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260 beyond all expression. They are the only guide to eternal life. When we contemplate an eternal state, the most momentous concerns of a few vain years dwindle into insigni. ficance. Health or sickness, pain or ease, liberty or slavery, life or death, appear the merest trifles, compared with those awful and amazing scenes, which await man beyond the grave. Then what is learning? what valued human science? What though we had a library, capacious as Great Britain; what though we had a mind, vast enough to contain all the knowledge of its countless volumes; yet how vain, when in a few short years all must be forgotten in the dust! How different that knowledge, which the word of God imparts! That extends its blessings through eternity, and will diffuse unfading good, in ages so remote in the depths of eternity, that no human thought ever reached, no human calculation ever approached them. Or think of appearing in the presence of God-a deathless spirit, appearing to receive a doom that never can be changed! All the boasted wisdom of human science can afford you no aid in the awful prospect; but there is one book, one precious though oft neglected book, that discovers all we need to know. Should not that book be prized? That book is the Bible. Other books are for time, but this for eternity! other knowledge amuses a few short moments here, this directs to never-ending good hereafter! Other wisdom pleases or profits for the transient day of life, this is the source of unfailing blessings for infinite periods beyond the hour when stars and sun shall cease to shine, and "rolling years shall cease to move." Other learning may gain the applause of a few frail creatures, whose applause must soon be hushed for ever by the hand of death; but divine knowledge will direct the soul to the raptures of eternal day, and insure the approbation of the King of kings, and the welcome congratulations of angelic myriads, in the presence of Him who is, and who was, and who is to come; the Eternal, the Almighty. Thus, as much as eternity excels time in importance, as much as an infinite life of bliss outweighs the advantages of a fleeting hour; so much the precious Bible excels in value all that orators, philosophers, historians, and poets ever wrote, all that human wisdom ever inspired, all that a vain world ever extolled.

THE BIBLE A GUIDE TO ETERNAL LIFE.

CHAPTER XV.

ON THE LORD'S SUPPER.

§ 1. BEFORE the Lord Jesus left this transitory world, he

instituted the sacred ordinance, in which to the end of time there was to be a commemoration of his dying love. Three of the evangelists have recorded the institution of this important ordinance. The substance of their accounts when united into one, furnishes an impressive view of its obligation and design. "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you: THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME."b "And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins; and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God."d

After the holy Jesus had left this world, and returned to his eternal throne, he communicated by divine revelation to the apostle Paul, an account of the institution and design of this ordinance.**

(a) Matt. xxvi. 26. (b) Luke xxi. 19.
(d) Mark xiv. 23-25.

(c) Matt. xxvi. 27, 28. (e) 1 Cor. xi. 23-29.

The reader of the sacred volume, who makes that holy book his guide, may find in the brief scriptural statements respecting this holy ordinance, a sufficient antidote to the principal errors that have been broached respecting it. Popery maintains, that the wafer its priests offer, is the body and blood of Christ, and has murdered myriads for rejecting this monstrous absurdity: the Scriptures declare, that it was bread which Jesus took and brake. Popery reserves the wine for its anti-christian priests, and withholds the cup from the people Jesus said, Drink ye all of it; and his apostle describes the members of the Corinthian church, as drinking of the cup, as well as eating of the bread. No absurdity however can be too great, no abomination too vile, no superstition too heathenish, and no cruelty too atrocious, for popery, which the Scriptures represent as the mother of harlots and abominations, and which an able writer, Mr. Cecil, described as Satan's masterpiece. A re

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MOTIVES FOR COMMEMORATING

Can a Christian, who feels unspeakable obligations to the adorable Saviour, read these impressive portions of the word of God, and not perceive his duty, and the most powerful motives for obedience.

"Do this in remembrance of me." Can any command be more plain, more positive, more reasonable, or more im portant? Do this.-Attendance at the Lord's table is not a subject left to human choice; but to every disciple of Jesus his express and solemn command is-Do this. And the command has sanctions superior to those of even his other precepts. It was uttered almost by his dying lips. It was given the same night in which he was betrayed; and after his ascension was repeated in the revelation made to the apos tle Paul. To neglect this ordinance is thus far to reject the authority of the Lord of heaven, and to violate an express and positive command, enforced by the most solemn sanctions that even the word of God contains. If then you can neglect the Saviour's table, where is your faith, your love, your obedience?

