Are you not far happier in your times of closest walking with God? O that it were so with me always! Decays bring darkness and misery. The only happiness is to suffer the loss of all things. Many Christians are not willing to deny themselves-to suffer for Christ's sake-not willing to bear reproach or persecution. Christ will give a hundredfold more-peace of conscience.

2. This is the way to be useful. It is the thriving Christian that is the useful Christian-the one that follows Christ fully. The blessing to Abraham was: "I will bless thee, and make thee a blessing." This was eminently true of Paul. He followed Christ fully; and what a blessing he was! So would you be, if you followed Christ fully. If you bore all the features of Christ about with you, what a blessing would you be to the place and to the world!—not a cumberer of the ground. How useful to your children and neighbours!

3. This is the way to die happily. If you would die the death of Christ's people, you must live their life. Inconsistent Christians generally have a painful death-bed; but those that follow Christ fully can die like aged Paul—“ I am ready to be offered;" like Job-"I know that my Redeemer liveth."

4. This will insure a great reward. Every man shall be rewarded according as his work has been. Some will be made rulers over five, some over ten cities. I have no doubt that every sin, inconsistency, backsliding, and decay of God's children, takes away something from their eternal glory. It is a loss for all eternity; and the more fully and unreservedly we follow the Lord Jesus now, the more abundant will our entrance be into his everlasting kingdom. The closer we walk with Christ now, the closer will we walk with him to all eternity. "Thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy."-Amen. Dundee, 1842.

SERMON LV.

THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT WARNED.

"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."-1 Cor. xi. 29, 30.

WHEN it pleased God lately to pour out his Spirit in a remarkable manner on one of the parishes of Scotland, I was told by the minister that the sin that took deepest hold upon the consciences of the people, was the sin of unworthy communicating. He told me it was a most affecting sight, to see aged persons of threescore-and-ten sitting weeping over the broken sacraments of bygone years. If it shall please God to pour out his Spirit on the grown-up part of this congregation, I feel deeply persuaded that this dreadful sin of unworthy communicating will be like a mill-stone around most of your necks. Yes, my dear friends, God has a controversy with you about this matter, and he will either plead with you in time or in eternity.

1. There is such a thing as eating and drinking unworthily. Even in the days of the Apostle Paul this sin existed; and so it does in our day. There are many at the Lord's table who should not be there. There are many who come without the wedding garment-many who displease and provoke God by coming-many who will repent it to all eternity.

2. They get no good by it, but great evil. They eat and drink damnation to themselves. They think they are eating harmless bread and wine; or perhaps they think they are covering the sins of the past six months by eating; whereas God says they are eating and drinking damnation to themselves. It is as if they were eating poison.

3. He explains wherein their unworthiness consists: They do not discern the Lord's body. The phrase here used is evidently taken from the sense of taste in the human body, whereby we discern between different kinds of food. To discern the Lord's body, is to have a peculiar taste or relish for the way of salvation by Christ and him crucified. When a heavy laden sinner feels the power of the Gospel—

when he sees the sweetness, freeness, and fulness of Christ, he then tastes or discerns the Lord's body. But those who have not come to Christ, have never got this taste, this relish for the way of salvation by Christ. They may be very decent, good-natured people-they may read the Bible, and keep up a form of godliness; but they have never tasted the honey in the clefts of the Rock. These are they who profane the Lord's table.

I. None should come to the Lord's supper but those who discern the Lord's body-i. e., have a true relish for Christ.

1. From the actions of the communicant. You do not come to look at the bread and wine, but to feed upon them. You stretch out the hand, and take of the bread and eat it; you take the wine and drink it. Now, since that bread and wine represent the Lord's body, it is plain to a child, that the meaning of that action is: "I relish the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my manna-my sweet food-my only way of pardon, peace, and holiness-my Lord and my God." When a hungry beggar comes to your door, and you give him a piece of wholesome bread, how gladly does he catch at it, and begin to eat it! Why? Because he relishes it; it is what he requires. Such is your feeding at the Lord's table. You thereby declare that Christ is your Saviouryour manna-your all. When the man found the treasure in the field, he was glad, and went and sold all that he had and bought that field. Such is your declaration in coming to the Lord's table: Christ is precious to me; I have left all for him. The bride in the Song of Solomon says: "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." So do you say in coming to the Lord's table: I have found rest in the shade of Christ-his fruit is sweet to me-his way of pardon, his Spirit, his commands-all are sweet to my taste. When the maniac had the devils cast out, he sat at the feet of Jesus clothed, and in his right mind. Once he bade Jesus depart: "What have I to do with thee?" Now Christ is all. Such is your declaration at the Lord's table. When Paul was an unconverted man, he was a blasphemer-he breathed out threatenings; but when he got a taste of Jesus, he said: "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Such is your declaration in taking that bread and wine.

