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all the troubles of this life. Whatever your difficulties may be, whether from the state of your affairs, from the perverseness of those around you, from the power of indwelling sin, or from many temptations ; still, spiritual communion with your Saviour in his kingdom of grace, and the hope of full and perfect enjoyment of him in his kingdom of glory, may well both support and console you. Come then to Jesus in every period of sorrow. He is your Refuge and Strength. In communion with him, every trouble will be greatly mitigated, or altogether removed. What tongue can tell the happiness of him who lives with his Saviour as with an ever-present companion and guide; who has communion with Jesus as an almighty, all-sufficient Friend; who became man for our salvation, and is still touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and sympathizes with us!

But communion with Christ here on earth, however enjoyed, whether in daily prayer, in his house, through his providences, by his word, or at his table, is the sure PLEDGE of eternal abiding with him in the glory which is to come. Those who hear the voice of Christ, whom he knows and who follow him, are his people, and of them he says, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.

It is not only the pledge, it is also the FORETASTE of this bliss, the beginning of those eternal joys which shall never fail. When in a right spirit you surround the Lord's table, you have a type and emblem, faint it is true, yet sufficiently significant, of the glorious feast above. Here indeed Christ is only invisibly present; but the spiritual joys here felt are similar to those above, and the holy

'go no more out,' but live in the perpetual enjoyment of holiness, love, eternal glory and the presence of Christ. But to have at this table any earnest of the future inheritance, and any anticipation of its songs of triumph, its holy joys, and its blessed employments, may well endear the solemn ordinance to every faithful communicant.

Let us then now proceed to notice the HEAVENLY

COMMUNION.

CHAPTER XII.

ON THE HEAVENLY COMMUNION TO BE HEREAFTER ENJOYED WITH OUR LORD.

In the Lord's Supper the Apostle tells the Corinthians, as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's death till he come. Till the return of our beloved Lord and Master the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ, and the bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ.

But when that all-glorious and blessed hope to those who look for the Saviour is realized, and he appears in glory, we shall be like him, and see him as he is, and ever be with him. The words till he come seem to imply that we shall not need this memorial of his body and blood when we shall have his glorified body in the midst of us, and we behold all that amazing glory, with which he is now encompassed, for ever.

'TILL HE COME'-how many blessed thoughts may these words awake in the heart of every faithful communicant! They warn him first against confounding his present privileges with the mercies that

so often, through want of an open vessel to receive it, that we need most of all, at this holy feast, to raise our thoughts still higher, to enlarge our desires still further, and to wait by hope for the full glory that is to be revealed.

'Till he come.' Then every sacrament is a sacrament and pledge of our Lord's return. It is a herald to announce that he is on his way. It is a present earnest of richer blessings to be given at his appearing. It is an assurance that the Lord of the vineyard will not be absent for ever; and that shortly, in the appointed season, his glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

These words remind us then of our duty and our privilege in this holy ordinance. Our duty is to remember and show forth not only the death of Christ, but his kingdom also. We must not separate in our thoughts the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow. Our simple faith in the one must be a pattern of our simple hope in the other. In equal simplicity we are to receive every promise in scripture, of forgiveness through his blood, of kingly power and priestly honour at his appearance. The freeness and blessedness of our communion by faith at his table, must not abate, but quicken, our desires for open vision, and the speedy arrival of that time when we shall be like him, seeing him as he is.

They remind us too of our privilege. Our Lord

himself, in the time of his sufferings, endured for the joy that was set before him. The thought of his future glory stood foremost in his mind, when he appointed this sacred rite. I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the vine, till I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Our privilege is to imitate our blessed Lord and Saviour. We too may look forward with joy to his coming, as the seal and pledge of the renewal of all things, of a higher feast of new and heavenly love, of a full unveiling of the Father's kingdom. Then, not the fruit of the vine only, but all things shall be made new. Then not the apostles only, but all the people of God, shall be with Christ, and behold his glory. Then the sacramental shadows shall be swallowed up in the heavenly substance, and the wine of heavenly joy and gladness fill the hearts of the redeemed. And above all, the petition will then be accomplished, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. In pointing us to this glorious hope, the prayer and the supper of the Lord conspire in blessed harmony, and unite in this watchword to the sleeping church, ' Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.' Oh, that there were such an heart in every Christian as in their Lord himself, to wait and long for this promise of his appearing! How would it raise them above earthly dreams, and wean them from earthly vanities, and set their hearts on fire with the holy fervour of love, and enlarge their souls, in prayer and earnest intercession for the salvation of men and the glory of God their Father.

Every time that we celebrate the Lord's supper, brings us, then, into a nearer view of our Lord's return. So many weeks, so many months of delay

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