James Martineau
Published: 2015-06-25
Total Pages: 413
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Excerpt from Hours of Thought on Sacred Things, Vol. 2 The few critical discussions comprised in the following pages no reader, I trust, will find carried beyond the exigencies of some important moral or spiritual lesson. I have often been asked, by those who interpret Christian rites by a Sacramental theory, what meaning can be attached to the Communion Service by persons who, like myself, disown that theory, and who, further, see no Vicarious Atonement accomplished on Calvary. The answer is perhaps most simply given by the contents of the Service itself when performed under such conditions. I have therefore, with a view to such enquirers, placed at the end of this volume one or two Addresses written for this commemoration. And, for the sake of still greater explicitness, I have prefixed to them another, delivered to a class of young persons on the eve of their first Communion. It had been preceded by a course of weekly lectures, extending through nine months, on the History of the Eucharist; the impression of which had divided my hearers into two classes, viz. those who shrunk from a usage so rarely clear of superstition; and those who were drawn to the commemoration by its inherent beauty and significance. To the latter the words now printed, under the title of "Confirmation Address," were spoken before going into Church on the Sunday morning. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.