Can you truly say that you have found the treasure-that you have sold all for it-that you have sat down under the shade of that apple tree, and that you delight in his holy fruit; that you were once far from Christ, but now sitting at his feet-that you now preach the faith which once you destroyed that, like Paul, you glory only in the cross of Christ? Can you say, in the sight of God, that Christ is your manna, your sweet food, your peace-your all? Then you are welcome to the Lord's table. Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

To what

Most of you cannot say this. You have not found the treasure Will you come to the Lord's table? purpose? You will eat and drink unworthily. It will provoke God in a dreadful manner. You will repent it when you die. You will grieve on account of it to all eternity. Some even perpetrate in half an hour what they will mourn for ever and ever. Judas, in eternal torments, bewails his sin and folly. So will you.

2. From the words of Jesus: " This do in remembrance of me." An unconverted man cannot remember Christ; for he hath never seen him, neither known him. A man who never tasted honey, cannot remember the taste of it; so a man who never had a saving taste of the sweetness of the Lord Jesus, cannot possibly remember him. Indeed, there is a kind of remembrance of Christ that any man may have. You may remember the events of his life-that he was born in a stable-that he walked on the Lake of Galilee -that he wept over Jerusalem-that he prayed in Gethsemane-that he died on the cross in Calvary; but even the devils can remember Christ in this way. They remember all his history much more perfectly than we do. Satan has more knowledge of divine things than many doctors of divinity. And lost souls in eternal misery remember Jesus; they remember all he did, and all he suffered, and how often he would have saved them. Judas, in his place in hell, remembers Jesus. But, ah! this is not the saving remembrance of Jesus which we have at the Lord's table.

When a labouring, heavy laden sinner is brought to the feet of Jesus, he finds a joy and peace in believing he never felt before. He gets a discovery of the love of Christ that he never had before; the love of Jesus in coming for the ungodly, and dying for them; the freeness of Christ to every creature to sinners, even the chief-to publicans and sinners coming to him; the wisdom and excellency of this way of

never can forget. This is the spiritual relish and dis of the Lord's body. Every new exhibition of Je up again this sweet sense of his goodness and beau cannot hear his name but his heart is caught away His name is like ointment. When ministers pr Word, the memory rushes back to Jesus; and w broken bread and wine are set before his eyes, his drawn away to remember Jesus. As when the stood by Peter weeping, showing the coats and that Dorcas had made, every new piece of handi their departed friend called up fresh love in their bo fresh tears to their eyes. So to those that know J broken bread and poured-out wine stir up thei souls to remember Jesus.

you

Have this sanctified memory? Do you r when the name of Christ was all a blank to you? now like ointment poured forth? Do you remem first you saw the Lord, or if not the very time, do the amazing change that has been wrought in you welcome- This do in remembrance of me."

66

But most, I fear, have no such memory. You gracious discovery of Christ to remember. You h discerned the Lord's body. You say you will reme life and death. Why, devils could do that. Wo shock you to see devils seated at the Lord's table they have as much right to sit there as unconverte 3. From the practice of the apostles. One The Ethiopian eunuch was a man of great autho Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, and had the cha her treasure."-Acts viii. 27. By the amazing gra this man became concerned about his soul-a Bible in his way, and perhaps some wandering messenger He could not rest, but left his country to go to J There he found no peace-no light. Sad and wea ceeded on his journey home. Still his heart was sat reading Isaiah the prophet. By the mercy of G was sent to him, and in his chariot preached to h the Lamb of God. O what a new world now ope Ethiopian! He sees the way of righteousness with Now they come to water: "What doth hinder baptized? If thou believest with all thine heart the