things that belong unto his peace.

Christ makes as

though He would leave them, but they begin to feel that it is toward evening, and that the day of mercy is far spent; they begin to think that the harvest is past, and the summer ended, and they are not saved. In short, they are concerned, and although the truth is still before their minds, as objective truth, they constrain the word, they take hold of it, and it abides with them. Thus a movement is made within the man, he cries, what must I do to be saved? Christ immediately enters and tarries with him. They set meat before Him, and He sits down to eat; this is descriptive of Christ's taking part of flesh and blood, the nature of sinful man, without its moral defilement, but carrying all the burden of man's iniquity. He takes the sinner as he is; He comes in and sups with him; and He carries away all his sins into the wilderness. After, or rather during the time the man is thus entertaining Christ,—and, oh, remember it is a great entertainment to the Saviour, to be constrained by a heart-stricken sinner, even at the close of his day of mercy, to come in and abide with him-when the prodigal is yet a great way off his Father sees him, and has compassion, and runs and falls upon his neck and kisses him-then Jesus takes bread, the symbol of His broken body, and blesses, and breaks, and gives to the man. In other words, whenever the sinner feels an earnest desire, and becomes willing to accept of mercy from God in Christ, the Spirit is outpoured, and immediately the man's spiritual vision becomes clear; he knows Christ, and no longer does he believe because of what another has told him concerning Jesus, but he believes because he has heard the voice of Christ for himself; and whosoever knows the Scriptures, and is

intellectually enlightened in the truth, and yet has not the Spirit of Christ, is none of His. The belief of objective truth is the faith of devils, who believe and tremble; it is a faith without works; and just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. The belief of subjective truth is saving faith, which worketh by love, and is the victory which overcometh the world, and men take knowledge of them that they have been with Christ. Jesus is the vine, believers are branches united to the vine; and they who are united to the Lord are one Spirit. The fruit of the vine cheereth God and man, and the fruit of the Spirit is thereby represented in the wine of the communion, which is love, joy, and peace. They who are thus made willing in the day of God's power, eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man. Consider then the grace of God, who though He was rich became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He became man, like unto flesh and blood, that He might elevate man and make him like unto God. Satan's lie at the beginning becomes God's truth in the end. He inflamed the lust of Eve by insinuating that she would be as God if she would do what he suggested; she did it, and the result is now known to be, that she will become like unto God. God left His throne and descended to take up with Him again to that throne when He ascended, all who partake of the Spirit of Christ. The sacrament of the Lord's supper is a threefold figure of the great redemption. It represents and commemorates the death of Christ, His body broken and His blood shed for the remission. of the sins of many. It represents the manner of the application of that death to every saved sinner; the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine teaches,

that just as a man, in order to sustain his body, must take food, which he must eat and digest, and thus incorporate what he takes with his flesh and blood; so spiritually he must do the same; feeling hunger and thirst, he must take and eat, and associate with his moral nature the divine nature, and thus become one Spirit, united to the Lord. Just as Christ took bread and brake, and gave unto the disciples, so He offers His Spirit to every one that hears the gospel. The disciples could have refused the bread; so may men refuse the Spirit. The disciples received the bread and eat it; so must every man receive, take when offered, the Spirit of the Lord, or he is none of His. The bread and wine further prefigure the final and eternal union of Christ and believers in one spiritual body, which is typified by the bread, and preintimates the joy unspeakable and full of glory which shall then be felt mutually by the Lamb and His wife, God and men, one in Spirit; the joy it shall occasion being typified by the fruit of the vine, which cheereth God and man.

Godliness is a great mystery; iniquity is but a mystery. The union of Christ and His church is also a great mystery; the union of the dragon and the beast, the mother of harlots, is but a mystery. Having received an explanation of the great mystery of godliness, may there not also be vouchsafed an explanation of what is not great, the mystery of iniquity. "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at

my word. He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol: yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I will also choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear; but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not." (Isa. Ixvi. 1-4.) This passage is descriptive of the great mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity. The house of God, the place of his rest, are those that are poor, conscious of their moral wretchedness; and of a contrite spirit, sorrowful because of sin; and tremble at God's word, become personally concerned about salvation, desire mercy, and accept it when it is offered. The synagogue of Satan are they who have chosen their own. ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. When God called, none of them did answer; when God spake, they did not hear; but they did evil before His eyes, and chose that in which He delighted not. "Their heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest. at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." (Matt. xiii. 15.) Because of these things God saith, "I also will choose their delusions." In the instance of popish purgatory, we found this saying verified; popish transubstantiation will be found another verification of it. Christ's appointment is a figure of His own descent from heaven, and His ascent thither again, taking with Him, from this

scene of moral confusion, all His people. Satan's counterfeit has been chosen by God, and is a figure of man's daring impiety, in opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Christ's appointment is a threefold figure; so is Satan's counterfeit. Christ's appointment is a figurative commemoration of the humiliation and obedience unto death of the Son of God. Satan's counterfeit is a figurative commemoration of the exaltation and spirit of disobedience of the son of perdition. Christ's appointment is a figure instructive of the manner in which men become partakers of the blessings of salvation; they ask and they receive the Spirit of Christ. Satan's counterfeit is a figure instructive of the manner in which men expose themselves to condemnation; they refuse the Spirit of Christ; they put away the cup, which is the communion of the blood of Christ; they make themselves trees twice dead; dead in their moral nature because of sin; but dead a second time, and this second death is suicidal; they kill themselves; they are not branches of the vine, because they refuse to be united unto Christ, therefore their fruit withereth. Believers join themselves to the Lord, and become one Spirit, fruitful unto good works, of which the bread and wine are figures; the impenitent, choosing their own way, and delighting in their abominations, unite themselves unto a harlot, and become one body, a putrifying mass of moral corruption, of which the blasphemous teaching of transubstantiation is a perfect figure, and the abolition of the cup a most significant sign. They actually say that the wafer is God and man: they have exalted themselves and made God poor