to know the Lord with all your diligence, and then you shall know Him. Repent you honestly of your sins past: desire nothing but to know Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; and be resolved that by God's grace you will continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants, in the face of all enemies and all temptations, and you will find your heart encouraged to draw near in faith, and seek farther strength, at the Lord's table, to fight the good fight.

But I address those who neither come to the Lord's table, nor desire to come-those who live habitually in the wilful and careless neglect of this holy sacrament. And I would wish it to be clearly understood, that what I say is not intended to press any persons to come and receive this holy ordinance at all events, whether they are able to receive it worthily or not. No, I do not mean to urge any one to receive it unworthily; but, in what I now say, I would that conviction might be brought to the consciences of all such as are living in the neglect of it. The holy sacrament serves as a very important test, or touchstone, to try the conscience. Those who are living in the neglect of it, if they would seriously ask themselves what good reason they have for neglecting it, might perhaps through grace be brought to a sight of the real condition of their souls. And what is their condition? What is the spiritual state of all those persons who never receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper? Now I am going to say what some will perhaps think a very hard and uncharitable saying; but I must say it, for it is the truth. My brethren, those who wilfully and habitually neglect the Lord's supper, are not Christians. However respectable they may be in their moral characters, however highly educated, learned, or refined, and however much they may be esteemed, and even admired among men, they are not Christians in any thing but the name-they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Does this seem to you a hard saying? But I will tell you from whence I took it: if you will turn to John vi. 53, you may there read, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." These are not my words, nor the words of man: they are the words of the living God. And they

are words of fearful alarm to all such as are careless about the Lord's holy sacrament. They are words that ought to make both their ears to tingle when they hear them. For this is the fearful fact declared in these words, that unless a man's soul be fed and nourished by the spiritual partaking of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, that man is spiritually dead. He is a limb cut off from the body, a branch cut off from the tree, dead and withered, and fit only to be burned. If a man's hand or foot is cut off from his body, does it still hold any life in it? If a branch is cut away from a vine, does it not immediately wither and die? So is every man that is not joined into the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. "I am the vine," said Christ, 66 ye are the branches." "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." But how then are we to abide in Christ? How are we to be made living branches of the true Vine, living members of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ? By spiritually eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And I say, that he who never spiritually eats the flesh of Christ, and drinks His blood at the Lord's table, that man does most assuredly never eat His flesh and drink His blood at all. It is in vain for men to say, that they can as well stay at home, and read their Bibles by themselves. Reading the Bible is the sacred duty and high privilege of every Christian soul; but reading the Bible is not feeding upon the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The soul of every Christian is indeed richly nourished, through faith, by the sincere milk of the word, and by the strong meat of its heavenly doctrines. A believing soul will feed upon

Christ wherever He is to be found in the word of God -in prayer-in silent meditation. But the soul that feeds on Christ at all, feeds on Him by faith; and without faith it is impossible to feed on Him. And those who neglect the Lord's supper, show, by neglecting it, that they have no faith. My brethren, if you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that saith unto you, "Take, eat, this is my body,"—oh you would ask of Him, and He would give you the bread of life!

And what will be the end of all such? You, who wil

fully neglect the Lord's supper, where will you appear in the great day, when, Christ shall separate the wicked from among His people? When there shall come a great multitude from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God, will you-oh fearful question!-will you sit down among them? Oh my friends, think, I beseech you, of this. You that turn away from the Lord's table on earth, do you really suppose that you will be admitted to eat and drink at His table in His kingdom? You who shut yourselves out of the house of God, when you are invited to eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord now do you really imagine that you will be invited to eat and drink at the Lord's table, when the marriage supper of the Lamb shall be come, and His bride shall make herself ready? "Are ye so foolish?" Do you think it likely, that the invitation which you have ungratefully refused while the day of grace remains, will be offered to you when the day of judgment is come? "Be not deceived: God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The Lord now opens wide the door, and invites you to come in, and share the feast of His love. What answer do you make? You pay no regard to His invitation, but you go your way, and the door is shut upon you. Judge then for yourselves, by this sign, what reception you will meet with by and by. You are not left in doubt about the matter-hear these words, for they are meant for you: "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." My dear brethren, blessed be God, the Master of the house is not yet risen up. He has not yet shut to the

door. He now sits still, and waits to let in all who will come to the Gospel feast. But, at the appointed time, He will rise up. He will shut the door of mercy, and all who shall have fled into it will be kept safe in the strong tower of God's holy place; while judgment is executed upon all who shall be found on the outside. And the day and the hour knoweth no man, when the Master of the house may rise up, and shut the door. He may rise up much sooner than we expect. The Lord may come before we think: He certainly will come at a time when His messenger, Death, may come to some of us to-day, or to-morrow, and shut the door upon "Strive," therefore, while you may, "to enter in at the strait gate, for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." If you live without this holy sacrament, you live without Christ; and if you die without it, you die without Christ; and if you live and die without Christ, it were infinitely better for you that you had never been born.

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EFFECT OF THE GOSPEL.

INSTANCES are not wanting to prove that "the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword," achieving conquests where moral suasion and human efforts are unavailing. By its peaceful, yet constraining influence, guilty man is restored to his God-the weapons of his rebellion are thrown awayhe that stole, steals no more; the once dishonest no longer attempts to go beyond and defraud his brother, but he pays to every man his own, and labours to "owe man any thing." A most pleasing and powerful instance of the triumph of the Gospel over the selfishness of man, is evinced in the following letter, sent to us for insertion by a clergyman intimately acquainted with the gentleman to whom it was addressed. The writer, twenty-seven years ago, granted "a bill of sale" to Mr. J., who availed himself of it, after which he considered all claims against him as legally settled. Nothing further was heard of him till the following communication reached Mr. J. in March last, and which we now insert, with the hope that all similarly circumstanced with the

writer under whose notice it may fall, will "GO AND DO LIKEWISE:"

"March 12, 1840.

"My dear Friend,-The Lord knoweth that it has long been the desire of my heart to do what I am now about to do, but it has not been in my power-even now I am hiring upon my premises, to keep my business in good credit, more than 500l. I was for some weeks past thinking of paying you 50l.; but while hearing our faithful minister (the clergyman of the parish), last Thursday week, giving a lecture on one of the miracles of our blessed Saviour-showing how little he valued the dross of this world-it taught me to feel that if I do in heart desire to be one of His followers, I must obey His commands, however much it may be against my temporal views, viz. Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.' Not that I am resting my hopes of salvation on any act like this; but I wish to let you know what the religion of Christ has done for me-but it is so many years since I have either seen or heard of you, that I know not whether I am addressing one on this side eternity. I have for a long time been carrying on my business without a man, in order that I might give you all in my power, which I trust will be the whole amount (1837.). It has been a long time in my hand. I have often had the will to do it, but not the power, and now in some measure I have to ascribe it all to Him from whom cometh every good and perfect gift.' If you could meet me at on Thursday, the 12th inst., and bring the accounts as they stand, and the amount my goods made in 1812, I shall feel obliged. "I am, Sir, your's truly,

A SPANISH PROVERB.

P. H."

THE Spaniards are fond of proverbs, short and compact little sentences, containing some important instruction. The following is one of them, which we have taken from a newspaper:-"A cheerful look and pardon are the best revenge for an injury:" and again they say, "If thou art vexed, thou wilt have two troubles." There is no way so powerful towards putting down the angry feel