Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/246

246THE HALLIG.

  "My authority should have weight with you only in
so far as long years of reflection upon the sacred ordin-
ances of the Gospel may be better than the first insight
into the truth of the revelation of God in Christ. Only
permit me to say once more, I do not connect the bless-
ing of the celebration which you are contemplating so
much with a full understanding of its character, as with
the influence of God's grace upon the willing heart.
You should not, therefore, approach the Lord's table
with the expectation of experiencing this thing or that,
but rather wait for the promise which belongs to the oc-
casion. Do not bind yourself, or your devotion, to this
or that idea of the communion, but be willing and
ready to receive, with entire submission, what God offers
to you in it. I, for my part, stand on the ground of the
church's teachings."
  "If we consider the divine revelation through Christ,
as a miracle of God's redeeming grace, by which an en-
tirely new means of communication with heaven, enters
into the life of man — not a higher development of what
previously existed, but something entirely dissimilar —
as an elevation of the natural man, by which he is
made a recipient of that life which was with the Father,
and which has appeared upon earth — then we can not
deny its continued existence and constant action to be a
standing miracle. If, instead of a mediation between
that which is above and that which is below, linking its
spiritual gifts to those already bestowed on us — as is the
case with us in our most sacred hours of devotion, as
was the case with the prophets in an extraordinary de-
gree — there is promised a Mediator in whom Heaven
and earth are become one ; so we must not presume to