THE SON OF MAN
JESUS said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." -John 6:53 [KJV] Ignorant persons, who sit under unenlightened teachers, are taught to apply these words to the sacrament. Hence they think, if they do but receive the sacrament, they surely eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ; their sins are pardoned; all is well; and they shall go to heaven at last. O, how horridly is that sacred ordinance prostituted! “The wicked, such as be void of lively faith, do carnally and visibly press with their teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ; yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and drink the sign or sacrament of so great a thing,” says St. Austin. What doth our Lord here mean? (1st.) That naturally we have no spiritual life in us. We are dead, under the sentence of the law: as dead to all knowledge of, love to, and deligh...