quite unique, and which lift it above all other institutions of the Church of God. The Lord's Supper is I. A Commemorative Ordinance.-'This do,' was Christ's word-eat the bread and drink the wine-in remembrance of Me.' So He would have His disciples throughout the world and for all time, until His coming again, make solemn reminiscence of the facts of His history on earth-His adorable person; His marvellous teaching; His stupendous miracles; His piety, His purity, His love, His sorrow; most of all, those few last days of His career; His shameful betrayal, His bitter agony, the dreadful details of His passion when, in the mysterious counsel of God, His soul was made an offering for sin. And as often as, according to His bidding, we eat the bread and drink the cup, we profess before heaven and earth our wondering, grateful and devout remembrance of that blessed and never-to-be-forgotten One-our Master and Lord, Whom we expect by and by to return to us in the clouds of heaven. But this is not all. The Supper is II. A Symbolical Ordinance.-Christ's religion knows little of symbols. They are foreign to it, and it eschews them. Judaism was symbolical throughout. Its institutions, its offices, its personages, its history-all figured and foreshadowed realities to come. The realities are Christianity. Christianity means itself. It is its own end. All attempts to yoke the Gospel to symbolism have proved disastrous. If the history of the Church teaches anything, it teaches this: 'Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.' The Lord, however-no doubt in condescension to our weakness -has made a double exception, the two symbolical ordinances: Baptism and the Supper-these only. How the Supper is symbolical is easy to explain. The elements, bread and wine, are symbolical; representing to the sense God's Paschal Lamb; first as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world, then as the nutriment and support of the world's recovered life. The acts are symbolical: the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine setting forth emblematically the fact, that by God's gracious arrangement believers in His Son receive the benefit of the Atonement, and partake of the true and eternal life which is in Him. The circumstances are symbolical: our partaking of the Supper denoting that, as there is a common provision of life in Christ for all His people, so there is a mystical oneness of believers with Christ and with each other. The bread is one. The body also is one. We are members one of another, united by like bonds of faith, of duty, of sympathy, of hope; brothers and sisters in the fellowship of the household of God. The whole service is symbolical; for it is a publication or preaching in act, as St. Paul has it, both among ourselves and to all men, of the august and blessed verity of our Saviour's passion, and of our joint and several appreciation of its ineffable benefits. But while thus commemorative and symbolical, the Supper of the Lord is III. A Covenant Ordinance.-The slaying of the Passover Lamb in the outset of the history of Israel; the sprinkling of the blood of the victim, half of it upon the altar, half of it upon the people; and the subsequent eating of its flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, was a formal and solemn ratification of the Covenant into which God then entered with Israel and Israel with God-a covenant by which it was provided that, the people on their part being faithful to God in holy submission and obedience, He on His part would deliver them from Egypt, would guide them by His angel through the desert, and would bring them safely to His rest, even the land flowing with milk and honey.' And the yearly celebration of the Passover all down the centuries of Israel's history, from that time forward, was a periodic renewal of their original Covenant with God. So it was ordained to be; and such it actually was, when, and in so far as, Israel was true to its engagements. The lamb was the covenant sacrifice and feast. Its blood, in particular, was the blood of the covenant. Christ, the true Passover, not Israel's only, but the world's, the Lamb of God, slain from eternal ages, is the Surety of a fresh and better covenant, the last great covenant of God's infinite love to all those of mankind who come unto Him by His Son. His blood is the blood of the New Covenant. The Lord expressly attributes this value and significance to it in the institution of the Supper. The blood, which in His own slain body He was then about to offer to God and to sprinkle upon mankind was, He said, the New Testament blood. And in commanding us all to drink of the cup as the symbol of His blood-shedding He distinctly constituted this service the sign and seal of the covenant betwixt us and Him. So that the Supper is not merely a figure of His atoning death. It is a solemn covenant transaction between Him and His Church, whereby, on His part, He engages by visible tokens to bestow eternal salvation on those who believe in Him, whereby, on our part, by visible acts, we avow our faith in His promises, and our readiness to do His perfect will. And where the ordinance is duly celebrated the covenant is ratified; and, as matter of fact, we become 'very members incorporate in the mystical