Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in me.

May thy Cross, O risen Saviour, teach me self-denial; Thy suffering, patience; Thy victory, hope; and through all the loving discipline of Thy blessed will, bring me at the last to the unveiled vision of Thy heavenly glory, when no longer through Signs and Sacraments we shall discern Thy presence, but shall see Thee face to face, and be made like unto Thee for ever in Thy eternal and glorious kingdom, where, with the Father and the Holy Ghost Thou livest and reignest ever one God, world without end. Amen.

"NOW unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Amen.

SURROUNDED as we are on every hand by dangers and temptations, with hearts often cold and wayward, with strong affections cleaving far too constantly to the dust of earth, we need every aid that God has given to help us on our way. And, without doubt, the Holy Communion is the special means of the soul's strength. In It, to use the earnest language of our Service, "we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ, and drink His Blood; we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us.'

Other means of grace have their own peculiar gift of blessing, but each one prepares the devout heart for this, the highest of them all. Private Prayer, in which the soul

of the contrite pours forth its deep desires to God in the aloneness of its own separate life-Public and Common Prayer, when the gathered company of Christ's people plead His own promise, and with one voice and heart send up their supplicating cry to the throne of the heavenly grace,—the Word of the living Lord, whether read at home or proclaimed by the appointed Ministry, revealing to us the whole message of Salvation --all these are vouchsafed gifts of grace, and are all designed to bring us nearer to our God. But in the Holy Eucharist there is a fuller, truer, more ineffable communion with the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ the Righteous. There we feed on the living Bread that came down from heaven. There, by faith, we behold Christ, our Passover, sacrificed for us. There the weak and burdened spirit finds pardon and rest, and hears the "comfortable words" spoken to the inmost heart by the Voice of the great Absolver Himself.

It is a Feast; for we feed on Jesus in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving; a Feast of solemn Commemoration. The simple Elements, the Bread and Wine, take us back in thought along the ages to the upper chamber in Jerusalem. That same night in which He was betrayed, with its full Chalice of uttermost sorrow, and the Baptism of Blood amid

the shadows of Gethsemane, frowns forth full before our gaze; and we remember that it was on that dark night that He, in tenderest compassion to the Church He was so soon to purchase with His own blood, bade us keep the Feast. Here, like the Virgin Mother, we may stand beneath the Cross, and while with hushed and adoring souls we look on Him, the mighty Sacrifice, we well may cry,

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.
Let the Water and the Blood

From Thy wounded Side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,

Save from wrath and make me pure."

Our Lord's own

It is a Feast of Life. words on this point are too plain to be misunderstood: "Verily I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is Meat indeed, and My Blood is Drink indeed." In the light of such solemn utterances as these, how can we account for the easy and complacent way in which, year after year, the majority in our congregations turn their backs without a misgiving upon that Table prepared for them in the wilder

ness, to which the Lord Himself in His great love has invited them?

It is a Feast of Anticipation. Over every Communion Table might the text be inscribed, "As often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death till He come." For that glad coming the whole Church waits and prays. They who are gone from amongst us, whose course is ended, and who rest in the Paradise of His perfected, and we who remain amid the hard conflict and the abounding sorrows and temptations of the life below, all join in one united voice of deepening supplication,"Lord Jesus, come quickly." Then all these Signs and Sacraments shall be no longer needed, for in the unveiled vision, and amid the Resurrection glory, we shall see Him as He is, and, awaking up in His likeness, shall be satisfied for ever.

Surely, if such thoughts as these in regard to the Holy Communion were more habitually present with us, our own attendance at It would be more regular, and our own preparation for it more earnest, searching, and devout. It is Christ's own Feast of Love and Strength for all His followers. If only thoroughly in earnest, we are not to busy ourselves with questions, or even doubts and fears, as to our fitness for receiving so great a mystery. "Arise! He calleth thee," is