II.

REPENTANCE.

"Come unto Me, all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you" (St. Matt. xi. 28).

The first of the "COMFORTABLE WORDS."

IN my first lecture I have dwelt on the institution, end, and design of Holy Communion, showing that it is one of the historic monuments of Christianity, having no meaning apart from it, and that it was instituted as a standing and perpetual memorial of Christ's death until He come again. I drew attention to the confessed and grave fact that so few, comparatively, of worshippers are communicants. If Holy Communion be a means of grace, instituted and ordained to that end, the neglect of it is not only plain indifference to Christ's dying command, but it must be to the impoverishment of our spiritual life. There must be something utterly mistaken in our conception of what constitutes "worthy" and "unworthy" communion; or something radically wrong in the life, if while other ordinances are used, this one in particular is neglected. In the course of these Addresses I shall, God helping me, endeavour to remove groundless objections on the part of those who never communicate; persuading, it may be, some to communicate who hitherto, from mistaken views, have hesitated to do so;

dissuading, it may be, others from communicating who never having realised the condition of worthy partaking may be partaking "unworthily." We will in pursuance of this object take the first of the so called "comfortable words," bearing in mind that the Prayer Book is the language of believers in the truest sense. These short addresses were not delivered indiscriminately, or without a definite object in view. They formed part of that teaching which throughout a "Mission" was consecutive, systematic, and progressive. They were, more or less, in immediate connection with the subject of the sermon on the evening preceding; and, indirectly, they served, I trust, to show that the teaching of our Prayer Book is evangelical teaching; that it is the language of believers, and to the Spirit-taught, enlightened mind is thoroughly Scriptural. I propose in this and the following papers, if God permit, to reproduce these addresses at some greater length than that in which they were extemporarily delivered; they had especial and particular relation to Holy Communion, and to the conditions of worthy Communion. There can be little doubt that Holy Communion is the highest of all means of grace. That is said of Holy Communion which is not said of prayer. The tone of the Service itself is loftier than that of any other part of our Service. It is rightly called the Eucharist, i.e., the "Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving," and praise is loftier than prayer. Of Holy Communion it is said, "that we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood: then we dwell in Christ and Christ in us; we are one with Christ and

Christ with us." Again, we heartily thank God that we are thereby assured of His favour and goodness towards us, and "that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of Thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people." These, therefore, are the privileges of Holy Communion to those, and those only, who communicate "worthily." For Sacraments are not of the nature of magic or charm; they do not work mechanically. There is a difference, as wide as the east is from the west, between the opus operatum of the Romanist, and the opus operantis of the Reformed Church of England. We do not hold that the blessing or grace connected with the Lord's Supper is wholly independent of the mind or will of the recipient. In accordance, therefore, with this view of Holy Communion, we speak of worthy and unworthy Communion. We say, "As the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament;" and, on the other hand, "So is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily." There is, therefore, a receiving that holy Sacrament worthily and unworthily; and there is a "benefit" or "danger" in communicating. How important, therefore, if both the "benefit" and "danger "be so great in close connection with an ordinance instituted by Christ himself, that we understand what is really to be understood by worthy and unworthy Communion, that we may be partakers of the "benefit," and that we be not guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour! Many, I am more and more persuaded, are restrained from communicating through a mistaken

notion of what constitutes worthiness, and shall we not say that many who habitually communicate would not approach that Holy Table if they knew what unworthiness in the sight of God really means? It does not follow that because we communicate we receive a blessing, and many who are deterred from communicating are depriving themselves of blessing. They are, as a rule, the least worthy to come who think themselves the most so, and they the most worthy who count themselves the most unworthy. There are who come out of custom, habit, and from the cold conviction that they ought to communicate. Others need to be provoked and encouraged to approach the Lord's Table. Others come never doubting their own fitness, and their inconsistent life is a stumbling block in the way of those who would communicate, but who shrink from the thought of such grave inconsistency. They fear to add to their already sinfulness, the sin of such unblessed Christless communion. Some who ask with holy fear, "How dare I come, who am so sinful?" ought rather to ask, "How dare I, who am so sinful, stay away?" Some who come with no thought of their unfitness would do well to pause, and ask, "How dare I come?" What more common than the fear of unworthy communion? How needful, therefore, that we see we are not mistaken either way. May God the Holy Ghost be with us in our humble endeavours to arrive at a right explanation of that on which such issues hang!

Salvation is as free as the air we breathe. It is God's great gift to us in Jesus Christ; but He, as He has a

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right to do, conditions His gift. The first condition is Repentance, which precedes Faith. We believe rightly so soon as we repent truly. Repentance must be a distinct, personal, conscious act. It springs up in the mind in view of perceived guilt and of perceived personal guilt. In connection with salvation, Repentance is that state of mind which arises from the perception that all sin is against God; and where such perception arises in the mind through the first, and efficacious working of the Holy Ghost, Whose office it is to "convict of sin," we perceive sin in its true light, we see ourselves guilty, lost, condemned. We mourn, not for the consequences of sin, but for sin itself, and we not only sorrow, but we hate it with a supernatural hatred, and hating, forsake it. There is and can be no godly sorrow for sin until we are godly. The true penitent has a clear view of his state before God, and in the light of the Holy Spirit's teaching, he writes the most bitter things against himself. The world flatters; the world palliates, excuses, justifies sin. He sees sin and sees himself, in some degree, as God sees him and his sin, therefore self-condemnation is one of the very first steps in, as it is evidence of, true Repentance. The need or requisite of Repentance stands in the very fore-front of our public Services. The opening sentences of Divine Service are exhortations to Repentance. The assurances of God's forgiveness are not proclaimed until we have assured Him of our sorrow for our sin. The exhortation to Repentance meets us at the very threshold of Holy Communion. The Catechism lays this down first and