"JENNIE," said I, "I don't believe in Mr. Work's sermon this morning, do you?"
"I don't think I do, John; but to be candid1 I did not hear a great deal of it."
It was Sunday evening. Harry2 was asleep in his room. The baby, sung to her sweet slumbers3 pressed against her mother's heart, had been lain down at last in her little cradle. Jennie, her evening work finished, had come down into the library and was sitting on the lounge beside me.
"I was not so fortunate," said I. "Blessed are those who having ears hear not--sometimes. I listened, and took the other side. My church was converted into a court-room, I into an advocate. If I believed Mr. Work's doctrine4 was sound Protestantism I should turn Roman Catholic. Its teaching is the warmer, cheerier, more helpful of the two."
Then I took up the open book that lay on my library table and read from Father Hyacinthe's discourses5 the following paragraph--from an address delivered on the first communion of a converted Protestant to the Roman Catholic Church:
"Where (in Protestantism) is that real Presence which flows from the sacrament as from a hidden spring, like a river of peace, upon the true Catholic, all the day long, gladdening and fertilizing6 all his life? This Immanuel--God with us--awaited you in our Church, and in that sacrament which so powerfully attracted you, even when you but half believed it. In your own worship, as in the ancient synagogue, you found naught7 but types and shadows; they spoke8 to you of reality, but did not contain it; they awakened9 your thirst, but did not quench10 it; weak and empty rudiments11 which have no longer the right to rest, since the veil of the temple has been rent asunder12 and eternal realities been revealed."
"Yes, Jennie," said I. "If I thought Father Hyacinthe were right, I should turn Roman Catholic. And Mr. Work this morning confirmed him. He took away the substance. He left us only a type, a shadow."
The sermon was on the words--"Do this in remembrance of me." It was a doctrinal sermon. I am not sure that it might not have been a useful one--in the sixteenth century. It was a sermon against Romanism and Lutheranism and High Church episcopacy. The minister told us what were the various doctrines13 of the communion. He analyzed14 them and dismissed them one after another. He showed very conclusively15, to us Protestants, that the Romanists are wrong, to us Presbyterians that the Episcopalians are wrong, to us who are open Communionists that the close Communionists are wrong. As there does not happen to be either Romanist, Episcopalian, or close Communionist in our congregation, I cannot say how efficacious his arguments would have been if addressed to any one who was in previous doubt as to his conclusions. Then he proceeded to expound16 what he termed the rational and Scriptural doctrine of communion. It is, he told us, simply a memorial service. It simply commemorates17 the past. "As," said he, "every year, the nation gathers to strew18 flowers upon the graves of its patriot19 soldiers, so this day the Christian20 Church gathers to strew with flowers of love and praise the grave of the Captain of our salvation21. As in the one act all differences are forgotten, and the nation is one in the sacred presence of death, so in the other, creeds22 and doctrines vanish, and the Church of Christ appears at the foot of Calvary as one in Christ Jesus."
Mr. Wheaton asked me, as we came out of church, if the sermon was not a magnificent one. I evaded23 the question. I was obliged to confess to myself that it was unsatisfactory. If I were obliged to choose between the Protestantism of Mr. Work and the Romanism of Father Hyacinthe, I am afraid I should choose the latter.
"But," said Jennie, "Mr. Work's sermon was not true Protestant doctrine, John. There is a Real Presence in the communion. Only it is in the heart, not in the head, in us, not in the symbols that we eat. Did you not feel the Real Presence when Father Hyatt in the afternoon broke and blessed the bread? Did you not see the living Christ in his radiant face and hear the living Christ in his touching24 words, and his more touching silence?"
Yes! I did. Father Hyatt had disproved the morning's sermon, though he said never a word about it.
Father Hyatt is an old, old man. He has long since retired25 from active service, having worn out his best days here at Wheathedge, in years now long gone by. A little money left him by a parishioner, and a few annual gifts from old friends among his former people, are his means of support. His hair is white as snow. His hands are thin, his body bent26, his voice weak, his eyesight dim, his ears but half fulfil their office; his mind even shows signs of the weakness and wanderings of old age; but his heart is young, and I verily believe he looks forward to the hour of his release with hopes as high and expectations as ardent27 as those with which, in college, he anticipated the hour of his graduation. This was the man, patriarch of the Church, who has lived to see the children he baptized grow up, go forth28 into the world, many die and be buried; who has baptized the second and even the third generation, and has seen Wheathedge grow from a cross-road to a flourishing village; who this afternoon, perhaps for the last time--I could not help thinking so as I sat in church--interpreted to us the love of Christ as it is uttered to our hearts in this most sacred and hallowed of all services. Very simply, very gently, quite unconsciously, he refuted the cheerless doctrine of the morning sermon, and pointed29 us to the Protestant doctrine of the Real Presence. Do you ask me what he said? Nothing. It was by his silence that he spoke.
