o you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life."

Then, reverting to the symbolism of the bread, He reiterated: "I am the
bread of life." In further elucidation He explained that while their
fathers did truly eat manna in the wilderness, yet they were dead;
whereas the bread of life of which He spake would insure eternal life
unto all who partook thereof. That bread, He averred, was His flesh.
Against this solemn avowal the Jews complained anew, and disputed among
themselves, some asking derisively: "How can this man give us his flesh
to eat." Emphasizing the doctrine, Jesus continued: "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the
living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from
heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth
of this bread shall live forever."

There was little excuse for the Jews pretending to understand that our
Lord meant an actual eating and drinking of His material flesh and
blood. The utterances to which they objected were far more readily
understood by them than they are by us on first reading; for the
representation of the law and of truth in general as bread, and the
acceptance thereof as a process of eating and drinking, were figures in
every-day use by the rabbis of that time.[731] Their failure to
comprehend the symbolism of Christ's doctrine was an act of will, not
the natural consequence of innocent ignorance. To eat the flesh and
drink the blood of Christ was and is to believe in and accept Him as the
literal Son of God and Savior of the world, and to obey His
commandments. By these means only may the Spirit of God become an
abiding part of man's individual being, even as the substance of the
food he eats is assimilated with the tissues of his body.

It is not sufficing to accept the precepts of Christ as we may adopt the
doctrines of scientists, philosophers, and savants, however great the
wisdom of these sages may be; for such acceptance is by mental assent or
deliberate exercize of will, and has relation to the doctrine only as
independent of