pray, and hear, and perform all duties. Nothing but lying in that bosom will dissolve hardness of heart, and make thee to mourn kindly for sin, and cure a careless spirit, that gangrene in profession. That will humble indeed, and make the soul cordial to Christ, and sin vile to the soul; yea, transform it into the glory of Christ. Never think thou are right as thou shouldst be, a christian of any attainment, until thou comest to thisalways to see and feel thyself lying in the bosom of Christ who is in the bosom of his Father. (John i. 18.) Come and move the Father for near views of Christ, and you will be sure to speed. You can come with no request that pleaseth him better. He gave him out of his own bosom for that very end, to be held up before the eyes of all sinners as the everlasting monument of his Father's love."

"Do this, then, in remembrance of Christ." Such is the voice of your Lord and Master; and lest you should think it referred only to the twelve disciples, the apostle Paul assures you that this ordinance is to run parallel with time, and that by it, all who trust in His name are to "show forth Christ's death till he come." How, then, if you have hitherto neglected this ordinance, will you answer for your conduct in the day of the revelation of Christ's righteous judgment. This is a command, remember, which is not couched in any doubtful terms, but plain, positive, and demanding immediate and implicit obedience. No sophistry can darken its meaning, or elude its force. Surely, then, in setting it at nought, you are "more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man." "Who art thou, that thou repliest against God?" Who art thou that thou choosest what Divine commands thou art to obey, and what to treat with contempt, although given by Him who has all power both in heaven and in earth?

Who art thou that thou puttest away from thee the obligations of this command? Either, dear reader, thou must be a communicant, or a delinquent and a rebel. Either thou must at once obey this command, or bring upon thy soul the guilt of violated duty. Consider well, then, before you incur Divine indignation, and endanger your own salvation "by openly setting Christ at nought, crucifying him afresh, and putting him to an open shame." For, remember also, that while communicating is a duty, it is an inestimable privilege, and God may swear in his wrath, that this privilege, with all of heavenly rest it implies, you shall never enjoy. It may be very true that you are not as loving, as believing, as strong, and as sanctified as you should be, but are you willing, by unbelief and rejection of the Divine mercy, to have your name wanting in the book of life? Are you prepared to "sell your birthright," and to write it in a covenant that you have neither part nor lot in Christ or

his salvation? When "the Lord comes to count and write up his people," are you willing to find your name omitted? and your inheritance given to a more faithful servant?

If, dear reader, you believe in Christ and are willing to give up all for him, then this commandment and ordinance of Christ requires your immediate observance. And if, on the other hand, you do not believe in Christ, and are not willing to give up all for him, then what are you but "a child of wrath," an heir of hell, a captive of the devil, dead while you live, and on your way to death everlasting. Oh! be persuaded, then, to give yourself to Christ now, at once, in this thy day, ere the offer of salvation is for ever hidden from your eyes. Make no tarrying, lest the avenger of blood overtake you, and lest, by trifling to-day, you be lost to-morrow. Have you been "almost persuaded to be a christian;" oh! be persuaded altogether to make a full, final, and absolute surrender of your soul to Christ. Believe on Him with the heart, and then come here and confess Him with the mouth, and thou shalt not be ashamed. "And now, Lord," let each one of us say, "all my desire is before thee. I am convinced of my duty, and dare no longer disobey. Oh! forgive me, that I have rebelled so long! I have been invited to thy table, and foolishly neglected many an opportunity of strengthening and refreshing my soul. I have been commanded to attend in remembrance of Him, who deserves never to be forgotten; and by my neglect have at once poured contempt upon thy authority, and slighted His love, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

"I bless thee, that I am in some measure sensible of my error; and am come to a resolution, that I will have respect to this, as well as other commands. The time past shall suffice me to have lived in the omission of so plain a duty, and the neglect of so glorious a privilege: oh! keep it upon the imagination of my heart for ever; and let me be confirmed in those good purposes, which thy own Spirit has led me to form, and no less power than His can help me to keep.

"I am indeed unworthy; but I acknowledge the insufficiency of that plea, against a positive command. I am unworthy, but must not therefore refuse thy kindness; I hope I am in Christ, who came to seek, to save the unworthy, and who is able to save and sanctify to the very uttermost, and therefore I cannot any longer want an ordinance, in the use of which I hope to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of my Lord.

"Or, if I have hitherto deceived myself, and walked in a vain show, I now desire to accept of the gospel-offer, to own my baptismal covenant, to avouch thee, O Father, Son, and Spirit, to be my God, my all, my everlasting portion. In deep humility (upon my bended knees), I now accept an offered Saviour, and

call heaven and earth to witness, that, as far as I can judge, I am sincere. And this I would declare in the presence of thy people; begging, with some hope and confidence, that I may be accepted now, and found in the number of the faithful at last. “Ō direct me in all the steps I am to take; and let me see my way, and follow it, and have comfort in the issue, through the merits and mediation of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Amen.

