THE MEMORIAL HOUR CHAPTER I. THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUPPER-SELF-EXAMINATION-PREPARATION-POETRY. "The precious blood of Christ.”—1 Peter 1 : 19. the Lord's Supper. It is the Lord's Table. The blessed image of Christ rises at once to view, as the One altogether lovely, the object of supreme love and veneration, to whom all hearts should turn, before whom every knee should bow, whether of man or angel. It directs the church to look away from all human teachers and masters and mediators and saviours to Christ alone. It proclaims his infinite and everlasting "preëminence." Jesus, Jesus! that is the name "above every name," the name to be remembered, to be treas ured and enthroned in our heart of hearts. "Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame, A sweeter sound than thy blest name, O Saviour of mankind!” For a mere man to have instituted such an ordinance and such a perpetual remembrance of his name and of his death, would have been consummate vanity or impiety, coveting an idolatrous adoration; but how fitting that he who was "God manifest in the flesh" should call his people to "honor the Son even as they honor the Father;" that through the world's long ages, his Bride should commemorate his death and wait with longing eyes for his coming. It is Jesus that the ransomed church adores, for in him dwells "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and he is her Saviour and Lord. Second. It tells of Christ in the hour of his greatest sorrow. "Ye do show the Lord's death." It bids us look upon and exhibit a weeping, suf fering, dying Jesus!-the "Man of sorrows," the scorn of men, - tormented by Satan,-forsaken by friends, — under the hidings of his Fa ther's face, treading the wine-press alone, - his 66 - garments dyed" in blood, -Christ crucified! What an amazing spectacle ! Third. It tells of Christ in the hour of his greatest love. He is suffering, dying for us, a voluntary sufferer,— bearing our sins in his own body upon the tree, enduring the chastisement of our peace, draining the cup of our woe, wrestling with the dreadful" curse" of our trangression, meeting and vanquishing our deadly foes,—saving the lost through a baptism of blood! He is dying for his enemies! Oh, infinite love! It passeth knowledge! Fourth. It tells of Christ as ratifying in his blood the eternal covenant of grace. "The cup is the new testament [covenant] in my blood." It declares the fact of redemption through his blood, and of that redemption as perfect and certain to all his disciples. It seals the bond. Christ is our surety. His dying for his sheep is the pledge of his undying affection. "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” "Because I live, ye shall live also." Fifth. It tells of Christ as bidding his disciples to renew their covenant with him. At conversion, the believing soul covenants with Christ, as its Redeemer and Lord, to be his forever. It lays itself and its all upon his altar. This surrender to Christ is most eminently a free and voluntary act. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." "Thy people shall he willing in the day of thy power." Never does one act so freely as when, through grace, he receives the atonement and gives himself to Christ. He is drawn by the cords of love. At the Table, in sight of the symbol of his shed blood, the "blood of the everlasting covenant," the blood which tells the story of infinite love,Christ would have his disciples, from time to time, renew their pledge of perpetual fealty and obedience, assume anew their obligations to serve and glorify him, to join hands with him afresh as their publicly acknowledged Saviour and Lord. While he would reaffirm his covenant with them, to be their Redeemer, and to bring them off victorious, over every foe, he would, by this very means, by this reassurance of his own unchanging love, remind them of their solemn covenant with him, of the obligations into which they entered at |