§ 2. When the design of this ordinance is considered, the subject is presented in a still more impressive light. On one hand, obedience is enforced by motives springing from its design, and pleasing in the extreme; on the other, disobedi ence appears peculiarly flagrant, because it resists all those charming and impressive motives. Behold the Son of God instituting this holy ordinance. The last night of his life has arrived. The traitor has gone out to betray him.-The bloody agony of Gethsemane, and the horrors of the cross, are in sight. He is about to interpose himself as a spotless victim, between an apostate world and offended justice. The intolerable load of the sins of countless millions is going to press him down, with a weight which none but he could bear. All this is to be borne before another sun shall rise and set. He knows it, yet, full of heavenly love, forgets his own sorrows that he may minister to the comfort of his flock. In that last awful night, he broke the bread, and poured out the wine, and said, This spectable body of Christians, the followers of Barclay, reject the Lord's sup per altogether. How very erroneous are their views on this point, may be argued from the importance which the Saviour, after his return to heaven, at tached to this ordinance, which he displayed, by making it part of his revela tion to St. Paul, who says, I have received of the Lord (not from fellowapostles) that which also I delivered to you. The perpetuity of the ordinance is demonstrated in the declaration, that in it the Lord's death is shown forth till he come.

THE SAVIOUR'S DEATH.

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do in remembrance of me. Cold is the heart that can forget him. Cold the heart that delights not to cherish the remembrance of such a friend. Follow him from the table, where he broke the bread, to the cross on which he died. There he atones for sins numberless as the drops of morning dew, and vast as the mountains that pierce the skies. There he brings in an everlasting righteousness, and opens wide the gate of heaven. There he dies, and dies for you; dies that you may live; sheds his heart's blood to wash away your sins; and endures his Father's frown, that on you, a poor, ruined child of death and woe, his Father may for ever smile. For you he purchased peace, by agonies intolerably severe. To you he opens heaven. Your Shepherd would he be through the wilderness of time; and crown the long eternity that awaits you with glory, honour, and happiness. In those many mansions in his Father's house, where he is now exalted at the right hand of power, he would give you a peaceful dwelling! In those regions, where as the Lamb that was slain, he will lead his flock to living fountains of waters, and where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, he would enrich you with all the treasures of eternal life. Compared with this immense benevolence, what are human benefactors, the wisest, the greatest, and the best! Their kindness, when it shines brightest, and glows with the warmest fervour, is more insignificant compared with his, than the glimmering of a glow-worm compared with the meridian sun. What grateful recollections then does he deserve! All his dying love, and all his living care; all he has done for your salvation, all he is doing, all he will do through eternity, should unite to impress this precept on your heart, and to render it the most de lightful precept in the book of God. "This do in remembrance of me." Can they be Christians who hesitate to obey a precept recommended by such a design, as that of remem bering such a friend! Will not the Christian rather say to Him, "Holy Redeemer, thou hast united my happiness and duty, in bidding me remember thee. O thou divine friend! I would remember thee while memory keeps its seat within my soul; and rather let my right hand forget its cunning, let my heart forget to move, my pulse to beat, my tongue to speak, my eyes to see, than I forget thee, whose dying love procured eternal salvation for my ruined soul!"

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§ 3. These considerations, on remembering Christ with gratitude and love, receive additional weight when we take into view the particular event, in his benevolent course, to which the sacred supper leads our meditations. The event was the most important in the annals of time; the most momentous in the records of eternity. We have no reason for apprehending that such another event ever did take place in eternity past, or during an eternity to come ever will. The happiness of the millions of the redeemed, and the glory of God in their salvation, through eternal ages, was suspended on his atonement. If that had not been effected, the apostate world must have been for ever lost; heaven must have closed its gates against all the inhabitants of the earth. No songs of redeeming love must ever have resounded through its blissful regions. No child of Adam must ever have become a child of God. The wisdom and love of God in man's redemption must never have been displayed. The triumphs of Satan would have been complete, and the earth have become only an ample nursery for hell. On this one event all these others were suspended. This one was effected. Jesus died, and dying glorified the law and made it honourable, atoned for sin and rescued the sinner. The way to heaven was then opened. Myriads, admitted there, in consequence of this sacrifice even before it was offered, were confirmed in happiness, and the way prepared to that abode for millions more. The plans of the wicked one were baffled. A display of the love and wisdom of God, that will shine bright to eternity, then commenced. Eternity may roll away its ample ages, but never will this event be forgotten;-this event, to which heaven will owe perhaps more than half its inhabitants ;— and all the praises of redeeming love, in which those inhabitants will for ever join;-this event, to which multitudes, countless as the sands on the sea shore, will ascribe their felicity, through ages without end;-this event, to which the hosts of angels will owe all their intimacies, and friendship, and mutual joy with the spirits of the just ;-this event, to which even God will owe all the rich revenue of glory, that as the God of salvation will accrue to him through all eternity. What is the creation of man compared with this? what the formation of a world compared with this? What even the reation of cherubim and seraphim, and all the sons of light,

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