safe.  Never, therefore, must that death of Christ be forgotten or disregarded by the Christian; it is our hope, our life, and only source of peace; and that man must have known little of a Saviour’s grace who does not desire to “bind it as a sign upon his hand,” and to let it be “as frontlets between his eyes.”  Now, when we take the bread and wine we express before the world our thankful remembrance of his grace; we declare before men the deep fidelity of our grateful love.  We may show our gratitude either by words or actions.  This is an action to denote the deep affection of those who live by faith, a visible utterance of their unseen and unceasing gratitude.

(2.)  It is a means of spiritual food and sustenance.  The soul requires to be fed as well as the body, and without food the one will die quite as quickly as the other, for neither soul nor body has life in itself.  And as the body lives by outward food, so the believing soul feeds on Christ.  He is the living bread which came down from heaven, the heavenly manna provided for his people throughout the wilderness.  “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever.”  Now, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a divinely appointed means whereby believers feed on Christ.  We do not mean that there is anything particular in the bread or in the wine, anything remarkable or mysterious in the elements received which conveys a blessing, for they are nothing more than plain simple bread and wine, which nourish the body and that only.  But when with the lips we receive those elements in faith, the Holy Ghost within the heart is graciously pleased to pour life into the soul.  According to the language of the 28th Article, “The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner.  And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is faith.”

That there is no actual change in the bread and wine is perfectly plain from the single fact, that they are always called “bread” and “wine” in Scripture after their consecration in the sacrament.  In this and the preceding chapter there are no less than four passages in which the food which communicants receive, is called by the simple name of “bread.”

And so also with the wine.  Our Lord said of it, after the consecration, (Matt. xxvi. 29,) “I will not drink any more of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  The bread, therefore, is still bread, and the wine still wine—unchanged in all respects; the same in substance, and the same in property, as before their consecration to the Lord’s service in the sacrament.  They are set apart for a holy use, and therefore should be treated reverently, like the house of God itself.  But they are no more changed in nature than were the stones and woodwork of the building, when it was solemnly consecrated to be a church for the Lord.

What, then, is the meaning of our Lord’s words, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood?”  That they did not mean that the bread and wine were changed into body and blood is evident, for such an interpretation would contradict the plain language of the Bible: and that they do mean, that the bread and wine were signs, emblems, or figures of his body and blood, is equally plain from the language of our Lord; for in ver. 25, we read, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood.”  Now these words must be figurative, for none suppose that the cup was changed into the New Testament; and their only possible meaning is, that the wine in the cup was a figure or emblem of the blood of the covenant.  So, also, must it be with the bread.  The words are quite as plain and positive in one case as in the other.  “This is my body,”—“This is the New Testament;” and as they were spoken by the same person, on the same occasion, to the same company, and with the same object, it is clear that they mean the same thing, namely, that the bread is a figure of the body, as the wine is a figure of the blood.

If a person were showing a gallery of pictures, he might say, “This is St. Paul,” “This is St. Peter,” and “This is St. John;” and he would mean thereby, that those pictures on the canvass were representations of the persons whose names they bore.  So, again, when our Lord said, “I am the vine,” and “I am the door,” he did not mean that he was a real vine, or a real door, but that the vine and door were figures and emblems of his offices.  So also in the Lord’s Supper, when he said, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood,” he did not mean that the bread and wine were changed into real flesh or real blood, but that they were signs and emblems of his blessed work, of his body broken, and his blood so freely shed for man.

It is not, therefore, from any mystical property in the bread and wine themselves that we expect a blessing, but from the act of receiving them in obedience and faith.  In the way of his judgments, we then wait on Christ, and trust to him to nourish our souls with grace.  We do not expect to feed in any literal, carnal, or material manner, but we do expect, that while with the body we receive the bread in faith, our souls will receive Christ; and when with the lips we drink the wine, the heart will be made by the Holy Ghost partaker of his blood.  Thus, to hungering and thirsting souls, the communion becomes inestimably precious.  When we feel our weakness, we rejoice to come before him that we may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; when we know, that without Christ we must perish, we count it our highest joy to wait on his love as he has told us, that the fainting soul may feed on him by faith.  And he does strengthen and refresh the souls of his people; he meets and communes with them from the mercy-seat; he grants to each the needful grace, and oftentimes sends them back rejoicing to their homes, and saying, “It has been good for me that I have been there.”

(3.) There is a third point of view in which the Lord’s Supper is presented in the passage, viz., as a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb.  “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.”  The line of sacraments forms, as it were, the long chain connecting the first and second advents, and each celebration has a reference both to the present, past, and future; to the present, for we cast the sins and burdens of the day before the footstool of a present Advocate; to the past, for the heart is full with the thankful recollection of his death; and to the future, for our present delightful communion is a faint, but true image of the blessedness of that glorious hour, when the whole company of God’s elect shall be gathered in to the marriage supper of the Lamb.  The sacraments are very peaceful, but they are not to last for ever; they are to be observed for a given time, till the Lord come.  Then,

“Faith will be sweetly lost in sight,
And hope in full supreme delight
   And everlasting love.”

We now bow