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and Blood of Christ." "In this holy Sacrament,” it is said, our heavenly Father has given His Son to be our spiritual food and sustenance." It is affirmed to be "so divine and comfortable a thing to those who receive it worthily." It is spoken of as "that holy mystery," "such a heavenly feast," "that holy Table," "the holy Communion." For while our Church rejects with intense loathing and indignation those low carnal materialistic views of the Lord's Supper which hold that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ; while she maintains in the closing rubric of this office that "the bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored (for that were an idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians), and the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven and not here, it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more places than one;" while in the words of our 31st article she asserts, "The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual, and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone wherefore the sacrifices of masses, in the which it was commonly said that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits;" yet she is not afraid to speak in the exalted language of this Invitation con

cerning the spiritual excellence and dignity of this Sacrament.

And most justly. For what privilege can transcend that of the closest heart communion with the Incarnate Son of God in that memorial feast of love, which He has Himself ordained? There is only one thing higher; and that will be when we shall see Him as He is, and are invited to sit down as accepted guests at the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is not by minishing aught from the true significance and blessedness of this sacred feast, as plainly set forth in holy Scripture, that we shall be able to meet the dangerous errors by which some have been led astray, but by holding fast the truth of God while we reject the inventions of

man.

Such being the Divine excellence of this Sacrament, we are called to self-examination, repentance, and newness of life.

This self-scrutiny, this penitence, this purpose of a holier walk, is a transaction betwixt God and the soul, to be carried on in secret with our Father, who seeth in secret, at the footstool of the throne of grace, with the sense of His eye fully open upon us, and by the light of His holy Word. We have already seen how the Ten Commandments, which stand in the forefront of the Communion Service, embrace every thought of the heart and every act of the life, being summed up in perfect love to God and man. But I would venture to suggest

a few other Scriptures as helpful standards of reference, by which we may try ourselves before God.

1. The First Epistle of St. John supplies us with the most transparent marks of those who have passed from death unto life. It was written, we are told (chap. v. 13), with this very design, that those who believe on the Name of the Son of God may know that they have eternal life. (See Revised Version.) It is the Christian's touchstone. Here, then, we find that the believing child of God has fellowship with the Father and the Son; walks in the light; has communion with the saints; maintains a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ ; confesses his sins to God; keeps the commandments, especially that new commandment, Love one another; may find his place among the little children, the young men, or the fathers in the household of faith; purifies himself, for Christ is pure; overcomes sin; evidences his love of the brethren by acts of love; has the testimony of his conscience; proves the power of prayer: has the Spirit of God; believes and confesses the Manhood and Godhead of Christ; increases in the knowledge of God; abides in love; overcomes the world by faith; has the threefold witness of the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and hence possesses a wellgrounded assurance that he is an heir of everlasting life. Can any one, who is really desirous of knowing his true state before God, and who honestly

applies these tests, remain in doubt whether he belongs to Christ or not?

2. The twenty-fifth Psalm is a wonderful transcript of the chequered experience of the believer amid the temptations of the world. We have here (verses 1-3) the soul's rest in God; (verses 4, 5) the soul's thirst to know more of God; (verses 6, 7) the soul pleading for God's favourable remembrance; (verses 8-10) the soul's confidence in God's teaching; (verse 11) the craving for pardon under the deepest sense of need; (verses 12-15) the felicity of trust; (verses 16-21) the cry of one still battling his way amid tribulation in the world. Is this experience of God's people ours?

3. Or let us take that psalm, which perhaps more than any other reveals the penitence of a truly contrite heart, the fifty-first Psalm. We feel, as we read it, the intense conviction which the Psalmist had of the unutterable love of God, and this notwithstanding all his grievous guilt. We see how he craved pardon and purity. We mark how his sin before God swallowed up his thought of sin against man. He grieved that he himself was sinful. He clung to the atonement by sacrifice, which God had ordained. He believed in the forgiveness of sins. He longed to walk with God again in newness of life, and to serve Him by drawing others to His feet, and to praise Him once more with joyful lips. His heart was contrite, his spirit broken, but he rises above himself to the

needs of the Church of God. What know we of this contrition, whereinsoever our heart condemns us of sin ?

4. But the Sermon on the Mount is the great Gospel standard of our duty towards God and towards our neighbour. What know we in our heart and life of the Beatitudes? What know we of that brotherly kindness which is set forth in this sermon, of that holy chastity of heart, of that solemn dread of our oath, of that forbearance and love towards those who hate us, of that unostentatious charity, of that private communion with God, of that laying up treasure in heaven, of that generosity of judgment, of that free and trustful access to the throne of grace, of doing to others as we would they should do to us, of entering in by the strait gate, of bringing forth good fruit, of building on the rock? Who is not convicted of manifold shortcomings and sins? Who does not pray, Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord ?

5. Or take another Scripture, Rom. xii. and xiii., which, beginning with God's claim on us, proceeds to set forth all the manifold claims of Christian society, seeing that we are all one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. What a blessed community would that be which was governed by this code of courtesy and love! what a peaceful kingdom! what a holy Church! Is it the standard at which we aim?

6. Or if we would trace the progress in the