always be the Way of our access and the Ground of our acceptance. Through Him we shall offer before God the redeemed universe over which we rule; and God will accept it at our hands. 5. We are still in the same region when we read of Melchisedec that he blessed God, saying, "Blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand." To bless God is to give Him thanks and praise. So when the Priest after the order of Melchisedec brought forth His bread and wine, He too "gave thanks." And we, doing what He did for His memorial, preface our sacrifice with a great act of thanksgiving, blessing and praising God for all His mercies. The very word Eucharist means giving of thanks. So once again we see how the priesthood of the Church is one with that of its Head, fashioned like His after the pattern of Melchisedec. And further, how it is only in the hand of Apostles that this priesthood grows to its full stature. The Prefacethe Eucharistic thanksgiving—has dwindled down to a few short sentences in all current Liturgies, Greek, Roman, and Anglican: but in the Liturgy of the Apostles it has swelled once more into a broad and rejoicing stream of praise. 6. Melchisedec not only blessed God, but he blessed Abraham, saying, "Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth." He "received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises."* Now the priesthood of Christ has this feature above all things, that it blesses in the name of the Lord. It was while He was in the act of blessing His disciples that He was taken up from them: and His *Heb. vii. 6. attitude has been and will be the same until He comes again in like manner as He went into heaven. It is in His Church that He hath commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Daily His priests stand there, with hands uplifted or imposed in benediction, fulfilling His ministry. The fuller the consciousness of priesthood, the more confident is the word of blessing. Where with our brethren it is implored only, among us it is pronounced: and what they say only with their lips is here strengthened by significant gesture. The confidence arises from the close contact into which we have been brought with the Heavenly Priest through the Apostles whom He has sent forth. It must be the prayer of all such priests that they may fill up the measure of the calling which is upon them, and be to Christ's people the blessing which they speak. 7. Lastly, upon the blessing followed the giving of tithe. Melchisedec blessed Abraham: and Abraham gave him tithes of all. This exactly expresses the true nature of tithe. It is the response to blessing. It comes, not out of constraint, but out of a willing heart. God has prescribed the proportion, reserving to Himself a tenth of our substance as a seventh of our time. But the desire to render to Him His portion springs out of grateful acknowledgement. We run in the way of His commandments, when He has enlarged our heart. Tithe is not less. a thank-offering because it is our bounden duty and service. It was so here with Abraham; and it was so with Jacob when he set up the pillar at Bethel. "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee."* If the priesthood of Christ be after the order of Melchisedec, where is His rithe? The laws of Christian nations contain the relics of its existence; but they evidence also its degradation into an earthly thing. It has become a creature of civil law, to be enforced, divested, or commuted at its pleasure. No wonder that it has lost its place in the Church's system: nor could it ever be revived, as long as the Christian priesthood retained its Aaronic character of succession. It is only when Apostles bring back the Melchisedec type, that tithe re-appears in its true form. Tithe, not of land only, but, as with Abraham and Jacob, "of all:" not enquired into or constrained, but voluntarily rendered: not a tax or a contribution for the support of the ministry, though mainly devoted to this purpose, but a reservation unto God. It is His lien upon our property, the condition of our tenure, the acknowledgment of His suzerainté and lordship. When we have offered it to Him in His Church, we have done with it. We lay it at the Apostles' feet, as His stewards; but with what they may do with it we are not concerned. If they cast it into the sea, our part would no less have been performed. But, as it is, God takes of our carnal things only to render them back to us in spiritual things. The seventh of our time which we surrender to Him He makes His Sabbath of rest and worship; and from the tenth of our substance He provides us with those who minister to us in His Name. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open * Gen. xxviii. 20. the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." “As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the day of the Son of Man." So spake our Lord. If then it be that in these last days the phenomena of Lot's time are to find their parallel, where shall we look for that which answers to the appearance of Melchisedec? Where,but to the coming before the Church of a priestly ministry, preaching the word of righteousness and peace, full of anticipations of the kingdom, without descent or succession, bringing forth daily the bread and the wine of unbloody sacrifice, blessing God and the people of God, receiving for God the tithe of all? Such a ministry we see in the Apostles whom the Lord is sending forth. It tells that the end is near, when in spite of the intercession* the guilty city shall be destroyed, † and only those preserved who sigh and cry because of the abominations thereof. But it is not only the winder-up of the Old Dispensation: it is the beginning of the New. The Melchisedec priesthood will only be seen in its fulness in the Kingdom which is about to be established. Then shall the children of Abraham seek the blessing of the better ministry :§ and shall render the Lord's tithe of the spoils of His enemies, bringing the glory and honour of the nations into the heavenly city. The King of righteousness and of peace shall be there, with His Bride and Queen; and they shall render to the Possessor of heaven and earth the perpetual Eucharist of a saved race and a redeemed creation. SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST. The lobe of Christ. Eph. iii. 14-21. Luke vii. 11-17. THERE are few more interesting enquiries in liturgical matters than into the principles which regulate the choice of the Epistles and Gospels for Sundays and Holydays. Substantially the same in all the divisions of the Church, their appointment dates from the remotest antiquity: and we can but guess at the mind of their original arrangers. One thing has been noted, and appears certain, which is this that in the former half of the Church's year the Gospels were first chosen, and the Epistles added to suit them; while after Pentecost the Epistles run on in regular succession-Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians-, and the Gospels are accommodated to them. First the disciples introduce their Master and then, when the Holy Ghost has been given, the Master confirms the word of His disciples. : To-day's Epistle and Gospel afford a lively illustration of this principle. From the Epistle to the Ephesians, coming as it does in its regular order, is taken a portion whose burden is "the love of Christ:" in which the Apostle prays that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and depth and breadth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. And so |