The heavenly banquet and sacrifice under the forms of bread and wine appears prophetically in the Old Testament like a thread of gold running through its texture. The emblem of supernatural life in the garden of Eden was a certain food. At the fountain-head of the Old Dispensation there is a sacrifice of bread and wine; and the Jewish sacrifices are shown to be inferior to it, by the homage which Abraham paid to Melchisedec (Gen. xiv., Heb. vii.). In the temple a particle of the bread from heaven was reserved in the Holy of Holies; the show-bread stood as a constant memorial on a golden table in the tabernacle; a portion ot unleavened bread was offered morning and night by the priests for a perpetual sacrifice; every victim that was sacrificed was sprinkled with the symbolical flour; and in most cases the act of worship was completed by priest and people eating of the victim. In Malachias we read of a clean oblation (of flour) yet to come, which was to be offered for ever throughout the world. Thus did the glimmer of our sanctuary lamp shine dimly through the thick mists of earlier ages, inspiring veneration for the unrevealed mystery. What solemnity surrounded the figure! We have the reality unveiled to our eyes; it should move us to more solemn worship, to a deeper sense of gratitude, to more vivid faith, to a much fuller surrender of ourselves, body, mind and soul, to God.
