If the above-cited passages comprise all the Scripture places in which the Holy Spirit has taught us any truths respecting this Sacrament, then any doctrinal or devotional formula, if it is to be accounted Scriptural, must be founded upon, and be in strict accordance with, these places.

Before, however, we proceed to examine them, it will be needful to call attention to the Person of the Divine Being who instituted this Sacrament.

Before men practically divest this Sacrament of all mystery, let them, as they value their souls, ponder the unspeakable mystery which belongs to the person of Him who ordained it, and the awful greatness of the occasion on which He ordained it.

"He

For He who then blessed and break bread, was whose goings forth have been from old, of everlasting."

If a mere man institutes a memorial of himself in certain terms, we must measure what he says by a merely human standard; but if the Son of the Most High, the Eternal Word, is made flesh, in order that He may redeem us by His death and give His flesh and blood to be our meat and drink; and if, just before His death, He ordains a rite in certain very wonderful words, then it is another matter altogether.

He Who ordained the Eucharist was infinitely mysterious in regard of His Person, for He had two whole and perfect natures, the Godhead and manhood, in one Person.

The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in His very body, and yet it was in all respects the body of a sinless man. When men saw Him, they saw the Eternal Word (1 John i. 1-3). When men heard Him speak, they heard God speaking to them. When one, a few days after this last Supper, handled His flesh, and exclaimed, in adoring wonder, "My Lord and My God," he was not blamed,

Now, this unspeakable mystery attaching to the Person of the Redeemer must lead the thoughtful mind to expect very deep things indeed in such words and acts as those in which He instituted the Eucharist, and should make us fear exceedingly, lest, in stripping them of all mystery, we make them void.

An impugner of Eucharistic doctrine in the last century complacently lays it down, that "no other meaning or interpretation is to be put upon these words [i.e. the words in which Christ ordains Holy Communion] but what is agreeable to the common rules of speaking on the like occasions."

In answer to this he was asked,—

"Pray, sir, where must a man look for a like case? Does the world afford us any case like it? Have the speaker, or the thing spoken, anything in common life like to either of them? How vain is it therefore to refer us to the common rules of speaking in the like cases when the whole world affords us neither any person like Him that spoke, nor anything or case like the thing or case here spoken of."1

So that the infinite mystery of the Person of Him who ordained the Eucharist, is to be borne in mind at every step of our inquiry into its nature and intent.

Ever remembering this, let us first consider the four accounts preserved to us in Scripture of the institution of the Eucharist. (Matt. xxvi. 26–30; Mark xiv. 22—25; Luke xxii. 14-20; 1 Cor. xi. 23—34.)

Let the reader first notice that in all these accounts the words of the Lord respecting the bread are the same. St. Matthew records that He said, "Take, eat, this is My body." St. Mark that He said, "Take, eat, this is My

1 William Law, in "A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors of a late book called A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.'"

body." St. Luke omits the words "Take, eat," but tells us that He said, "This is My body," and that He added, "which is given for you;" thereby seeming more emphatically to identify that which He "brake" and "gave with His body, which was about to be crucified.

St. Luke also records (which St. Matthew and St. Mark had omitted) that our Lord added, "Do this in remembrance of Me."

According to St. Paul, our Lord said all that SS. Matthew, Mark, and Luke respectively ascribe to Him, “Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me."

Let the reader note here that it pleased our Lord to give to St. Paul a separate and direct revelation of the Institution of the Eucharist: for the account as contained in 1 Cor. xi. is prefaced by the words, "I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." St. Paul must have had many revelations respecting our Lord's life and teaching; and yet the one only circumstantial account which he gives of any act of Christ is this account of the Institution of the Holy Communion, and it is all but word for word the same as that given to us by St. Luke.

Such a fact cannot but impress upon believers the exceeding importance of the matter so revealed.

If, then, we are to be guided by the Scripture accounts, the first object of the Saviour in ordaining this Sacrament was to give to men that which He called His body, and which He called by no other name; for all unite in testifying that He said, "This is My body," and two of the witnesses, SS. Matthew and Mark, make no mention of any other words which He spake respecting the bread.

But in addition to this, all accounts testify that our Lord gave a cup of wine as well, and called it His blood.

According to St. Matthew, our Lord "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;" or, as St. Mark more briefly renders His words, "This is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many."

According to St. Luke, He more directly connected the cup with the New Covenant, which He was then inaugurating, "This cup is the New Testament [or Covenant] in My blood, which is shed for many."

According to St. Paul's account, He said over the cup the same words as St. Luke records, adding afterwards, "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me."

According, then, to the accounts of the two first Evangelists, our Lord intended in Holy Communion to give men that which He called His "blood shed for them."

According to SS. Luke and Paul, He intended in Holy Communion to make them partakers of the New Covenant in His blood. That is, by partaking of that which He designated as His blood, they partook of the New Covenant purchased and sealed by His blood.

In the whole transaction, we have before us Jesus Christ as a Divine Giver. First, blessing, breaking, giving, and saying, "take eat;" then, taking the cup, and saying, "drink ye all."

The first impression which we have, is that of an ordinance in which Christ gives, and we receive something -not an ordinance in which we Do Something.

So our first impression of Holy Communion must be that it is a means of grace, not a work. It is a means in the right use of which we look to receive from Christ: and all that we receive at the hands of Christ we receive of grace.

The first idea of the Lord's Supper, then, is in accordance with the spirit of that dispensation in which we are

now living, which is a dispensation of grace. Christ giving to us That whereby we are to glorify Him.

In the right use of this ordinance, our Blessed Redeemer must have intended to make us partakers of some amazing benefit. Everything concurs to assure us of this. The Infinite Greatness of Him who thus offered to men His body and His blood. The unspeakable greatness of the occasion, for it was on the eve of the world's redemption. The spirit of the whole dispensation, which the Son of God was then setting up-a dispensation in which God gives "unspeakable gifts." The extraordinary nature of the terms He applied to what He gave, "This is My body," "This is My blood," taken in connexion with the still more extraordinary terms in which He had some time before spoken of His flesh, that it should be the "life of the world."

To all these considerations we must add that of the great danger of unworthily receiving: for they that receive the bread and cup unworthily are "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord," and "eat and drink damnation to themselves, not discerning the Lord's body." (1 Cor. xi, 27, 29.)

When such a Saviour as the Scriptures reveal to us offers to us His body and His blood, we may be quite sure that the benefits of right reception will be commensurate with the danger and curse of unworthy reception— so that if they who receive unworthily are "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" and receive "damnation," they who receive worthily will partake to their infinite spiritual and eternal gain of the body and blood of the Lord, and receive to themselves the opposite of “damnation."

What, then, does the Lord here offer to His people?

Our Lord first gives One Thing, which He calls His