of which you have spoken, and which is particularly alluded to by our Lord in the words which he employed when he instituted the supper?

A. It is a covenant of reconciliation,”—God being represented as willing to extend forgiveness to men, though they have become obnoxious to punishment, and as thus investing himself with the character, not of a rigorous Judge or Avenger, but of a Merciful and Condescending Father.

Q. In what respect then may the death of Christ be considered by us as the capital fact in this covenant,—and as hence peculiarly worthy of being commemorated by the chief ceremony of the Christian institution ?

A. As being the central fact in the grand scheme of the divine economy,-towards which all the previous parts of the dispensations of Providence were made to converge,-and from which the courses of Divine Providence are again extending in blessings of the highest moment to the spiritual and eternal welfare of the human race.

Q. What are the blessings especially procured for mankind, or ratified to their acceptance by the death of Christ?

A. Forgiveness of sins, Peace with God, or

Adoption into his family,—the Sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit,—and the final gift of Eternal life.

Q. Are not these the most valuable of all blessings, or rather do they not include all the benefits that can be conceived as most desirable by man, as a religious and immortal being?

A. Yes; and it is hence that the consideration of the death of Christ, as the seal or ratification of these blessings to mankind, has been so commonly productive in the minds of the devout of those feelings of unutterable thankfulness, with which they have always spoken of the transcendent benefits of "redeeming love."

Q. Is not then the ceremony of " the Supper" a feast in honour of divine mercy?*

A. Yes; and it ought hence to be the most delightful of all services to beings who feel that they have all sinned,—and that their only hopes of salvation rest in the assurance of the condescending pity and forgiving grace of God.

* See note (L).

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Q. Is it sufficient then, for a due performance of this service, that we consider it generally as thus commemorative of the mercy of God to the race of men ?

A. This is no doubt a most magnificent and gratifying thought;-but our Saviour seems to have intended, that the partakers of "the Supper" should consider themselves, while receiving the elements, as personally interested in the dispensation of that forgiveness and grace which the service commemorates; for he not only directed them to consider the elements generally, as symbolical of the benefits of his death,—but he added more particularly, "this is my body, which is broken for you,—and this cup is the new testament in my blood, shed for the remission of the sins of many, drink ye all of it,”—evidently meaning, that the communicants should appropriate the benefits shadowed out by the elements to their personal necessities.

Q. Does not the consideration of the benefits thus procured for mankind by the sufferings of Christ open up the grandest as well as the most gratifying of all the subjects of thought on which the mind of man can be employed?

A. Certainly; and though, therefore, our Sa

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viour seems to have wished that the ceremony should be level, by its symbolical character, to the imaginations of the most simple-minded among men,—who can readily view it as a commemoration of the broken body and shed blood of the Redeemer, he obviously also intended that the most expanded understandings should find in the extensive and grand provisions of the divine economy, for the communication of forgiveness to men, a field of contemplation on which all the powers of the most cultivated intellect might be employed with exhaustless advantage.

QUESTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SACRAMENTAL CHARACTER OF THE SERVICE.

Q. What was the original meaning of the word Sacrament?

A. It signified the oath which was taken by a soldier to be faithful to the service and obedient to the commands of his superior,—but it afterwards was somewhat extended and modified in its meaning, so as to express any very solemn engagement, especially when such engagement was

sanctioned by a religious ceremony,-and it was from this use of the term that it came to be applied to the more solemn services of the Christian institution.

Q. Does then the ceremony of "the last Supper" really partake of the character of an oath?

A. It does so, in the holiest and most awful of all senses;-for though the Communicant swears not in words, he does pledge himself to a certain line of conduct, by the most binding and impressive of all actions,-namely, by taking into his hands the symbols of the body and blood of him who gave himself to death that he might redeem mankind from sin. No act surely could be more binding or impressive than this.

Q. To what then does the Communicant pledge himself by this most solemn action?

A. He pledges himself to fulfil the vow which his parents took for him when he was baptized;— he voluntarily professes himself a follower of Christ; and he declares before God, his fellowcommunicants, and all who witness his profession, that he intends to devote his whole life to a zealous fulfilment of all the commandments which his Sa