obligation and worth of a lowly mind, and knowing that the treachery of Judas was about to take effect, our Lord arose from the table, and, after the manner of a slave, girding up around him his ample garments, began to wash the disciples' feet. When he had completed the ceremony, he added, 'I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. The servant is not greater than his Lord' (John xiii. 1—20).

The English version seems to imply that this act was done after the meal. Such is not necessarily the meaning of the Greek; and washing of the feet always took place, and still takes place, before, not after eating. It was, indeed, done with a view to necessary refreshment after a journey made in a hot climate, and over (as in Palestine) dusty limestone roads, by persons who wore no stockings, and had solely sandals to cover and protect the feet. Such washing was the more requisite because the cushions on which guests reclined were often elegant and costly. The office was performed by slaves, save in the rare case when the master of the house wished to pay a mark of special respect to distinguished guests.

These statements both explain the nature and import of the transaction, and illustrate the condescending lowliness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alas that this, the specific act and chosen symbol of true and loving humility, should have been converted into a dead form, and be still practised, in what is called the Christian church, by men full of worldly pride!

It may serve to make the several parts of the meal eaten by Jesus and his disciples distinct, and the whole intelligible, if, before narrating the scriptural account, we go through the ordinary routine as observed among the Jews. The paschal supper, 1, began with the first cup of wine, before drinking which the master of the household offered a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift of wine. Then was put on the table, 2, a supply of bitter herbs, commemorative of the bitter life led in Egypt: of these, dipped in an acid and salt liquid, each partook amid songs of praise. Then followed, 3, the serving of the unleavened bread, of the highly-seasoned kharoset, or broth of the paschal lamb, and the khagiga, or peace-offerings (Lev. iii. 3, x. 14). Thereupon, 4, the master, after blessing Him who made heaven and earth, dipped a portion of the bitter herbs, about the size of an olive, into the Kharoset, and ate the sop. In this act he was imitated by all at the table. 5. The second cup was made ready; and this was the point at which the father of the family, asked or unasked by his son, explained the import of the feast in all its parts. 6. This took place after the table had been a second time served with paschal food; then was sung the first part of the series of psalms termed the Hallel (Ps. cxiii. cxiv.). There followed a short giving of thanks from the head of the house, and the second cup was drunk. 7. Immediately after, the father washed

his hands, took two loaves, broke one, laid the broken parts on the unbroken, pronounced the thanksgiving, 'Blessed be He who produced bread from the earth,' wound some of the bitter herbs round a piece of the broken bread, dipped the morsel into the kharoset, and ate it while uttering words of thankfulness; and after a more formal oblation of gratitude, partook of the free-will offerings and of the lamb. 8. The meal now proceeded with gratified relish, and was terminated by the master's taking and eating the remainder of the lamb, now reduced to the size of an olive. He then again washed his hands, and the third cup was taken after a song of praise. There ensued the second part of the Hallel (Ps. cxv.-cxviii.), and the drinking of the fourth cup, which was sometimes followed by a fifth cup and the singing of other psalms, or 'the greater Hallel' (cxx.-cxxxvii.).

The meal strictly so called, as partaken by the guests, began with the act which we have denoted by the number eight; all before this was ceremonial preparation. These preliminaries Jesus doubtless went through. As, then, they were now eating the meal, Jesus, troubled in spirit, intimated that one of those who reclined there at table would betray him. All were grieved. Each asked, 'Is it I?' The Apostle John, holding in relation to Jesus the place of friendship, reclined next his Lord, so that his head lay on, or was just above, Jesus' bosom. Peter, knowing the confiding affection which existed between the two, begged John to ask Jesus whom he meant. The kharoset, in the shape of a brick, to commemorate the hard labour of the Hebrews when they made bricks without straw in Egypt, stood near to Jesus, as master of the feast. Near to him also was one who at the same time with Christ was dipping into the dish. Close to his Lord was the traitor, hoping thus, perhaps, to hide his treacherous design. It was usual for friends at table to give to each other choice morsels. By the act reproaching him for his hypocrisy, Jesus handed a piece to Judas, saying, 'He it is to whom I give this sop.' How must that guilty man have been overwhelmed with confusion, if not shame! He was detected and exposed. Concealment was no longer possible. All that was evil in his soul came at once into play. Jesus saw how dark that soul had become, and said-'What thou doest, do quickly.' Judas hurried from the room. The writer adds that it was night. But the night of the bad man's heart was more dark and more fearful than the 'outer darkness' into which he went in order to complete his meditated crime.

From this mention of time, it appears that the paschal supper must have been far advanced, if not near its close, when Judas withdrew. It was not till after his withdrawal that what we call the Lord's Supper was established. Hence the communion of bread and wine, though arising, is yet distinct from the Jewish rite. Jesus in establishing the gospel, fulfilled the law. Only

after observing the less, did he institute the greater rite. And in that act mark how he studied simplicity. Of all the observances, Jesus chose only bread and wine-that to be eaten, this to be drunk-as descriptive, commemorative, and symbolical; describing his approaching death, commemorative of himself who thus gave his life for man, and symbolical by vividly setting forth, under certain signs, great moral ideas and duties, a new covenant ratified by blood shed for the redemption of the world. The bitter herbs, the kharoset, the khagiga, the ceremonies, are left; nothing is adopted more than was sufficient to paint to the eye of all posterity the sacrificial death of Christ.

