But, first, we must learn how hard it is to acknowledge either the sign or its signification. '_The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?_' That strife which began in the synagogue of Capernaum has gone on, in every nation of the modern world in which the name of Christ has been proclaimed, even to this day. Some think they can quiet their own minds, and settle all debate, by saying, 'Of course, the eating is metaphorical.' But I do not find that the use of that phrase has brought much contentment to any living soul. I do not think that any man's _spirit_ can be satisfied with the bare imagination of a feast any more than his _body_. When vain men feed upon praises,--when angry men feed upon the acts which provoke them to rage,--when men who have received kindnesses feed on these kindnesses,--when earnest patriots feed upon the deeds that have been done by those who have saved their country,--you may, if you please, call this fantastic, imaginary, metaphorical feeding. I know that the results are real; that the vain man does vain acts, and acquires a vain character; that the angry man does acts of revenge, and becomes in spirit, if not openly, a murderer; that all gentle acts come from that upon which the grateful man has nourished himself--all that is most blessed to mankind, from the courage and self-denial which the lover of his country has cultivated in himself. These skilful intellectual explanations of facts--the haughty and self-complacent formula, 'This only means'--may serve very well the purposes of those who write books; for those who have to live and die, they are good for nothing. They take for granted that which the conscience of mankind denies,--that which every language on the face of the earth denies,--that the words which represent acts of the senses, needs of the senses, the satisfaction of the senses, do not also represent acts of the spirit, needs of the spirit, the satisfaction of the spirit. They introduce an unreal middle world between the senses and the spirit--a world of shadows, from which the most absolute materialism is a deliverance; because that, at least, is honest, and because against that there must be a re-action.