unto them that look for him." There is a parallel here again between the Paschal supper and this. The Passover was a commemorative ordinance, commemorative of a redemption; but it was also prospective in its character. It looked back to the redemption of the Church out of Egypt: it looked forward to the redemption achieved upon the cross, and further still to that which Paul denominates "the redemption of the body." It is but one redemption throughout, in different instalments, as there is but one Church in different stages and different forms of manifestation. Hence every earlier instance of redemption is a pledge and earnest of the later and of the last. Hence the exodus out of Egypt, the death of the Lamb of God upon the cross, the advent of that Lamb again in glory, are all connected by an internal, moral, spiritual, and indissoluble bond. They constitute a golden chain like that in Rom. viii. 30. We need not be surprised therefore to find, in the vision of the rapt Seer of Patmos (Rev. xv.), "the song of Moses the servant of God," as well as "the song of the Lamb," sung by the harpers on the glassy sea. The victories are the victories of the same Redeemer and for the same Church; and it is meet that the whole body of the redeemed should sing both songs.

The principles upon which this connection of the different parts and stages of redemption rests are obvious enough. They are the immutability of God's nature, the immutability of his purposes and plan, and the necessary harmony and consistency of the parts of his plan. What he begins, he will complete (Phil. i. 6), and he must always act like himself. The apostles Peter and Jude use the same kind of argument to prove, against the Universalists and scoffers, that there must be a final judicial discrimination between the righteous and the wicked (2 Peter ii. 4-9; Jude 7). There has been; therefore there shall be. The arguments (many of them at least) used against the possibility of eternal punishment, if valid, would prove that God has never punished the wicked. But God has punished the wicked. Therefore the arguments. are not valid. They are dashed in pieces against the mountains of facts. So redemption is an accomplished fact, and the believer in Jesus may argue, with perfect assurance, from the beginnings of redemption to its ultimate and glorious completion. The worthy communicant who sits down, with

Qualifications of Communicants.

181

fear and trembling perhaps, at the Lord's table, shall as certainly sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb as it is certain that he lives.

VI. The mention of a "worthy" communicant suggests the last topic upon which the reader will be detained,--the qualifications for communion. Read 1 Cor. xi. 27-32. (a) It is plain that there is a worthy and an unworthy eating and drinking in this ordinance, and hence that it is not for all persons. It is not a mere exhibition of the truth, as in the preaching of the word. It is a setting forth of the covenant with its seal; and those alone are entitled to communicate who are in covenant with God and cordially accept its promises and its conditions. (b) The worthiness does not consist in being perfectly free from sin.

The table is spread for those who are still encompassed with bodies of sin and death, and who sigh for deliverance. (c) Nor does it consist in a strong faith. Faith which is as a grain of mustard-seed, if it be indeed faith, may say to the mountain of sin, “Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea," and it shall be done. The feeblest faith has its hold upon Christ, and therefore upon salvation; and the seals of salvation belong to it. The Lord has babes in his family as well as adults; and Christ is the food for both-milk for the one, strong meat for the other. This is an ordinance for the nourishing of the weak as well as of the strong. The father is pleased with the stammering, inarticulate speech of the child in the arms, which is not yet able distinctly to recognise its filial relation to him, as well as with the clear manly address of the full-grown son who

rejoices in that relation.

recognised or not, and the right to this ordinance exists. (d) Nor does it consist in entire freedom from doubt as to "being in Christ, or as to due preparation" for the ordinance. The Larger Catechism of our Church says (Question 172): "One who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, may have true interest in Christ, though he is not yet assured thereof; and in God's account hath it, if he be duly affected with the apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity: in which case (because promises are made, and this sacrament is appointed,