While, however, they were yet eating, and supplied there on the table with his materials, Jesus, having given thanks to God, took bread, and, breaking it, as descriptive of his body, soon to be mangled on the cross, gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat; this is (represents) my body broken for you; this do in remembrance of me.' Likewise also the cup after (the paschal) supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood (Exod. xxiv. 8), which is shed for you' (Matt. xxvi. 21—29; Mark xiv. 18-25; Luke xxii. 17-23; John xiii. 1-35; 1 Cor. xi. 23— 25).

In the adoption of bread in this rite, Jesus acted in accordance with the representation which he had made of himself as the spiritual manna, the heavenly bread given for the life of the world. The wine (one-fourth was water), being red, well denoted the blood, which the Jews considered the seat and the source of life (Gen. ix. 4); as wine also was held by them to be a source of strength (Ps. civ. 15), vigour, and joy. By the term the cup,' some particular cup appears to have been intended,-probably what in the paschal ceremonies was called 'the fourth cup,' after which the Hallel was completed, a reference to which may be found in the hymn sung by Jesus and his friends just before they quitted 'the guest-chamber' (Matt. xxvi. 17-30; Mark xiv. 12-26; Luke xxii. 7-30; John xiii.).

The circumstances detailed combine to show that the Lord's Supper was designed to be a permanent institution. Prospective in its very essence, looking as it did to events that were yet future, and events having for their object and result the accomplishment of the Divine will in the establishment of a new covenant of mercy-a new and universal religion-the Lord's Supper contemplated the future, had meaning only in relation to the future, was expounded by the future, found its appropriate effects in the future, that future, the coming age, at a point of which we stand, and which, beginning with Christ's death, ends only with the end of the world, or that epoch when God's purposes of love in Christ shall be fully consummated on earth.

All that Jesus had just said and done was of a nature to make the apostles feel that now, at least, he was about to die. This

fact, however, Jesus directly intimated to them in declaring that he should not again drink with them the paschal cup until, in his own kingdom, they drank it after a new, that is a spiritual manner; thus also indirectly affirming the perpetuity of the ordinance he had just instituted. If, then, its observance is binding on all, it is binding on each; and every one who, with Peter, acknowledges the fundamental principle of the gospel, namely, that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world, should consider it both an imperative duty and a high privilege to eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of Christ.

CHAPTER VII.

JESUS DISCOURSES FOR THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF HIS DISCIPLES, AND, AS THE NEW HIGH-PRIEST, OFFERS TO GOD A PRAYER ON THEIR BEHALF, AND ON BEHALF OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD -THEN, GOING TO GETHSEMANE, HE PASSES THROUGH AN AGONY, AND IS BETRAYED BY JUDAS.

Thursday continued.

For the sake of unity, we have in the last chapter mainly confined our narrative to the institution of the Lord's Supper. During the time, however, spent in the guest-chamber, Jesus spoke to his apostles many words. These words for the most part take the form of discourses, or continued sayings, and are reported in John's Gospel. To the substance of these we must now direct the reader's attention.

It would appear that immediately on the departure of Judas, Jesus, knowing on what errand he had gone, proceeded to speak of his own death as the hour of his glory. This was a noble thought, and may serve to show how far Jesus stood above the Jewish point of view, which connected his death with humiliation and shame. It is in the spiritual as in the physical world; what is winter to some, is summer to others. When the sun is lowest to us, he is highest to those who live in the opposite hemisphere.

At the same time, Jesus gave that new commandment, which, enlarging the bounds and deepening the claims of the law of love, made the love of Christ the pattern and the measure of our love one towards another-'As I have loved also you, that ye love one another'-and established that love as the test of Christian discipleship. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.'

The announcement of his approaching end excited grief in the apostles' minds. If, they felt, Jesus was really to die, they had left all in vain; the kingdom of heaven was not at hand; they were connected with a failure, and might be involved in the coming calamity. Yet they could not find it in their hearts to abandon one whom they knew to be so good and so loving. Besides, after all, he might not mean what his words seemed to say. Doubt, sorrow, hope, perplexity, in turn occupied their minds.

The great Friend of man, and their special Friend, saw and pitied their condition. With a view to communicate relief, he began that address which opens with the words, 'Let not your heart be troubled; confide in God, confide also in me.' The substance of a speech which is so full of meaning cannot be presented in a summary or an extract. The address must itself be read, and it will well repay the most attentive study. Its general aim was to give the apostles strength for the trial that was at hand, by arousing and invigorating their higher nature, their faith, their hope, their love. In order to effect this now specially desirable object, the speaker insists on the topics-that, having a Divine commission, he had come forth as the image and representative of God, doing works and saying words which were not his own so much as God's, and in those deeds and words and in his whole character making God visible to man; this intimate union subsisting between God and himself he would so extend as to embrace his grieving friends, and all who loved the Father and the Son, and worked with them for the furtherance of God's will and the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom; in order to confirm this union and lead his disciples into all truth, he, when removed, would send another-the comforter-who would open their minds to see 'the wonderful things of God,' and, in general, afford them aid in the great work which he was about to consign to their care-namely, the evangelising of the world; and, finally, he, being one with the Father in aim, purpose, will, and power, would eventually reward them for their fidelity, by raising them to abide in mansions of the great dwelling of good men, the celestial home of the universe, where was the Father, and where also he, the Son, would be. In order to illustrate and enforce these momentous topics, Jesus employed a variety of considerations. He compared himself to a vine, of which he was the trunk, they the branches-an image of peculiar elegance and force in a country so rich in vines as Palestine. The vine and its branches cannot be separated. Where the one is, there the others are. As branches in him, the vine, they were safe. Let them not quit his side; for, apart from him, they lost their sap, their life, and would, like withered branches, be cast forth to be trodden under foot. Reminding the disciples also of several of the more important of his lessons, Jesus took special