ment is everywhere partaken of by persons fasting? Nay, verily, for from that time it pleased the Holy Spirit to appoint for the honour of so great a Sacrament, that the Body of the LORD should take the precedence of all other food entering the mouth of a Christian; and it is for this reason that the custom referred to is universally observed. . . . . Our Saviour did not prescribe the order in which this mystery was to be observed, reserving this to be done by the Apostles, through whom He intended to arrange all matters pertaining to the Churches.'

The late Bishop Wilberforce, writing against evening Communions, says that, from Pliny's letter downwards, we have an unbroken chain of proof as to the practice of the Church.

Bishop Wordsworth says: "There are three acts of special reverence to our LORD's Body which have been embedded in the pages of the Bible by God the Holy Ghost. First, we are told that when the Saviour of the world was born the Virgin brought forth “her firstborn Son" (S. Luke ii. 7). Secondly, when our LORD rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the entry was made upon an ass's colt, "whereon yet never man sat" (S. Mark xi. 2; S. Luke xix. 30). Thirdly, after our LORD's death, S. Joseph of Arimathea laid the sacred Body "in his own new tomb" (S. Matt. xxvii. 60), "wherein never man before was laid" (S. Luke xxiii. 53). And the Catholic Church, "discerning the LORD'S Body" (1 Cor. xi. 29) in the Sacrament of the Altar, has observed the custom of preparing for Him who deigns to come under our roof, a lodging in which nothing has that day been previously laid.'

LESSON XXXIX.

The Master's Footprints.

Read Acts xx. 13-38. Learn Isa. xxvi. 3; S. James i. 12.

1. The Fellowship of His Sufferings (v. 13).

There was not one of Christ's Apostles who had learned the lesson of the Cross more profoundly than S. Paul. 'I will shew him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake' (Acts ix. 16), were words which must ever have rung in the ears of the great Apostle of the Gentiles.

And now the shadow of still greater sufferings than those he had hitherto borne was upon him. His concluding words in the Epistle to the Romans, written on the eve of his departure from Corinth, shew that he was fully conscious that his time had come for a yet nearer fellowship in the sufferings of his LORD and Master (Rom. xv. 30, 31).

The determined enmity, the repeated plots of his own countrymen, from one of which he had only just escaped (ch. xx. 3), must have helped to strengthen this conviction.

On quitting Troas, S. Paul left his companions to pursue their journey by ship as far as Assos, where he rejoined them, having walked the twenty miles which separates Troas from Assos.

The Apostle evidently felt the need of solitude and communion with GOD, before entering on the path of suffering which lay before him. There is always a craving in the souls of GOD's saints to be alone with Him, in order to realise His

presence more fully; and the more unwearied are their labours, the more they devote themselves to the service of others for His sake, the more intensely do they feel the necessity of these seasons of solitude and spiritual refreshment. The soul is never less alone than when in solitude, for then it realises far more vividly than at other times, the presence of GOD, and the companionship of the holy angels.

S. Paul had just passed through a time of exceptional trial and anxiety; the 'care of all the Churches' had pressed upon him with peculiar force, and now he was called to tread closer still in the Master's footsteps, and, like Him, ‘in the way going up to Jerusalem' (S. Mark x. 32–34), to warn those whom he so tenderly loved, of his approaching sufferings. He must bid a loving farewell to those Gentile Churches which owed so much to him. He had planted, others must water. It grieved him to think of the trials and persecutions that were in store for them (v. 29, 30), and that in all probability he would never visit them again.

Like his Master, he would prepare for coming trial by lonely communing with GOD (S. Mark i. 35; S. Matt. xiv. 23). We may be sure that, as he climbed the hills, and traversed the great oak forests between Troas and Assos, angels were sent to strengthen him, and that sweet visions of coming rest and future joy, cheered the faithful servant of GOD, enabling him joyfully to embrace the trials and sufferings which he foresaw. So that when he bade farewell to the Elders of Ephesus he could say: 'None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy' (v. 24); and at Cæsarea: What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the LORD JESUS' (ch. xxi. 13).

2. An Episcopal Charg (v. 14-35).

At Assos,

That quiet restful time was over all too soon. S. Paul joined his companions in the little trading vessel,

and passing in and out between the rocky mainland and the fruitful islands, bright with the flowers of spring, they touched successively at Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, and the islands of Chios, Samos, and Trogyllium; for the voyage was made in a coasting vessel, and the nights were spent in some harbour. (This and every lesson which relates to the journeys of S. Paul should be illustrated by means of a map, otherwise the places mentioned will be but an unmeaning string of names.)

On the fourth day after leaving Troas, the ship passed the harbour of Ephesus, and anchored at Miletus, thirty miles beyond. Gladly would S. Paul have visited his beloved church at Ephesus, but he was hastening to Jerusalem in order to get there by the Feast of Pentecost, and it was probably to avoid the delay which a visit to Ephesus would have caused, that he took his passage in a ship bound for other ports.

At Miletus there appears to have been a delay of two or three days, and S. Paul at once sent a messenger to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus to come and meet him there.

How solemn and affecting must have been that parting charge of the great Apostle, to those who were to carry on the great work he had begun at Ephesus! How earnestly he incites them to diligence and faithfulness (v. 28), reminding them of his own personal life during his three years' ministry among them-his tears and trials (v. 19), his unceasing watchfulness (v. 31), his faithfulness in proclaiming the whole plan of salvation (v. 21, 27), his unselfish toil to support himself and his companions (v. 33-35)! He tells them, too, of his own coming sufferings (v. 22-25), and warns them of the dangers which shall befall the Church after his departure: persecutions from without, false teachers from within (v. 29, 30) (comp. 1 Tim. i. 20; 2 Tim. i. 15; 1 John ii. 19; Rev. ii. 6). He tells them that he is not running into danger without Divine guidance, but because constrained and carried by the Holy Spirit, and therefore

ready to embrace joyfully every form of suffering (v. 22–24). He concludes with a saying of our blessed LORD, which is not found in the Four Gospels—words which may have been the motto of his own self-sacrificing life-'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (v. 25).

3. The Last Farewell (v. 36–38).

Very sad and very touching must that last parting have been. We can see the little group kneeling on the seashore, while the Apostle pours forth his soul in earnest, fervent prayer for the Church he loves so well. In union with the intercession of the great Master before His Passion, he pleads for those he is leaving, that they may be one, and that the grace of God may build them up, and give them the inheritance among all them that are sanctified (v. 32). The prayer ended, they fall on his neck and kiss him again and again, their hearts full of sorrow, as were those of the Apostles in the Upper room (S. John xvi. 6) at the thought of losing Him who had borne so much for them, and whom they loved so well. Sadly, and with many forebodings of coming evil, they accompany him to the ship, and stand watching and weeping till the sails become a mere speck on the horizon, and then with heavy hearts they return to Ephesus, to carry out the last loving counsels of their beloved teacher and guide.

Lessons to be drawn from the Narrative :

1. Not to try to avoid that which is hard and painful, but joyfully to embrace it in the strength GOD will give us if we ask Him.

2. To prepare for coming trial by earnest prayer and communing with GOD.

3. To listen for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, and never to let the entreaties and persuasions of those we love, or the prospect of trial and suffering, turn us aside