Given the adoption, whether clearly

for the relief even of weak and doubting Christians), he is to bewail his unbelief, and labour to have his doubt resolved; and so doing, he may and ought to come to the Lord's Supper, that he may be further strengthened." (See the whole of the elaborate and admirable exposition in this Catechism, Questions 168-175.) (e) It consists in a knowledge of the Lord's body, an ability to discern, and an actual discerning of that body (see verse 29). The word "discern" and its related words are several times used by the apostle in this context. Thus exactly the same word occurs again in verse 31, and is rendered in our version "judge." So also the simple verb in verse 32, and the corresponding noun in verse 29 (unhappily rendered "damnation" in our version: as the reading is "judgment," which is given in the margin. Compare the corresponding verse in the first clause of verse 32). The dominant idea in verses 27-32 is that of judging and discerning or or discriminating. This process is twofold, so far as the determination of our right to the Lord's table is concerned-(1) A judgment as to the Lord's body (verse 29); that this feast is no common meal, at which men are to satisfy their natural hunger, much less to drink themselves drunk (see verse 21); that it is a solemn act of worship; that this body of Jesus is to be "discriminated" from every other human body that was ever made in this, that it was made for the express purpose of being offered in sacrifice to God, for expiation and propitiation (see the exposition given in the preceding part of this Article). (2) A judgment of ourselves (verse 31, and compare verse 28 and 2 Cor. xiii. 5): "of our being in Christ; of our sins and wants; of the truth and measure of our knowledge, faith, repentance, love to God and the brethren, charity to all men ; of our desires after Christ, and of our new obedience" (Larger Catechism, Question 171). As the observance of the Lord's Supper is a reasonable service, nothing less can be demanded of a communicant than a state of mind and heart corresponding with the truth exhibited in its elements and actions-a state of mind and heart which may be comprehensively described as one of faith. A worthy eating and drinking is an eating and drinking by faith. Faith is the mouth by which the flesh and blood of the Saviour are received (John vi. 35, 40,

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183

53-57; Confession of Faith, chap. xxix. Art. vii.). He must be received as he is exhibited and offered, and in no other way. If he is exhibited and offered as a perfect satisfaction. to divine justice for human guilt, as an expiatory sacrifice which has met all the demands of law; as an exemplary sacrifice also, illustrating the spirit of true obedience to the Father, a spirit of absolute self-renunciation for the glory of God and the good of man; then, in order to be worthy communicants, it is indispensable that we should have some apprehension of the justice of God, of the malignity of our guilt as sinners, of the necessity of satisfaction; that we should have some sympathy with the Spirit of Jesus, some readiness to deny ourselves for the glory of God and the good of men. He does not feel himself to be guilty of death, and who does not long to be holy, cannot be a worthy communicant.

offices.

Saving faith in Jesus Christ receives and rests upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel. He is offered to us as our King, as well as our Priest, and we cannot truly receive him without receiving him in both It is a fatal error of the Papacy, and of its imitators among so-called Protestants, to disregard the interests of personal holiness, and to attempt to put God off with a ceremonial service which would be despised if offered to themselves by their fellow-men. Holiness in his Church is the very end and purpose for which Jesus gave his body to be broken, and no man can be said "to discern" that body who does not feel this to be true. He may not be able to formulate, after the fashion of the theologians, this and other truths set forth in the Supper; but there will be a spontaneous and unreflective recognition of them. If Jesus, the holy, harmless, and undefiled One, did not die for the purpose of bringing his redeemed into the likeness of himself, then the Bible, the Church, the Sacraments, have all alike been given in vain. To be left to the corruption of our nature is to be left to the

worm that

never

dies.

THOMAS E. PECK.

THE

ART. IX. Current Literature.

HE anonymous author of Supernatural Religion (1) has issued the complete work in a revised form, guided, to some extent, by the criticisms and replies that have been evoked by previous editions. We may assume that it now stands substantially as a full embodiment of such thoughts and arguments as are best adapted, in the judgment of the writer, to invalidate the common belief in the reality of a Divine Revelation. We have no wish to lessen the impression of research and logical skill which a perusal of these three volumes undoubtedly excites. But we would be false to our own convictions if we did not acknowledge that, in our own reading of them, we missed the impartial examination of evidence that ought to characterise the summing-up of a judge; and that we were never for a moment allowed to forget that we were attending to the one-sided, though elaborate, plea of a partisan advocate. To this, however, we are not inclined to offer any strong objection. In the end, the interests of truth are served by the ablest and most exhaustive statements that are producible on both sides of a question. And although we cannot shut our eyes to the mischief that may result from "partial counsel," we have learned from past controversies that the most violent attacks on any truth have only resulted in its more secure defence and establishment.

Already this book has called forth the noteworthy animadversions of Canon Lightfoot (now Bishop of Durham), Professor Westcott, and Mr. Sanday. While we do not care to say that the discussion has been finally closed by their replies, we are fully entitled to contend that the pleadings advanced in Supernatural Religion have been in many instances nullified, and, for the most part, essentially modified. One lesson we certainly learn, and it is by no means a valueless one, that the difficulties of historical criticism, especially when that criticism deals with the precise form and acceptance of documents some

(1) Supernatural Religion : An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation. In Three Volumes. Complete Edition. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.