Matthew 26:26

This is my body; the emblem, or representation of my body. As it is said of God, Deuteronomy 32:4. "He is the Rock"; not literally a rock, but in some respects like one-firm, stable, and unchanging. So, Genesis 41:26, "The seven good kine are seven years"; not literally, but they represent seven years. So, John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches"; not literally, but represented or illustrated by the vine and its branches. So with the declaration, "This is my body." Christ did not design to teach his disciples that he was then breaking his own body, and that they were then eating it. His body was alive and unbroken: the disciples knew that what they ate was bread, not flesh. Besides, Matthew does not say that Jesus took his body and broke it, and said, Take, eat: but he took bread, and brake it: and it was bread: and "This is my body" means, it represents my body. The literal meaning of the words of the Bible is not always the true meaning. For instance Christ said, "Ye must be born again," John 3:7; meaning, not that a man must enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, but that he must experience a change in his moral and religious character, called passing from death unto life. John 5:24. So, when he said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you," John 6:53, the Jews, understanding it literally, said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Taking it literally, no wonder they thought it strange. He therefore let them know that he did not mean that they must literally eat his flesh; and that, should they do it, it would profit them nothing. The words that I speak unto you, saith he, are spirit and life. They have a spiritual, and not a literal, carnal meaning; they are designed to convey a knowledge of spiritual truths, the right understanding and due reception of which will promote the spiritual life of men.