pro

you will surely perish. The most of you are wicked, idle, fane, prayerless, ungodly children. Many of you are open Sabbath-breakers, liars, and swearers. If you die thus, you will have your part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. You will see this little boy, and others whom you know, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. O repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. You may die very soon. O that your latter end may be like his !

Parents also may learn from this to seek the salvation of their children. Alas! most parents in our day are like the cruel ostrich in the wilderness, "which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust; and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them: She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers." Job xxxix. 14–16. How many of you hold up your children before God and the congregation, and solemnly vow to bring them up for God, to pray for them, and in your family with them, and then return to your house with the guilt of perjury upon your soul! Alas, are not the family altars of Scotland for the most part broken down, and lying desolate? Is not family government in most of your houses an empty name? Do not family quarrels, and unholy companies, and profane jests, and sordid worldliness, prevail in most of your tabernacles? What can you expect but that your children shall grow up in your image, formalists, sacrament breakers, loose livers, fierce, incontinent, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? O that God would touch your hearts by such a tale as this, that you may repent and turn to the Lord, and yearn over your children in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Would you not love to see them fall asleep in Jesus? Would you not love to meet them at the right hand of the Judge? Seek their conversion now, if you would meet them in glory hereafter. How will you bear to hear their young voices in the judgment, saying, "This father never prayed for me; this mother never warned me to flee from the wrath to come?"

Dear brethren in the ministry and laborers in the Sabbathschool, suffer the word of exhortation from one who is " your brother and companion in tribulation." May we not learn from this to be more earnest both in prayers and labors, in seeking the salvation of little children. We have here one bright example more in addition to all those who have been recorded before, that God can convert and edify a child with the same ease with which he can change the heart of a grown man. I have with religious care refrained from embellishing, or in any way exaggerating, the simple record of God's dealings with this boy. We must not "speak wickedly for God, nor talk deceitfully for him." All who knew him can bear witness that I have spoken "the

words of truth and soberness." Indeed the half has not been told.

66

How evident is it, then, that God is willing and able to convert the young! How plain that if God give grace, they can understand and relish divine things as fully as those of mature age! A carnal mind of the first order will evermore despise and reject the way of salvation by Christ; but the mind of a child quickened by the Holy Spirit, will evermore realize and delight in the rich and glorious mystery of the gospel. "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Let us awake from an unbelieving dream. Let us no more be content to labor without fruit. Let us seek the present conversion to Christ of our little children. Jesus has reason to complain of us that he can do no mighty works in our Sabbath-schools because of our unbelief.

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.

The Lord's Supper is the sweetest of all ordinances: 1. Because of the time when it was instituted: "The Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread." It was the darkest night that ever was in this world, and yet the brightestthe night when his love to sinners was put to the severest test. How amazing that he should remember our comfort at such a time! 2. Because it is the believer's ordinance. It is the duty of all men to pray to God. God hears even the ravens when they cry, and so he often hears the prayers of unconverted men. Psalm cvii.; Acts viii. 22. It is the duty of all men to hear the preached gospel. "Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men." But the Lord's Supper is the children's bread; it is intended only for those who know and love the Lord Jesus. 3. Because Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of it.

"This do in remembrance of me." "Ye do show the Lord's death till he come." There are many sermons in which Christ is not from beginning to end; many books where you cannot find the fragrance of this name; but there cannot be a sacrament where Christ is not from beginning to end; Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Lord's Supper; it is all Christ and Him crucified. These things give a peculiar sweetness to the broken bread and poured out wine.

I fear the Lord's Supper is profaned in a dreadful manner among you; many come who are living in positive sins, or in the neglect of positive duties. Many come who know that they

were never converted, many who in their hearts ridicule the very thoughts of conversion. Unworthy communicating is a fearful sin; on account of it God is greatly provoked to withdraw his Spirit from you, to visit you with frowns of Providence, and to seal you to the day of perdition. Am I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? Deal honestly with your soul, and pray over what I am now writing, and may He who opened the heart of Lydia open your heart while I explain.

THE ACTIONS OF THE COMMUNICANT.

1. He takes the bread and the wine.—When the minister offers the bread and wine to those at the table, this represents Christ freely offered to sinners, even the chief. The receiving of the bread and wine means-I do thankfully receive the broken, bleeding Saviour as my Surety. The act of taking that bread and wine is an appropriating act; it is saying before God, and angels, and men, and devils, "I do flee to the Lord Jesus Christ as my refuge." Noah's entering into the ark was an appropriating act. Let others fly to the tops of their houses, to their castles and towers, to the rugged rocks, to the summits of the highest mountains, -as for me, I believe the Word of God, and flee to the ark as my only refuge. Heb. xi. 7. When the man-slayer fled into the city of refuge, it was an appropriating act. As he entered breathless at the gates of Hebron, his friends might cry to him, Flee unto the wilderness! or, Flee beyond Jordan! but no, he would say, I believe the Word of God that I shall be safe only within these walls; this is my refuge city, here only will I hide! Josh. xx. When an Israelite brought an offering of the herd or of the flock, when the priest had bound it with cords to the horns of the altar, the offerer laid his hands upon the head of the lamb; this was an appropriating act, as much as to say, I take this lamb as dying for me. The world might say, How will this save you? mend your life, give alms to the poor. I believe the Word of God, he would say; I do not wish to bear my own sins, I lay them on the Lamb of God. Lev. i. 4. When the woman, trembling, came behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment, this also was an appropriating act. Her friends might say to her, Come and try some more physicians, or wait till you are somewhat better. No, said she, "If I may but touch his garment, I shall be made whole." Mark v. 28. In the 42d Psalm, David's enemies said to him continually "Where is thy God?" This made tears his meat night and day. It was like a sword in his bones. But in the 43d Psalm he gathers courage, and says, "I will go unto the altar of God," where the lamb was slain; and then he says, "Unto God my exceeding joy." You say, I have no God; behold I take this lamb as slain for me, and therefore God is my God. In the Song of Solomon, when the bride found him whom her soul loved, she says, "I held him and would not

