or in all communion with God the mind is
closed down, the heart and soul only being in operation? On the
other hand, it is easily possible to be in closest communion with God
in all the noises and distractions of a great railway station amongst a
crowd of shifting persons. No, it is some imperfection in the attitude
adopted by the heart and mind in approaching this Sacrament. In
what way have we perhaps been approaching it? In an attitude of
awe accompanied by a humble expectancy or hope of receiving. We
hope and believe we shall receive God's grace. Now, the
experienced soul and heart know so well what it is and how it feels
to receive God's grace that they are all the more disappointed at not
receiving it upon this holy occasion. What were our Lord's words?
He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me," or more correctly
translated, "Do or offer this as a memorial of Me before God." This
implies an act of giving upon our part, whereas we have come to
regard this ceremony as an act of receiving.

Now though the attitude of humble expectancy to receive is of itself
a worthy one it does not fulfil the exact command, which is to
commemorate, offer, and hold up before God the Perfect Love and
Sacrifice of our Saviour, as a living memorial of Him before God. It
should be accompanied by an offering of great love and thanks upon
our part without regard to anything we may receive. But because
first we give we then receive.

About nothing are we in such a state of ignorance as about the laws
which govern the give and take between God and Man. On the one
hand is God the All-Giving, longing to bestow, and upon the other is
Man the all-needing, aching to receive, and between them an
impasse. Failure to fulfil God's laws is the cause of this impasse.
There is both a law of like to like, and a law of like to opposite. We
cannot know God without in some small degree first being like God,
and to be like God we must not only be pure in heart but also
conform to the God-like condition of giving. First we obey this law
that the second may come into effect--that of like to opposite, or
positive to negative, the All-Giving immediately meeting and filling
the all-needing. We have nothing to give to God but our love, thanks,
and obedience; but of these it is possible to give endlessly, and the
more we give the more God-like do we become, and the more
God-like the higher and further do we enter into the great riches and
blisses of God. Therefore