Sacrament

A sacrament is a religious symbol or often a rite which conveys divine grace, blessing, or sanctity upon the believer who participates in it, or a tangible symbol which represents an intangible reality.

Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, an altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden

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• SACRAMENT, n. A solemn religious ceremony to which several degrees of authority and significance are attached. Rome has seven sacraments, but the Protestant churches, being less prosperous, feel that they can afford only two, and these of inferior sanctity. Some of the smaller sects have no sacraments at all -- for which mean economy they will indubitable be damned.
  • Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

• He was the word that spake it,
  He took the bread and brake it;
  And what that word did make it,
  I do believe and take it.
  • John Donne, "On the Sacrament"

• A wedding is a sacrament... a joyous celebration of love and commitment. In Utopia. In the real world... it's an excuse to drink excessively and say things you shouldn't say.
  • The Wedding Date (2005), spoken by Nick Mercer

• Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
  Of those white elders; but, escaping,
  Left only Death's ironic scraping.
  Now, in its immortality, it plays
  On the clear viol of her memory,
  And makes a constant sacrament of praise.
  • Wallace Stevens, "Peter Quince at the Clavier", Harmonium (1915)

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• He who receives a sacrament does not perform a good work, he receives a benefit.
  • Martin Luther, p. 526.

• Sacraments, ordained of Christ, are not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession; but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good-will towards us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him.
  • Articles of Methodist Episcopal Church, p. 526.

• The waters of salvation, welling forth from the mercy-seat above, have descended in copious floods fo refresh and bless the earth. And will you refuse to drink of the river of life which flows full and free before you, proffering health and gladness to your famished soul, because you cannot discover every thing pertaining to its source, far, far away in the recesses of the Eternal Mind?
  • G. B. Ide, p. 527.

• The condition of salvation is that kind of belief in Jesus Christ which authenticates itself in repentance for the past and in an amendment of life for the future.
  • L. L. Noble, p. 527.

• None shall be saved by Christ but those only who work out their own salvation while God is working in them by His truth and His Holy Spirit. We cannot do without God; and God will not do without us.
  • Matthew Henry, p. 528.

• "But what can mortal man do to secure his own salvation?" Mortal man can do just what God bids him do. He can repent and believe. He can arise and follow Christ as Matthew did.
  • Washington Gladden, p. 528.

• Grant that the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is God's truth, and I know not in what way you can escape the doctrine that there is salvation only in Christ. From the liberality which says every body is right — from the charity which forbids you to say any body is wrong—from the peace which is bought at the expense of truth, may the good Lord deliver you.
  • J. C. Ryle, p. 528.

• And is not this a great salvation, great in its simplicity, great in its comprehensiveness, which thus meets the every necessity of the guilty and helpless; and which, arranged for creatures whom it finds in the lowest degradation, leaves them not till elevated to the very summit of dignity?
  • Henry Melvill, p. 529.

• It is God's purpose to save — to save His people from their sins, to purge out of them all hypocrisy, falsehood, injustice, and make of them honest men, true men, just men — men created anew after His likeness. And this is the meaning of His salvation; and is the only salvation worth having, for this life or the life to come.
  • Charles Kingsley, p. 529.