let him go." This was true appropriating faith. The world might say to her, "Come this way, and we will show thee other beloveds, fairer than thy beloved." Nay, saith she, "I held him and would not let him go. This is my beloved, and this is my friend." Song iii. 4.

Just such, beloved, is the meaning of receiving broken bread and poured out wine at the Lord's table. It is the most solemn appropriating act of all your lives. It is declaring by signs, “I do enter into the ark, I flee into the city of refuge, I lay my hand on the head of the Lamb, I do touch the hem of his garment, I do take Jesus to be my Lord and my God; I hold him, and by grace I will never let him go." It is a deliberate closing with Christ, by means of signs, in the presence of witnesses. When the bride accepts the right hand in marriage before many witnesses, it is a solemn declaration to all the world that she does accept the bridegroom to be her only husband. So, in the Lord's Supper, when you receive that bread and wine, you solemnly declare, that, forsaking all others, you heartily do receive the Lord Jesus as your only Lord and Saviour.

If these things be true, should not many stay away from this holy table? Many of you know that a work of grace has never been begun in your heart; you never were made to tremble for your soul; you never were made to pray, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" you never were brought to "rejoice, believing in God." Oh, beloved, let me say it with all tenderness, this table is not for you. Many of you know you are not in a state you would do to die in. You say, "I hope to turn yet before I die." Does not this show that your sins are not covered-that you are not born again-that you are not fled to the hope set before you? This table is not for you. Some of you know well that you have had convictions of sin, but they have passed away. The walls of the house of God have seen you trembling on the brink of eternity, but you were never brought to "peace in believing"-to "peace with God." You have drowned your anxieties in the whirl of business or of pleasure. You have drawn back. Your goodness is like the "morning cloud and early dew, it goeth away." This table is not for you. I speak to your sense of honor and common honesty. In worldly things, would you tell a lie either by word of mouth or by signs? And is it a light matter to tell a lie in eternal things? Will you deliberately declare, by taking the broken bread and poured out wine, what you know to be a lie? Oh, pray over the story of Ananias and Sapphira, and tremble, Acts v. 1-11. May it not be said in heaven of many, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God?"

A word to trembilng, believing souls. This feast is spread for you. "Eat. O friends; drink. yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, come. If you are "weak in the faith," ministers are commanded to receive you.

If, on the morning of the communion Sabbath-even for the first time in your life-Christ appear full and free to you, so that you cannot but believe on him, do not hesitate to come. Come to the table, leaning on the beloved, and you will have John's place there. You will lean peacefully upon his breast.

II. He eats the bread and drinks the wine.- -"Take, eat""Drink ye all of it." Eating and drinking in this ordinance imply feeding upon Christ. It is said of bread that it strengtheneth man's heart," and of wine, that it "maketh glad the heart of man." Bread is the staff of life, and wine is very reviving to those who, like Timothy, have often infirmities. They are the greatest nutritive blessings which man possesses. To feed on

them in the Lord's Supper is as much as to say, I do feed on Jesus, as my only strength; "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." To take the bread into the hand is saying by signs, "He is made of God unto me righteousness." To feed upon it is saying, "He is made unto me sanctification."

When Israel fed on manna for forty years, and drank water from the rock, they were strengthened for their journey through the howling wilderness. This was a picture of believers journeying through this world. They feed every day on Christ their strength; he is their daily manna; he is the rock that follows them. When the bride sat under the shadow of the apple-tree, she says, "His fruit was sweet to my taste;" and again," Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." Believers, this is a picture of you. No sooner are you sheltered by the Saviour, than you are nourished and renewed by him. He comforts your hearts, and stablishes you in every good word and work. In the 36th Psalm, when David speaks of men trusting under the wings of the Lord Jesus, he adds, "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures." Little children, you know by experience what this means. When you were brought to believe on the Son of God, you were adopted into his family, fed with the children's bread, and your heart filled with the holy pleasures of God. The same thing is represented in feeding on the bread and wine. It is a solemn declaration in the sight of the whole world, that you have been put into the clefts of the smitten rock, and that you are feeding on the honey treasured there. It is declaring that you have sat down under Christ's shadow, and that you are comforted and nourished by the fruit of that tree of life. It is saying, "I have come to trust under the shadow of his wings, and now I drink of the river of his pleasures." It is a sweet declaration of your own helplessness and weakness, and that Christ is all your strength-all your life.

If this be true, should not many stay away from the Lord's table? Many of you know that you were never really grafted