nity of that holy mystery, and The herald of the sacred mysteries is a faithful herald. He conceals nothing. Though anxious to bring many guests to his Master's table, still he would not bring them under any deception. Though he speaks with great joy of the dignity, yet he speaks with great caution of the peril. Though he speaks of the comfort which the holy feast will give to some, yet he also throws out a hint of the danger which it may bring to others. Let us give heed to this. 1. First he speaks of worthiness and unworthiness. 2. And secondly he speaks of "examining our consciences. 1. But what is worthily receiving the Lord's Supper, and what is unworthily receiving the Lord's Supper? Some people seem to think, or say they think, that they must be absolutely free from every taint of sin. They say that they are not "good enough" to communicate; that it would be presumptuous in such sinners as they are to presume to approach the Lord's table; that they must wait until they can shake off their worldly business, and their cares, and their bad temper, and their troubled mind. When the world runs smoothly with them, then they will communicate, but as yet they are not fit. What a great and serious mistake all this is! We are indeed told to "be perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. v. 48); and St. Peter tells us, "but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written be ye holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter i. 15, 16.) And it is unquestionably the duty of every Christian to strive to attain this perfection, to strive to possess this holiness. But we shall never with all our striving attain unto it; we may set down such and such points as constituting perfection, but when we have attained those points, there are others beyond them which we never saw before. If we say that we are perfect, we say that we have no sin; but "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Can we be free from the infirmities, diseases, wants, and imperfections of every shade and hue which belong to our nature, and are inseparable from our nature? If we can, then we are angels, and no longer men; but if we cannot, then what a mockery to say, "I will wait until I am so." No; if we consider the subject with the slightest degree of serious thought, we shall be sure to find, that for any human being to be perfect, sinless, and without stain, and in that sense "worthily" to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is an impossible thing. It was never imagined by the Divine Founder of it to be so, never contemplated by the Church to be so; for look at the whole course of the service, and you will find a continual reference to our sinful and imperfect state at the very moment of its celebration. In one of the prayers, we find this expression: "We do not presume to come to this thy table, O Lord, trusting in our own righteousness." Again, "We are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under thy table." In another prayer, "Although we be unworthy through our manifold sins to offer unto thee any sacrifice." Besides, the great principle of "confession" with which it sets. out, and of "absolution," and yet all this coupled with another of the prayers wherein we kneel down before God and say, “We most heartily thank thee for that thou dost vouchsafe to feed us who have duly received these holy mysteries." So that being "unworthy" to receive them is not incompatible with receiving them "duly;" and therefore the natural imperfection which must adhere to all our lives and actions does not render us unworthy communicants, in the sense of the warning held out in the invitation. What then does it mean? Let us look to the eleventh chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, and some light will be thrown upon the meaning. "When ye come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper; for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, another is drunken." And then after alluding to the first institution of it by our Lord, he concludes: "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, for he that eateth and |