cept its offers; adopt its rules for the government of our lives; cheer our hearts with its promises; and, finally, welcome the great Author of it, as the Instructer, the Guardian, the Deliverer of our souls. When the enemy approaches, we must be found not lingering under the walls of the fortress, not carrying doubtful colours, not shifting from camp to camp; but loyally and fondly cleaving to the only Leader, lifting the only banner, and proclaiming the "only name" whereby we can be "saved."

And now, my Christian brethren, allow me to close this discourse with the statement of a few such inferences as the subject suggests.

1. In the first place, what a confirmation do topics such as this lend to the authenticity of that faith into which we are baptized!-An impostor in medicine will generally carry this mark of deceit along with him, that his prescriptions are not regulated by the case submitted to his inspection. The master in medicine, on the contrary, may be recognized by the precise fitness of his remedy to the disease before him. How decisively then do such passages as the text set the seal of authenticity to the religion of Scripture! Other religious systems address themselves to man as in a state of strength, of comfort, and of triumph; a state of which, we may confidently say, that, in this fallen world, he knows nothing. The religion of the Scriptures, on the other hand, bids him "turn to the Strong Hold;" the want of which he feels throughout every stage of his existence. Outward evidence to religion, my Christian brethren, is no doubt of high value; but to some minds it is difficult of access, and to others hard to be understood. Here, then, we have a species of evidence intelligible to all, accessible to all; so that he who, from his ignorance or dulness, may not be able to say, I have found Him of whom....the prophets did write," may yet say, I have found Him

whom my soul needeth; whose lessons teach me; whose promises comfort me; who knows my most secret wants and wishes, and meets them with the appropriate remedy. Shall I not say of Him, "Truly, this was the Son of God?"

2. But, lastly, my Christian brethren, if the provision made in the Gospel for the wants and distresses of human nature be one mark of its Divine origin, let us take care to apply it to the use for which it is so emphatically designed. Is it meant to heal the wounds of a bleeding world? Then carefully employ it for this compassionate purpose.

You are, perhaps, yourselves sufferers in your persons, or concerns, or family; and you apologize for depression of spirits, for the absence of a kind and social temper, for looks and words of gloom and despondency, by the supposed fact, that you carry about with you a wound too deep for any hand to reach, and any medicine to relieve. But is such a supposition compatible with the property of the Gospel on which we have been dwelling to-day? No, my brethren, though your pang lie too deep to be reached by any human hand, it does not lie beyond the reach of the hand of God. In the days of our Lord's residence upon earth, when the diseased were cast in crowds at his feet, it is said, "they were healed of whatsoever disease they had." And such will always be the effect of a steady and honest application of the remedies of the Gospel. "Whatsoever" be the care which gnaws the soul, or the pang which rends it, the remedy is adequate to the disease: "Trust in the Lord, and verily thou shalt be" helped.

And thus, also, in your labours for the happiness of others.-Nothing is more affecting than to observe the misdirected efforts of men to secure the comforts of those they love-of their wives, their children, their friends. There is but one sufficient remedy for the cares of life, and this remedy is the very last which, in

many instances, they think of applying. You rise early, and late take rest, to reap for those you love a harvest of riches, or honours, or worldly pleasures; and when you have secured it, you leave them perhaps ten times more the children of anxiety and affliction than before. Adopt, my Christian brethren, a new course. "Seek first," for those you love," the kingdom of God and his righteousness;" and, if worldly possessions are not "added unto them," that shall be added which is the all-sufficient substitute for every other possession-the love and grace of their Redeemer. Strive, in short, in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, to bring them to a state in which, supposing their worldly circumstances to be even as desperate as those of the first and best servants of God, they may be able to adopt their language: "In all things approving ourselves as the" servants of Christ, much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings.... as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Such, my brethren, is the language of those who have indeed "turned to the Strong Hold." And may "the God of hope" fill every one of us with the same peace in believing, till that happy hour when we shall exchange faith for sight, and hope for joy, in the immediate presence of our Redeemer.

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SERMON XXIII.

THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER

A MEMORIAL OF CHRIST.

LUKE xxii. 19.

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me.

THERE are many points of view, my Christian brethren, in which it is useful to contemplate the sacrąment of the Lord's Supper;-as a means of grace; as a sign and seal of the covenant of mercy; as a pledge to assure us of the loving-kindness of the Lord. But it is my wish to-day chiefly to confine your attention to that particular view of this ordinance in which the text more especially presents it to us, viz. as a memorial of the death of Christ; "This do in remembrance of me"-eat this bread, and drink this cup, in remembrance of the body and blood which I am about to offer on the cross for sinners.'-And may the Saviour, who gave this sacrament to his church, bless our humble attempt to contemplate the subject in a devout and profitable manner!

Considering, then, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper chiefly as a memorial of the death of Christ, in what may its importance and value be said more especially to consist?

I. In the first place, it affords a VISIBLE AND

PERMANENT TESTIMONY TO THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.

In a celebrated work on the subject of Deism, the four following marks are selected as those by which truth may be distinguished from falsehood:

1. Facts, the author maintains, to be received as true, must be such as men's outward senses can judge of.

2. Such as are performed publicly, in the presence of witnesses.

3. Such as have public monuments, or actions, kept up in memory of them.

4. Such as have monuments and actions established

and commencing at the same time with the facts themselves.

-And with such precision are these evidences of truth selected, that although a noted unbeliever is said to have directed his attention during twenty years to the detection of a single fabulous event, to which these marks are attached, he appears wholly to have failed of success. And we may challenge any man to try the experiment for himself. Let him select, for example, any marvel in the history of Mohammed, or of the gods of idolatry, and he will find that the whole of these marks do not meet in any one of them;-that either the alleged facts were not such as the senses could judge of; or that they were not performed in the presence of witnesses; or that there is no public monument of them; or that the monuments of them do not date their existence from the period at which the facts themselves are said to have occurred. On the contrary, apply these marks to the crucifixion of Christ, and we have an event of which the senses could judge; an event of public occurrence; an event of which we possess, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, a monument, or memorial; and, moreover, a memorial contemporary with the very period in which it is contended that the crucifixion of the Son of God took place.

In this point of view, therefore, my Christian bre