E. LONGHURST, CHURCH BOOKSELLER, 30 NEW BRIDGE STREET, E.C. AND 119 UPPER KENNINGTON LANE, S.E, 138. i. 540. COMMUNION WITH GOD. HEN WB PART I. INSTRUCTION. man was first made he was made that he might love GOD and adore Him for ever. We all know how the first man disobeyed GOD, and thus brought sin into the world. By this disobedience a separation was caused between GOD and the man whom He had created, just as a rebellious son causes a separation between himself and the father whom he has insulted. Man could no longer hold that communion or fellowship with GOD which he enjoyed in his innocent state, If it had not been for the great love of GOD this separation must have lasted for ever, but He so loved the world that He sent His only SON to become Man Himself, and so to restore communion between GOD and man. But this communion could not be restored until GOD the Son, Who had been made Man, offered Himself as a sacrifice to His FATHER for the sins of all mankind. This He did by living a life of perfect holiness and by being obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. We thus learn, that if we wish to hold communion with GOD (and our souls can have no life without communion with Him) we can only draw near to Him through that union between GOD and man which has been formed by GOD and man being united in one Person, JESUS CHRIST, and through the sacrifice which this GOD-MAN offered as the Head and Representative of the whole human race. It is for this reason that we never approach GOD in prayer without pleading that we do so through JESUS CHRIST Our Lord.' We are bidden to pray ‘in the name of CHRIST,' that is, as being one with CHRIST the great Head of our race. There are many ways of holding communion with GOD; but there is one especial method which it has pleased our SAVIOUR to appoint in His Church, for the use of His people, by which they may be brought into union with His human nature, and with the sacrifice which He offered in that human nature; and being thus joined to Him they may draw near, with Him, to their FATHER'S throne. On the night before the Crucifixion JESUS delivered to His Apostles an ordinance or Sacrament to be the outward method by which the benefits which flow from the union which is made by Him between GOD and man may be conveyed to human souls. This Sacrament is called the Holy Communion, because it is the especially appointed means by which we can hold communion and fellowship with God through our LORD JESUS CHRIST. In man's first state of innocence it pleased GOD to appoint an outward means by which He was to be approached, this was the Tree of Life in like manner this Holy Communion is given to us as our Tree of Life; not because it has in itself the power of giving life, but because it is the outward means by which we are made one with JESUS CHRIST, our Head, Who is the Life of the world. This Holy Sacrament has not been taken away from us, as the Tree of Life was from Adam, but has remained to be the joy and strength of God's people from the day on which it was first given until now. The account of the first institution of the Holy Communion is given in four different places in the New Testament: St. Matt. xxvi. 26-28; St. Mark, xiv. 22-24; St. Luke, xxii. 19, 20; 1 Cor.xi. 23-25. From these we learn that Jesus, having eaten His last Passover with His disciples, institutes for them a new and better feast. He takes bread, and blesses it and breaks it, and says, 'This is My Body which is given |