scheme, that the first step toward heaven must be true repentance. A deep abhorrence of sin and a love of holiness are pre-requisites to running with success the Christian race. How can a man contend successfully for a prize which he does not heartily wish to obtain? Now he, who loves sin, and who is determined to commit it, or who does not detest sin and is not determined to avoid it, does not, in fact, desire salvation. He may indeed desire to escape from the punishment threatened against the ungodly, and, when he hears of the joys of heaven, he may wish to obtain possession of them; but, though he hates misery, he loves sin, and, though his imagination is wrought upon by descriptions of future happiness, he has no delight in that virtue, which is essential to future happiness. Is it wonderful that such a man should despair of heaven? Before he can proceed a single step in the Christian race, he must humble himself in deep repentance, and an entire change must be wrought in his moral tastes.

But suppose this change already effected, he yet may sigh and mourn. He is frequently halting in his course; forbidden objects are frequently gaining an influence over his affections; and he often finds that his thoughts rise languidly to God. If his heart be fixed, then let him run perseveringly the race set before him. The stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus is not to be gained at once. These struggles with temptation are a part of his discipline. They are necessary to the increase of his strength. Occasional failures may clothe him with humility, may keep up a wakeful attention to duty, and teach him that God must be his strength, and that prayer is as the breath of life. Are the actual comforts of his faith few? Then let him be thankful for those few, and persevere that he may gain more. The man, who has given his heart to the world, is not discouraged by occasional disappointments. He learns caution by his failures, and is stimulated by difficulties. Neither should he, who has given his heart to God, be

discouraged. He is to make every trial an instrument of building up his spiritual interests. Is he daily convinced that he is far from perfection? He then has much to do. And how is he to do it? By perseverance, with dependence on God for success. If his heart is fixed, then his efforts will be persevering and availing. He is to feed his soul by religious contemplation, to connect God and heaven with every thing, and thus to imbue his very imagination with the spirit of holiness. But this cannot be done in a day. He must put forth effort after effort, achieve victory after victory, and, if he go forward with a determined spirit, looking to the Author and Finisher of his faith, he will find even the failures which have caused him so much sorrow, contributing to his virtue. Every thing will conspire to bear him onward. The light will become more cheerful to him as he advances, and God will appear to him as altogether lovely. The Christian, like the votary of ambition, should think nothing done, while any thing remains to be done. To the future he is to direct his eye; and, with an ardor worthy of the cause in which he is engaged, he must press onward. God will guard his progress; God will secure his reward.

SERMON XXXI.

PROFANATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

HE,

1 CORINTHIANS, XI. 29.

THAT EATETH AND DRINKETH UNWORTHILY, EATETH AND DRINKETH DAMNATION TO HIMSELF, NOT DISCERNING The Lord's

BODY.

THESE are tremendous words. At a season like the present, when we are about to celebrate a most affecting ordinance, when the sensibilities of the heart may be supposed to be all alive, when we are panting for spiritual nourishment, and trembling with self-distrust, they come to us with a solemn and alarming power. We hope to gain strength by holding communion with our Lord. We approach a religious rite, that we may drink more deeply into the spirit of our Master. But are we in thus doing incurring the danger of spiritual ruin? If humble and reverent, affectionate and pious in our desires, is there spiritual danger in partaking of the Lord's supper? Ought we, if true believers, and sincerely desirous of obeying Christ, to be alarmed, and driven from his table by the awful words, which have now been read to you? We answer without doubt or hesitation, No. To establish the correctness of this answer, and to draw some useful inferences from the subject now introduced, will be the purpose of the present discourse.

I. What were the offences of the Christians at Corinth, which occasioned and drew forth the rebukes and warnings of the apostle ?

One important purpose of the Lord's supper is to strengthen the bond of love between Christians, to cherish all kind and charitable feelings, and to keep present to the mind the lovely example of Jesus, whose bosom was ever alive to the tenderest sympathy, whose love was stronger than death. If Jesus taught his disciples that, before they could offer an acceptable sacrifice on the altar of God, before they could be acknowledged as his true worshippers, they must go and be reconciled to an offended brother, that no incense could reach heaven from a heart in which enmity was cherished, surely no disciple of Jesus can be accepted in the observance of that rite which celebrates his death, if he brings with him a heart filled with hatred, and makes the very ordinance of religion an instrument of inflaming hostile passions. This was one part of the offence, with which the Corinthians were charged. I hear, says the apostle, when ye come together in the church, that there are divisions among you. Not only so, but he shows that, by the very manner in which they celebrated the Lord's supper, they made it an instrument or an occasion of cherishing animosities. This is not only proof, that they totally mistook the design of the ordinance, but that they brought to the observance of it a spirit, which would have polluted and rendered worthless any formal act of religious worship.

But the manner, in which they conducted this celebration, was as revolting as the spirit which they brought to it. We are told, that it was customary among the Greeks to meet at each other's houses for the purpose of social pleasure, and for each one to bring with him such part of the entertainment as he might deem proper. Thus prepared they united in such festivities as suited their tastes. The Corinthian Christians, strange as it may seem, met together

in this way. Those who were rich came abundantly supplied with whatever might contribute to their entertainment. The poor could bring nothing. The rich feasted to excess. The poor were excluded from these scenes of conviviality, or rather admitted as spectators in a way adapted to excite the worst passions. This scene of revelry was concluded by the celebration of the Lord's supper. What an awful picture of the prostitution of a religious ordinance! We can hardly conceive it possible, that such a revolting profanation of religion should have taken place among those, who were converted and instructed by an apostle. In accounting for it, we are obliged to recur to the feasts of vice, to the debauching mysteries celebrated in honor of Pagan deities, and to suppose that the impurities of idolatry yet clung around the minds of the Corinthian converts, and were transferred to the rites of their new faith. Even then, so shocking is the picture given of the abuse of this religious rite, that we could with difficulty believe it, did not the fact rest on the testimony of an apostle. What if such a scene were now presented by a Christian church? It would excite universal indignation and horror. It was to persons thus guilty, guilty of cherishing hatred around the altar of religion, guilty of unkindness, of riot, of intemperance, under the cloak of sanctity, guilty of not discerning the Lord's body, of confounding a holy ordinance of Jesus with the impure festivals of heathenism, that the awful declaration of our text was made. Ought the humble, the sincere, the self-distrusting to fear and tremble, lest, in their timid approaches to the table of their Lord, while their hearts are heaving and glowing with pious emotions, they should be in danger of drinking damnation? God forbid. He, who would not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, has not laid snares for men's souls around the altar which he invites them to approach.