body' of Christ, which is the blessed company of all faithful people.' Duly celebrated; all hinges on this. Very early in the Church's history the Supper was abused, and the body and blood of Christ were received unworthily, so unworthily as to draw down Divine judgment upon those who fell into the sin. And under other forms the same error has often since been repeated in the Church, nay, is committed before our very eyes. Men do not eat the Lord's Supper, but their own-the nothingly creature of profane conceit and of slavish ignorance. To their grievous personal detriment they do this, and to the dishonour of Christ in them Therefore should all ears hear the Apostle's warning bell, and the gentle but authoritative voice which follows: Let a man prove himself: so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.' How we may obey is not doubtful; the Apostle expounds his meaning. Two things are necessary : 1. Discernment of ourselves. If we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged.' Here is the first preparation for the holy ordinance. Cast your eyes backward, brethren; and with all the tender mercies of God in remembrance, look your life in the face-its sins, its perversities, its moral and religious failures; how you have 'come short of the glory of God,' how you have idolized yourselves, how you have brought your final welfare again and again into jeopardy by worldliness, negligence and unbelief. So sink down in penitent gratitude before Him whose longsuffering' is this day so conspicuously Salvation. As with the light of Christ's eye upon you, put your present character and state under the microscope of a faithful self-inspection; and if your evangelical knowledge be found scanty, your spiritual graces dwarfish, your love of the brethren cramped and stinted, your daily life as a servant of God— whatever the sphere of it-equivocal, slovenly, ill-aimed; be swift to recognise the fact, and to pour out your soul before God in shame and confession. Gaze likewise into the future; and in prospect of the service and the trial of it, let each ask himself whether he is ready to accept the whole will of God, and, at whatever hazard, to follow to the end of life the great 'Apostle and High Priest of our profession.' See that you do not presume to eat of this eucharistic feast otherwise than with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Thus should we discern ourselves. But not ourselves only. Alas, for us, if our duty ended here! There must be 2. Discernment of the Lord's body. He that eateth and drinketh eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, if he discerneth not the Lord's body.' The Supper is a parable of God's unspeakable love to us and to all men. By these tokens know, that He Whom we serve, the eternal Son of the everlasting Father made flesh, by the grace of God tasted death for every man. His blood is 'the propitiation for our sins,' and for 'the sins of the whole world.' The moral demands of God upon us are satisfied by our Saviour's cross. This hour, whatever our guilt, our demerit, our weakness, we are welcome at the mercyseat. Here is the sprinkling of the blood. Here is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here is food of which he who eateth shall never die. A free forgiveness, a perfect purgation from evil, heavenly consolations, strength for the warfare of life, safe conduct in the way we should go, an entrance ministered abundantly into Christ's everlasting kingdom-all this and much more is vouched and guaranteed to us in the covenant ordinance of the Supper. The good Spirit helping us, therefore, let us discern the blessed facts, the Divine encouragements and promises denoted and assured to our faith by the emblems of our Saviour's suffering here present. Rather let us fix our reverent, ravished eyes upon the Lord Himself, spiritually manifested. So, discerning His body, we shall cast ourselves upon His merit; we shall pledge ourselves anew to His service; and we shall seek the fulness of His sanctifying, energizing grace, that henceforth we may adorn His doctrine and make our calling and election sure.' If we thus prove ourselves, and so eat and drink of the table of the Lord, this day will be to us the first day of an everlasting year of redemption and jubilee. It may not be the end of our service and conflict. If the sea be passed, there is still the travel of the Wilderness and the crossing Jordan. Possibly, we must needs go at once from the passover chamber to the garden; and he that is without a 'sword' will do well to 'sell his garment' and buy one. But in the strength of this celestial manna, and with the music of the Hallel hymn still lingering in our ears, we shall be of good courage, and shall not be overcome of the Evil One. We shall go without the camp, bearing the Lord's reproach, and shall look joyfully and patiently for the city of immovable foundations. And though on earth we miss the visible presence of the Master even at the feast, for He no more drinks of this fruit of the vine, yet a little while, and the kingdom of God shall be fully come, and-O wondrous prospect of Christian hope!