things true or false? If false, why are we here? If true, is not neglect of Holy Communion to treat them as if false? Are we only to speak words of comfort in the ears of dying men? Is there no place or need for words of warning? Earnest, humble, contrite believing souls, such as need no provocation, but who gladly and lovingly come to Holy Communion, oh! see in it, and so continue to use it as a preparation for seeing Him one day as He is ! Dear as this memorial is to Christian hearts, it is but the substitute for something dearer far; even the personal presence of our Saviour and our God. He manifests Himself to faithful souls, and "makes Himself known in the breaking of bread." In no enthusiastic or unreal, but in a sober and real sense, He makes Himself known as He made Himself known to His disciples; pardoning the sins you confess, freely forgiving, freely receiving. "Tell me," I said to a dying girl, so wasted with lingering and wearing sickness, that there was little left for death to do than to loose the silver cord and free the waiting spirit, "tell me the secret of your patience throughout this long sickness, that no word of murmur has passed your lips, that you have no fear." "I will tell you," she replied. "I once heard you say that you believed in the present forgiveness of sin-so present, that the sick, sin-burdened soul coming to Jesus in His appointed ordinances, grasping His promises, would find Him a present Saviour. You bid us take Him at His word. He says, 'Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' I took Him one day at His word. I came to Holy Communion. I said, Lord, I am weary; I am heavy laden, give me rest! There came the answer as with a voice from Heaven. I heard Him say to me, 'Daughter, go thy way, thy sins are forgiven thee.' That," she said, "is the secret of my peace." She, to my knowledge, left those Communion rails for the sick-bed from which she never rose, save to be borne to her last resting-place. But "Daughter, go thy way, thy sins are forgiven thee," were words of latest consolation; they were the last she was heard to utter as her saintly spirit passed into her Saviour's presence! 'TILL He come!" Oh, let the words Let us think how heaven and home Lie beyond that-" till He come." When the weary ones we love Enter on their rest above, Seems the earth so poor and vast, All our life-joy overcast? Clouds and conflicts round us press, All the sharpness of the cross; See! the feast of love is spread, VIII. SELF-EXAMINATION. "Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another."-1 COR. xi. 27-33. THUS far we have considered the institution of the Lord's Supper, and the place it holds in the Christian covenant. We have dwelt on the circumstances and end of its institution, and on those conditions connected with it, which, as they are fulfilled on our part, make that Sacrament a means of grace. In the address immediately preceding, I endeavoured to show that where these spiritual exercises, in which so much is implied, are habitually exercised, we can conceive no more fitting preparation for the Second Coming of our Lord, which, whether we interpret it of His personal Advent, or of our own end, will be the crisis in the soul's history. For whether we be of the quick or dead at His coming, His Advent will not convert sinners into And of When saints, nor saints into sinners; it will not make, but will find us an acceptable people. Christ came once, as the Passover foreshadowed, and He came then to save. He will come again as surely as He once came. this Holy Communion is the earnest and pledge. this symbol shall give place to that which it symbolises, when the shadow shall disappear, it will be to claim His own as already redeemed; it will be to disown the already lost and unsaved. If this be true, how inestimable the value of all means by which we are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time,” especially the value of Holy Communion so neglected, so little realised! Nothing in connection with our religious life, and with its exercises, is more surprising and to be lamented, than the comparatively few communicants in any given congregation, except, perhaps, in churches where an exaggerated view of the Sacrament is entertained and encouraged. Great stress may be laid on frequent celebrations and frequent communicating, and, together with this, there may be but little personal realisation of the guilt of sin, and of that “love of Christ" which constrains. It is not uncommon to find the most worldly persons the most frequent communicants, and churches, in which frequent celebrations constitute a marked feature, thronged by the leaders of fashion, and by those whose daily life, as not dedicate and consecrate to God, occasions a serious stumbling-block to those who do not communicate. But if it be so, that some loving sin more than the Saviour, and the world more |