take the place of Scripture, and of sacraments, and of preaching; and we shall need no more to be told about him, for we shall see him as he is; and like Sheba's queen when introduced to King Solomon, we shall be constrained in a higher strain and in a loftier key to admit that one-half his excellence, and his glory, and his perfection, was not told us. The Lord's Supper, therefore, carries back to as he was; but that would not be enough; it stretches forward also to what he is. That glorious festival is a pledge and a prophecy that we shall see Christ as he is. Like all the rites and institutions of this present economy, it will one day be merged in that future age to which all the past has contributed, and in which all the present will be crowned. The Lord's Supper reminds us of the beautiful sisterhood of evergreens; the laurel, the pine, the fir, the cedar, that you find in the country in the depth of winter. They seem to retain their verdure to keep open the pathway of the returning summer; they tell us that summer was, and they prophesy in their verdant beauty that summer will be again; they keep open the path between the summers, cheering and reminding. Thus that institution in this world's dreary winter is covered with fragrant memories of a summer that closed in Eden, but was redeemed on Calvary; and that will end in the everlasting summer that shall never have an evening, a winter, or a cloud. It connects and links beautifully together the past and the present; the was and the is; the glory that is gone, and the brighter glory that yet will be; and it reminds us that as Christ was, so Christ will be. Faith looks back with retrospective glance to the cross, and sees him as he was; love looks upward with burning eye, and sings as its own under-song: "Whom having not seen I love; and whom though now I see him not, yet believing I rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;" and hope looks forward to the crown, and rejoices with joy unspeakable that it shall see him as he is. Faith, hope, charity, the three Christian graces, derive nutriment, strength, inspiration, encouragement, from that What a blessed Bible is his letter Father; I am adThe communion holy institution, for it brings them all into exercise. "Now are we the sons of God." thought! If I be God's son, then my to me; prayer is an address to my mitted to the privileges of his home. table is our Father's, we are the sons of that Father; we are heirs in reversion of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. When we come to that communion-table, it is not as Churchmen, nor as Dissenters, nor as Independents, nor as Wesleyans, or if there be any other; but as sons of God. expects at his board not sectarians, but sons. underlying the Churchman and the Dissenter there be the son of God, let him come. It is our Father's table; it is not the place of an offended judge; it is not the scene of terror; it is a joyous festival. A father But if LECTURE XXXII. THE WAY THERE. We need to be informed not only of the splendour and blessedness of the future rest, but also to be made acquainted with the way there, and the difficulties and obstructions we must encounter. "Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."-ACTS xiv. 22. WE are not yet arrived in the everlasting rest; we are still on the arena of conflict, amidst scenes of trouble, and through much, not a little, tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God. But even now there is a compensatory experience that as the troubles of Christians abound their consolations abound also. The apostles and those that were with them confirmed the souls of the disciples, and exhorted them to continue in the faith. To confirm means to strengthen, or invigorate the souls of the disciples. Such strengthening we need greatly. Sometimes doubts cast their dark shadows over the brightest mind, and lie cold on the sunniest heart-doubts we cannot eject, demanding to be answered, not to be ignored. These we shall find best solved by reference to that blessed word which ends all controversy and settles all doubt. Sometimes difficulties, and perplexing questions, and seeming contradictions, crowd upon us, and we cannot dissolve them. We need to have our minds strengthened to grapple with, and to master them. A doubting mind is more healthy so far than a mind that acquiesces in everything without examination. When doubts occur they ought to be Some answered, not to be treated with contempt. times, too, we are beset by conflicts and controversies between what pleasure and profit woo us to, and what conscience condemns and the Word of God denounces. Sometimes, too, the syren song of pleasure, the gilding and the glory of time, invite us to renounce the way, the truth, and the life, and to conform to usages we cannot praise. In all these temptations we need to be upheld. If that upholding rested on our own hearts' strength we should very soon fall; but thanks be to God, there is One that perfects his strength in our weakness, and makes his grace sufficient for us. But the duty of the apostle, or the minister, is not to try to take the place of the Spirit of God, but to explain to the doubting, and the afflicted, how they may be confirmed and strengthened in that good course and in that holy profession which they have accepted. How does God thus confirm and strengthen us? First of all, by revealing to each of us exceeding great and precious promises. These, like stars illuminating the sky, like flowers beautifying the earth, are given not to make God more merciful, but to show us what he is ready always and every where to do for them that look to him and pray to him. The promises in Scripture ought to be made the material of prayer, Whatever God has promised that you may turn into prayer. If you go into the future, seeing the depths that yawn before you, and nothing else, you must despair and fall; but if you go into all its depths, its cold waves, its stormy trials, holding fast one grand promise: "I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee; when thou passest through the fires they shall not kindle upon thee, and when thou passest through the waters they shall not overflow thee;" "a mother may forget her infant, but I will never forget thee; the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed, but my lovingkindness shall not depart, and the covenant of my peace shall not be removed "-you cannot fail. In these you have springs of everlasting strength; your feet are upon the solid rock-let the sea roar, let the waves rise, let the mountains shake with the swelling thereof; there is a river whose streams make glad the city of your God, your heart is confirmed, your faith is strengthened, and you go into the future not leaning upon the void, but leaning upon the Rock of Ages. God confirms and strengthens his people by disclosing to them the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan," we are told, "hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." You will not be perfect in the future, any more than in the past; you will falter in thought, in word, in deed; you will be constrained to cry from the very depths of your heart, "If thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who could stand?" But if the Spirit of God disclose to your soul the finished work, the atoning blood, the glorious righteousness, the perfect sacrifice of Him who died the just for the unjust, to bring us unto himself, then you will be confirmed; you will see that despair is not duty, that despondency is sin, and you will be brought back to that Rock that is higher than you, there to lay the burden of your sins, that they all may be forgiven; there to receive that glorious righteousness trusting in which you are perfect, and spotless, and without fault before God. The Spirit of God confirms the hearts of his people by himself taking up his dwelling in the depths of those hearts. We often forget this precious truth, that not only did Christ die eighteen hundred years ago, not only did he ascend from the Mount of Olives into that glory which eye hath not seen, but that he has sent his Representative, his Vicar, to the church below. "It is expedient," he says, "that I go away, for if I go not away the Holy Spirit will not come unto you." Now if we be Christians the Holy Ghost dwells in our hearts. What a sublime, a glorious, I might almost add an awful thought is this, that the Third Person in the glorious and blessed Trinity takes up his residence in the recesses of the humblest heart of the humblest Christian, and in the nooks of that heart lights up the sunshine of heaven, strikes wells |