A few tender, loving, reverential words as he broke the bread. Three minutes of silver speech, the rest of his part of the service a golden silence. But those few words were radiant with the presence and the love of a risen, a living Saviour30. It was not of the Christ that died, but of the Christ that now lives, and intercedes31, and guides, and preserves, and saves, he spoke, with voice feeble with old age, but strong with love. And as he spoke, it seemed to me, I think it seemed to all of us, that the Christ he loved so much and served so faithfully was close at hand, near and ready to bless us all, not with a sacred memory only, but with a Real Presence, the more real because unseen.
"Yes, Jennie," said I after we had sat for a few minutes in silence recalling that sacred hour, "Yes, Jennie, there was a Real Presence in Father Hyatt's breaking and blessing32 of the bread. But what do you say of the disquisition of Mr. Work on transubstantiation which followed it?"
"I didn't hear it, John. Was it really about transubstantiation? Perhaps I ought to have listened--but I could not, I did not want to. A higher, holier voice was speaking to me. I was absorbed in that. I was thinking how of old time Christ appeared in the breaking of bread to the disciples33 whose eyes were holden. And to-night, John, as I have been rocking baby to sleep I have been reading Tennyson's Holy Grail, and thinking how often, in our modern life, Calabad and Percivale kneel at the same shrine34, and how often what is but a memorial service to the one affords a beatific35 vision of a living and life-giving Lord to the other."
And Jennie repeated in a low soft voice a verse from that strange poem, whose meaning, I sometimes think, is but half understood even by its admirers:
"And at the sacring of the Mass, I saw The holy elements alone: but he 'Saw ye no more? I, Galahad, saw the Grail, The Holy Grail, descend36 upon the shrine: I saw the fiery37 face as of a child That smote38 itself into the bread, and went, And hither am I come; and never yet Hath what thy sister taught me first to see This holy thing, failed from my side?'"
"Ah! yes, John, Father Hyacinthe is mistaken, and Mr. Work is mistaken too. There is more in our communion than can be explained. The reason is a great deal, a great deal, but it is not everything. And there are experiences which it can neither understand nor interpret. Baby is not only up-stairs, John; he is in my heart of hearts. And you are never away from home, husband mine, though often in the city, but are always with me. And my Saviour he is not far away, he is not in the heaven that we must bring him down, nor in the past that we must summon him from centuries long gone by. He is in our hearts, John. Do I believe in the Real Presence? Do I not know that there is a Real Presence? And neither priest nor pastor39 can take it from me."
"I wish you could have administered the communion this afternoon, Jennie," said I, "instead of Mr. Work."
"I wish some good friend of Mr. Work would advise him not to talk at the communion," said Jennie.
"Write him a note," said I.
Jennie shook her head. "No," said she. "It would only do harm. But I wish ministers knew and felt that at the communion table there is a Real Presence that makes many words unfitting. When we are on the mount of Transfiguration, we do not care much for Peter, James or John. And so, dear, I recommend you to do as I do--if the minister must give us a doctrinal disquisition, or a learned argument, or an elaborate arabesque40 of fancy work, or an impassioned appeal, let him go his way and do not heed41 him. I want silence that I may commune with the Real Presence. If the minister does not give it me, I take it."
Jennie is right, I am sure. What we laymen42 want at the communion service, from our pastors43, is chiefly silence. Only a few and simple words; the fewer and simpler the better. Oh! you who are privileged to distribute to us the emblems44 of Christ's love, believe me that the communion never reaches its highest end, save when you interpret it to us, not merely as a flower-strewn grave of a dead past, but as a Mount of Transfiguration whereon we talk with a living, an ascended45 Saviour. Believe me too, we want at that table no other message than that which a voice from on high whispers in our hearts: "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him!"
收听单词发音 |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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fertilizing
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| v.施肥( fertilize的现在分词 ) | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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quench
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| vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制 | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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analyzed
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| v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析 | |
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conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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commemorates
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| n.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的名词复数 )v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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strew
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| vt.撒；使散落；撒在…上，散布于 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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intercedes
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| v.斡旋，调解( intercede的第三人称单数 )；说情 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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beatific
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| adj.快乐的，有福的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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arabesque
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| n.阿拉伯式花饰；adj.阿拉伯式图案的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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laymen
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| 门外汉，外行人( layman的名词复数 )； 普通教徒（有别于神职人员） | |
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pastors
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| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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emblems
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| n.象征，标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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