me nature as that of the God-Man. Not once or
twice, but as a continuous experience, the soul may share this glorious
meal of spiritual renewal--this eating and drinking of Christ.

The external supper--and for that matter the external baptism too--may
have a place in the Church of Christ as a pictorial symbol of the
actual experience, or as a visible profession of faith, but this
outward sign is, in his view, of little moment, and must not occupy the
foreground of attention, nor be made a subject of polemic or of
insistence. The new Creation, the response of faith to the living
Word, the transfiguration of life into the likeness of Christ, are the
momentous facts of a Christian experience, and none of these things is
_mediated_ by external ceremonies.

It was his ideal purpose to promote the formation of little groups of
spiritual Christians which should live in the land in quietness, and
spread by an inward power and inspiration received from above. He saw
clearly that no true Reformation could be carried through by edicts or
by the proclamations of rulers, or by the decision of councils. A
permanent work, from his point of view, could be accomplished only by
the slow and patient development of the religious life and spiritual
experience of the people, since the goal which he sought was the
formation, not of state-made Churches, but of renewed personal lives,
awakened consciences, burning moral passion, and first-hand conviction
of immediate relation with the World of Divine Reality. To this work
of arousing individual souls to these deeper issues of life, and of
building up little scattered societies under the headship of Christ,
which should be, as it were, oases of the Kingdom of God in the world,
he dedicated his years of exile. All such quiet inward movements
progress, as Christ foresaw, too slowly and gradually "for
observation"; but this method of reforming the Church through rebirth
and the creation of Christ-guided societies {83} accomplished, even
during Schwenckfeld's life, impressive results. There were many, not
only in Silesia but in all regions which the missionary-reformer was
able to reach, who "preferred salt and bread in the school of Christ"
to ease and plenty elsewhere, and they formed their little groups in
the midst of a hostile world. The public records of Augsburg reveal
the existence, during Schwenckfeld's life, of a remarkable group of
these quiet, spiritual worshippers in that city