d thickening folds of oblivion,
simply to a historical past, in which He was once offered, the
retrospect would not have the sweetness in it which it now has. But
when we come to this thought that the Christ who was for us is also
the Christ in us, and that He is not the Christ for us unless He is
the Christ in us; and His death will never wash away our sins unless
we feed upon Him, here and now, by faith and meditation, then the
retrospect becomes blessedness. The Christian life is not merely the
remembrance of a historical Christ in the past, but it is the present
participation in a living Christ, with us now.

He is near each of us that we may make Him the very food of our
spirits. We are to live upon Him. He is to be incorporated within us
by our own act. This is no mysticism, it is a piece of simple
reality. There is no Christian life without it. The true life of the
believer is just the feeding of our souls upon Him,--our minds
accepting, meditating upon, digesting the truths which are incarnated
in Jesus; our hearts feeding upon the love which is so tender, warm,
stooping, and close; our wills feeding upon and nourished by the
utterance of His will in commandments which to know is joy and to
keep is liberty; our hopes feeding upon Him who is our Hope, and in
whom they find no chaff and husks of peradventures, but the pure
wheat of 'Verily! verily I say unto you'; the whole nature thus
finding its nourishment in Jesus Christ. You are Christians in the
measure in which the very strength of your spirits, and sustenance of
all your faculties, are found in loving communion with the living
Lord.

Remember, too, that all this communion, intimate, sweet, sacred, is
possible only, or at all events is in its highest forms and most
blessed reality, possible only, to those who approach Him through the
gate of His death. The feeding upon the living Christ which will be
the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever, must be a
feeding upon the whole Christ. We must not only nourish our spirits
on the fact that He was incarnated for our salvation, but also on the
truth that He was crucified for our acceptance with God. 'He that
eateth Me, even he shall live by Me,' has for its deepest
explanation, 'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath
eternal life.'

My friends, what about the hunger of your souls? Where is it
satisfied? With the swine's husks, or with the 'Bread of God which
came down from Heaven?'

I