"Sure this is truth, that He who made us,

He who all our weakness knows,

Stooped himself from heaven to aid us,
Bear our guilt, and feel our woes.

"Like the lamb the peasant slaughters,
See him unresisting led

'Midst the tears of Judah's daughters,
Mock'd and numbered with the dead.

"Yes! my soul, thy lost condition

Brought the gentle Saviour low;
Hast thou felt one hour's contrition
For those sins which pierced him so?

"Dost thou bear the love thou owest,
For such proof of grace divine?
Meek, I answer, Lord-thou knowest
That this heart is wholly thine.

"Long, indeed, too long I wandered
From the path thy children trod,
Long my time and substance squandered,
Seeking that which was not bread.

"Now though flesh may disallow it,
Now though sense no glory see,
In thy strength, my God, I vow it
Ne'er again to turn from thee.

CHAPTER III.

THE TRUE BELIEVER PREPARING TO COME TO THE LORD'S table.

JUST as assuredly as any man desires and hopes for salvation, must he yield himself to that God who provided salvation for him to that Saviour who has redeemed him by his own precious blood-and to that ever-blessed Spirit who has so graciously undertaken to work in our hearts to will and to do according to the purpose of God. This is the word of the gospel, that "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, thou shalt be saved." Thus thought and thus acted the primitive believers. They first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and then to his church according to the will of God.

This, many now living have felt it to be our happy privilege to do; and this you, my dear reader, are now, I trust, about to do. Be thankful, my friend, that God has heard your supplication, and that you have been encouraged to participate in such great and unspeakable privileges. Remember, however, that such encouragement is founded, not upon any fitness, preparedness, or worthiness in you, but upon the hope that you have become sensible of your own ignorance, guilt, and insufficiency, and have embraced Christ, and that you are looking to Him by prayer, and the diligent use of every means of grace, for wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and complete redemption; for His Holy Spirit to renew and sanctify; and for grace and mercy according to your every need. This, and THIS ALONE can give you a well-grounded hope that you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you have fled from morality, from duties, from resolutions, and from every other self-righteous dependence, and "laid hold on Christ as THE ONLY hope set before you in the gospel." See to it then, my dear friend, that such is your spirit, your determination, and your hope. Without this you are still without Christ, and consequently "without God and without hope in the world." Without this your profession will only be hypocrisy, and your communicating in Christ's presence only a "crucifying of Christ. afresh," by a shameful denial of the freeness, fulness, and allsufficiency of His work and mercy, His Spirit and grace.

See to it, then, that "Christ is formed within you the hope of glory," and that you are "in Christ," "not having on your own righteousness, which is as filthy rags" in the sight of God, who looketh upon the motive and the heart, but that you are clothed in the finished and everlasting righteousness of Christ; the true and only wedding garment, "the white robe" of the spirits of

the just made perfect in heaven. "Prove, therefore, your ownself; know you not your ownself; how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate." For if you are not in Christ-if you are not dead to any further confidence in yourself, and to any hope of salvation or of sanctification, safety, and persevering holiness, except through Christ, your "goodness will be as the morning cloud, and the early dew, that soon vanishes away;" and, "having put your hand to the gospel plough," you will be found among those "who turn back unto perdition," and concerning whom Christ will say at the day of judgment, "I never knew you." He alone can "stand fast," who has built his hope upon the rock Christ Jesus, since He is not only an immovable rock to sustain, but also a spiritual rock to follow him all through the wilderness, and out of which flow living waters to quench and satisfy his thirsty soul. He alone is alive to God, so that he shall "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God," who, from the bottom of his heart, can say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Blessed is the man whose hope is thus fixed in Christ, "whose sins are covered." He shall not be moved by any sleight of men, or artifice of the devil, but shall be "like a tree planted by rivers of water, whose leaves are always green, and its fruit plentiful, and whose root fadeth never." The confession made by such a man, being rooted in the grace of Christ, will never issue in broken vows and cursed apostacy.

"Take heed then," my dear reader, "that there be not in you an evil heart of unbelief, which will assuredly lead you to depart from the living God." How many professors that once appeared "hot," (Rev. iii. 14-16,) have cooled down into lukewarmness and indifference, into worldliness and formality, and sometimes even into the icy form of ungodliness and infidelity, and having "begun in the Spirit," have "ended in the flesh." Their foundation being in themselves-their hope springing from excited feeling, and not from the word and promise, the person and the Spirit of Christ; and "having no root in them, after a time they fell away, and walk no more with Jesus.' They never really knew Christ and the power of his Gospel, and therefore He never knew them. And hence "they have gone out from us, because they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would still have continued with us."

Let not this, however, discourage you, if you realise and feel your own unworthiness; your own want of any ability or strength to "hold fast your profession stedfast to the end, or to walk worthy of Him who hath called you" by his Spirit, and his grace, unto a life of holiness and new obedience. It is, indeed,