—these eyes shall behold Him, the very Lord Who bought us, the Lord Whom we love; and, eating and drinking with Him, according to His promise, at His table, in His kingdom, we shall share with Him for ever His mediatorial victory over sin and death and hell. 'Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.' OUR RECENT GAINS AN EARNEST OF FUTURE AND GREATER GAINS: BY THE REV. WILLIAM ARTHUR, M.A. WHEN tidings came, last May, of an increase in our Home Societies of nearly fifteen thousand, surely it made many rejoice more than they who have taken great spoil. The sheaves were large enough to fill one's 'Lord of the harvest, hear It was, rather, Lord of the harvest, The thousands reported as increase represented other threefold thousands who had been brought in,' but had counted only to make up the waste caused by death, change and falling away. The larger number represented the produce which feeds the labourers, and provides seed for another year— the produce which only suffices to prevent the farm from beginning to relapse into the wilderness. The smaller number represented all the produce over and above produce which the farmer can sell and get gain.' More than thirty thousand new members went to make up waste, and so to prevent decay; but had ten thousand, or twenty thousand, more than the number actually gained, been added, every one of them would have counted as increase. All above the necessary supply of waste have not only the value of additions, but the further value of increase. All additions save us from discouragement; but those additions which count as increase do more: they give us positive encouragement, and, instead of raising thoughts of selfsustention, raise thoughts of progressive conquest. It is only by her power of increase that the Church can convert the world. Provided that her method of increase is, as it ought to be, by conversions, we may measure her unseen power of conversion by her manifest power of increase. Mere self-sustention would soon come to self-centring. In that case a growing world, daily waxing broader and stronger, would leave a stationary Church hopelessly behind. Counting the thousands who appear as an augmentation of numbers with the others who in the counting are lost as making up for waste, the total additions of last year exceeded fifty thousand. As one bends over this heap of golden grain, one is inclined to trace back each corn to the ear, and the stalk, and the blade, and even to the soil, where its seed long lay buried, ere yet a spike of faintes: green told the husbandman that fruit was forming. Of what toils does each separate grain seem to be the reward! Many a father has said over one or other of these newlygathered souls, I knew that my prayers would be heard, and yet it sometimes seemed long; but here is my boy at last, found of his Heavenly Father, and written in the Book of Life! Yes; God loves them all, boys and girls, and they shall all be brought in. Many a Sunday-school teacher has said, I shall never despair again; for surely I often thought that he was the most hopeless one of the whole class. Has not Christ purchased them all, and shall they not all be brought in?' Many a Class Leader-who had long been without additions, who had sadly seen the gaps made by death, removal and backsliding remain not filled up-unsightly to him as gaps in the borders of his flower-plots to a gardener-now rejoices over the appearance of new faces, over the relation of new tales of penitence or of deliverance. And the accession of new members stimulates him to look for more, even beyond what the loss of old ones did. Doubtless, also, some old Local Preacher, whose steady hand has long kept to the plough, but who for a good while had not heard of any fruit, and who had begun to wonder if his Master really had more work for him to do-now feels the miles shorter to the distant village; for there he expects to see the face of a happy child of his own. Would it not be a joy if, this time also, the blessed Master would give him another soul-a Benjamin, a son of his old age to carry on the work when he is gone? And why not many? Does not the love of God reach to them all? Ay; and, perhaps, some young Local Preacher, just beginning to put a trembling and awkward hand to the plough it being uncertain to others, and very uncertain to himself, whether he will ever turn a straight furrow in the fallow ground-counts among these converts the never-to-be-forgotten token of his first-fruits. Ay; and, perhaps, one of these precious souls is the last who, at the voice of some zealous Minister, turned to the Saviour, and that when neither knew that this servant should never again go forth into his Master's field to sow. The first knowledge of the result will come to him in the better land. One may see the face of a faithful Superintendent brighten up as, bending over his schedule, he cries: The Lord be praised: the largest increase I ever returned!' One can see the effect on the Quarterly Meetings, on the Prayer Meetings, and on the Love Feasts. How many hearts have been cheered-hearts to which God's holy cause is dear! how many discouragements have been scattered! how many humble toilers have felt a sense of reward! how many, who 'have borne the burden and heat of the day,' have felt revived for new efforts to seek and save that which is lost! And, perhaps, some who had nearly grown weary in well-doing,' |