strengthened for the sufferings before him, not only by the ordinance of the Passover, but by the joint celebration of it with his disciples- With you before I suffer.' Had the parties so addressed been absent, he would have felt as if the institution had been sadly deteriorated as if its cheering light had been obscured, and its enlivening energy had been enfeeble d They were genuine friends, with all their imperfections. Their love was sincere, though feeble; and as he looked on these affectionate followers, and verified their undissembled sympathy, and saw in their very sins a motive to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself, his soul burned for his undertaking, and he hastened to lay down his life for the sheep. He no longer requires, and cannot, therefore, value our sympathy with him in his sorrows. But we have a more pleasing duty assigned us to rejoice with him in his joys. And if Calvary was less appalling after he had communicated and worshipped with attached, though erring followers, his throne in the heavens will be a richer recompense to him that the gratulations of saints mingle with the ascriptions of seraphs, and that, from this lower world, and especially from the sacramental table, the ejaculation ascends' Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.' * * Rev. i. 5, 6. CHAPTER II. THE SUPPER INSTITUTED BY CHRIST WHILE SECT. I.-WORDS OF INSTITUTION. At the time when the Lord's Supper was instituted, the condition of Judea had become very alarming. Peace was endangered, alike by aggression from without, and turbulence within. While the Roman yoke was felt to be more and more galling, the Jewish sects prosecuted their controversies with growing enmity to each other, and displayed already that mutual hatred which, at a maturer stage, proved far more deadly than the arms of Rome to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Our Lord's own ministry had come to a critical juncture. Whatever view might be adopted of his person and cause, no one could suppose that his present was a final position, or that the period was remote when discomfiture or triumph must rest upon his claims. Any one contemplating these signs of the times might easily prognosticate that change and catastrophe impended. But if we would hear a distinct note of the greatest consummation that approached, we must revisit the upper-room where Christ and his apostles SUPPER INSTITUTED BY CHRIST, ETC. are observing the Passover. 35 'As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'* These are important verses. I shall explain them cursorily, reserving some of their statements for separate and fuller consideration. 'As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it.' The taking of the bread has been supposed by some to have a sacramental significance. They have understood it to import that the Father took the Son to make him our surety, or that Christ took our nature to die for our offences. † Holding such convictions, they have insisted that the minister, before dispensing the elements, should take or lift them in imitation of Christ, and that the action is indispensable to the integrity of the ordinance. Others have objected to the act as part of a religious ceremonial, considering it to be purely incidental and preliminary in its *Matt. xxvi. 26-28. He took bread. By which the learned say is signified the Father's taking his Son Christ, making him the surety of lost sinners,' etc. As also it signifies Christ's willing undertaking of the suretyship, and giving himself to do these great things.'-Warden on the Lord's Supper, chap. ii. sect. 2. The doubt expressed as to the justness of these views, in calling them sayings of the learned, is worthy of the good sense of the writer. His Practical Essay' is full of useful remark and devotional spirit. nature. This question agitated, at one period, a considerable section of religious society in the west of Scotland.* The controversialists formed themselves into the conflicting ranks of 'lifters' and 'antilifters;' the former would not extend even toleration to the latter; and so fierce was the contention, that congregations were reduced by it, first to a state of distraction, and then of dismemberment and weakness, from which some of them have never recovered. The construction put on Christ's words is purely fanciful,† and the discussion is interesting now, chiefly for the moral which it teaches us, to beware of causeless and mischievous altercation. Too often is the exposition of scripture furnished by fancy, and defended by passion. The mention of blessing the bread may seem to imply a consecration of it, or some mysterious change operated on its nature; but the word it is a supplement by our translators, and the meaning plainly is, that Jesus, in taking the bread, blessed God, as he afterwards 'gave thanks' in connexion with the cup.‡ The bread which he divided was unleavened bread, such as the Jews used at the paschal feast. The Greek church, indeed, holding that Christ kept the last Passover on the 13th day of the month, a day before the legal time, maintains that he used leavened bread, and that his example in this particular is of authoritative obligation. On the other hand, the Latin, or Roman Catholic church, permits the use of * See M'Kerrow's History of the Secession, p. 326, etc. Many Greek copies have suxagisnoas in both instances. none but unleavened bread, believing that Christ kept the Passover at the usual time, and dispensed the bread characteristic of the festival. * Some Protestant churches have used unleavened bread for the same reason; and Calvin, considering the question immaterial, allowed a continuance of this usage in the church of Geneva. † I have endeavoured elsewhere to show that Christ observed the Passover at the usual time. But though he had not, we cannot suppose that he would eat the paschal lamb with any other but unleavened bread. As respects the Supper, the question is quite immaterial. Christ used such bread as happened to be on the table, laying no stress whatever on its distinctive properties; and, if we do not use such bread as is found on our tables, we respect his example in the letter to abandon it in spirit. We have seen that the unleavened bread was commemorative, in the first instance, of the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt, or rather, of the deliverance itself from Egyptian bondage denoted by one of its attributes, the haste, the signal expedition by which it was eventually accomplished. Man proceeds by degrees, and toils through a succession of means to the attainment of his ends. Even God himself sometimes appears tardy in his procedure; for he is not pressed for time; he has a boundless eternity in which to fulfil his counsels. But, if it please him, he can do the work of a thousand years in one day.' He who commissions the swift lightning can easily * Witsius on the Covenants, Book iv. chap. xvii. † Vine on the Lord's Supper, p. 78. |