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THE

LORD'S SUPPER;

OR,

THE NATURE, BENEFITS AND OBLIGATIONS

OF THE COMMEMORATIVE RITE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

BY THE

REV. GEORGE SUTHERLAND,

FIRST CHURCH, DUNEDIN,

AUTHOR OF "URGENT APPEALS," "BAPTISM," ETC.

DUNEDIN:

HENRY WISE, PRINTER, PRINCES STREET NORTH.

1870.

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KNOWLEDGE is indespensable to the acceptable performance of divine service. The sentence pronounced by our Saviour against the Samaritans—‘Ye worship ye know not what’— reaches to many, in every generation, who claim connection with the God of Jacob. We must know God before we can acknowledge him; and we must have some right apprehension of the various duties of his worship, before they can be properly discharged by us. A somewhat extensive and varied ministerial experience has satisfied the author that the ideas of many professing Christians on an important part of divine service—the ordinance of the Supper -are extremely vague and limited, if not in some cases positively erroneous.

The following work is an effort to diffuse correct ideas of this holy ordinance, and to assist the people of God in a right and profitable observance of it.

But is there not a sufficiency of works on this subject? -There are catechisms, unfolding fundamental doctrines— devotional manuals, aiding spiritual exercises-and sacramental discourses in variety, some of which assume the form of treatises on the Supper. But in matter or form each of these methods appears defective for the full treatment of the subject..

I have adopted my own method. My resources have been the living fountains of divine truth. I have found

them to be inexhaustible. Indeed, the ever expanding glories of revelation create in the illumined spirit an insatiable craving for higher and fuller discoveries of Him who is the centre of all wisdom and glory. The Supper is a holy mount where the revealed glory of this wonderful Person may be beheld. Under this influence I have sought to state in clear, simple, and concise terms, the whole teachings of the Spirit on the nature of the Supper-to unfold the experience needed to a suitable participation of it-to aid the sincere, though doubting, believer, in the difficult work of self-examination-to stimulate the anxious to enter into covenant with God-to explain the benefits of this solemn ratification of the covenant-and to enforce the duties of the Church, as a redeemed and consecrated people, while passing through this wilderness to their heavenly Jerusalem. Certain important collateral questions have been discussed; but other minor points, on which many pages of keen disputation have been expended, have been wholly ignored, as deserving to sink into oblivion.

That the work may glorify our divine Redeemer, by aiding his people suitably to observe his own memorial rite, is the author's most earnest desire; and such a result would be esteemed his most precious reward.

FIRST CHURCH MANSE,

Dunedin, Sept. 2nd, 1870.

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