of Christ as the means of
the spiritual communion. In its divine essence, that is, in its sacramental
character, the Lord's Supper is unchangeable, but its effects and blessings
are conditioned upon the faith of the recipient. The same sunlight falls
upon the eye of the blind and of the seeing alike; both eyes alike receive it,
but the eye of the seeing alone perceives it; it is communicated to both; it is
"discerned" by but the one. But the analogy fails at an important point: In
spirituals the lack of the perception with the reception is voluntary, and,
therefore, while the blind eye suffers privation only, the blind soul comes
under condemnation. It is the blind man's misfortune that he does not see,
it is the unbelieving man's guilt that he does not discern. The diseased and
the sound eat of the same natural bread; but to one it brings strength, to
another it is without effect, and to yet another it brings nausea and agony.
The difference of result is owing to the difference of condition in the
recipient. The Holy Spirit breathes forever on and in the word, and is, with
it, received by all who hear the word, quickening the yielding heart, and
hardening the heart which resists Him.
Jesus said to every one of the disciples present, probably to Judas,
who betrayed, certainly to Peter, who soon after denied Him: "Take, eat,
this is My body given for you;" and the ministers of Christ for eighteen
centuries have said to every communicant, believing or unbelieving, "Take,
eat, this is the body of Christ given for you," and what Christ said, and they
say, is unchangingly true. So far there is no distinction made by the
character of the recipient, for as much as this depended upon Christ's will,
and is therefore unchanging. "The gifts