to you a scene of delightful and neverceasing worship you will live in the fear and love of God, and God's blessing will most assuredly be upon you and your's. One of the crying sins of this country in the present age is the neglect of family worship, which our forefathers never omitted. Call it not Methodistical, but, in this respect, be determined to be Methodists; call it not Puritannical, but, in this respect, resolve to live and die Puritans.

And all of you, my brethren, as you value your peace and happiness in this life, or an eternity of Salvation in the next, never forget your daily Prayers in private. If you think of God, He will think of you; but if you forget God, He will most assuredly forsake you, and perhaps cast you off for ever. To hold communion with your Maker is the most blessed privilege which has been intrusted to you-may Divine Grace enable you to improve it, together with the other talents, and faculties, and opportunities, with which God has mercifully invested you for the purpose of "working out your Salvation," that, at the last tremendous day, you may be able to exclaim, with an exceeding great joy, "Lord, Thou gavest me five talents, behold here are other five!" and to hear your blessed Lord say in reply, "well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

LECTURE XI.

THE HOLY COMMUNION.

1 Cor. xi. 26.

AS OFTEN AS YE EAT THIS BREAD, AND DRINK THIS CUP, YE DO SHEW THE LORD'S DEATH TILL HE COME.

IN the 26th chapter of St. Matthew, in St. Mark, 14th, and in St. Luke, 22nd, we have a clear account of the institution of the Lord's Supper. Each of these three Evangelists relates the circumstances in nearly the same words; and from each one of them we may come to the conclusion that our blessed Saviour, before His departure from the earth, commanded all His disciples to continue for ever this simple memorial of His most precious death and passion.*

He had lived and preached, He had instructed

* Throughout this Lecture it will be observed that the spiritual grace and efficacy of the Sacraments are not so much insisted upon as the Christian reader may expect. Such considerations are reserved for future discourses in the progress of this work.

His twelve Apostles in many of the mysteries of the Gospel Kingdom, He had informed them that He was just then going to be offered up for the Redemption of the world, that His body was to be broken, and His precious blood to be poured out, as He Himself said, "for the remission of sins," and before leaving them, He directed, nay! He absolutely commanded them, to continue "a memorial of that His most precious death until His coming again." "As they were eating," says St. Matthew, "Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins. This do in remembrance of me."

Such is the account given us in the Gospels; and we may be quite sure that it was not intended merely for the Apostles to continue this Sacrament during their life-time, and then that the whole should be forgotten and laid aside; for we find that in St. Paul's time, long after the death of Christ, the Christians still kept up this divine ordinance. In his Epistle 2 Cor. chap. xi. from which the text is taken, we find St. Paul reproving those who received and administered

the Lord's Supper in a disorderly and irregular manner; from which we may be sure that this Holy Sacrament was most certainly administered by the Christian Church at Corinth. At verse 23. he says, "I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night, in which He was betrayed, took bread; and, when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup when He had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. FOR AS OFTEN AS YE EAT THIS BREAD, AND DRINK THIS CUP, YE DO SHEW THE LORD'S DEATH TILL HE COME."

So that from the account given in the Gospels, and from the passage in 2 Cor. chap. xi. we may derive the most certain doctrine, that the Lord Jesus Christ positively instituted what is called the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and that He commanded all His followers to partake of it; that this blessed Sacrament was administered in St. Paul's time, long after our Lord's departure from the earth, and that therefore it is still binding upon the Christian Church to observe it.

As a further proof of this, I would only remark to you, my brethren, that from the time of the

Apostles down to the present day, the great body of Christian Churches have constantly and steadfastly observed this holy and divine rite, considering it as expressly commanded by our Lord and Master, and therefore, as the Catechism says, "generally necessary to Salvation"—for surely, if we wilfully and perversely disobey our Divine Master, we are none of His."

66

The word Sacrament is not in Scripture, but that is no matter if the name is not mentioned, the thing is, as I have already shewed to you. The original meaning of the word is an oath, or pledge; and, as applied to the Lord's Supper, we may look upon it as the vow, or profession, which we make, of being, to the best of our powers, faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are two Sacraments, or oaths, or bonds, or pledges, or professions, or whatever we choose to call them, ordained by Christ, viz. Baptism, by which we are admitted into His Church, and pledge ourselves to become His disciples, and the Lord's Supper, by which we testify our continuance in the Church. It is much to be wondered that those who are anxious for the first Sacrament, Baptism, should so frequently be afraid of receiving the second, the Lord's Supper-one being as much a Sacrament of the Gospel as the other.

This latter Sacrament is called the Lord's Sup