eating and drinking, whether it relates to the body or the mind, involves in it an appropriation and incorporation of what is eaten and drunken; thus, in the case of bodily food, an appropriation and incorporation of such food by and into the body, and in the case of mental or spiritual food, an appropriation and incorporation of such food also by and into the mind. The true Christian therefore, in consequence of connecting all food with its DIVINE SOURCE, the GLORIFIED HUMANITY OF THE GREAT SAVIOUR, receives it in that connection, and of course receives, at the same time, the blessing of that GREAT and HOLY GOD, and with the blessing that GOD HIMSELF, since GOD and His blessing cannot possibly be separated. The bodily eating and drinking of such a Christian is thus complex act, including in it the appropriation and incorporation of all principles, from the lowest to the highest, whether material, rational, spiritual, or celestial, which have a tendency to nourish and strengthen either corporeal or mental life. And (what is, of all other considerations, the most astonishing and the most affecting) it includes also the appropriation and incorporation of JESUS CHRIST, with all the feast of fat things of His Divine love and wisdom, agreeable to the words of that GREAT SAVIOUR, “He that eateth ME, even he shall live by ME;” [John vi. 57.]; and in another place, “Behold,
