The prayers of the saints will never cease; but the incense shall no longer be added to them. The personal work of Apostles on earth will be over: the first-fruits shall have been gathered and the censer seen in this vision shall wave before the Lord no more.

And then, when Intercession ends, judgment begins. It has been stayed while the incense has ascended; but now the thing is seen which Ezekiel beheld of old"Go and fill thy hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city." The seven trumpets which are waiting to sound give forth their blast; and the woes of the last time begin. "There were lightnings, and thunderings, aud voices, and an earthquake."

For us who know these things two duties result.

The first is, that we sustain the Intercession which is made in the Church, seeing that it is the very work which God now has in hand, and in which He gives us to have part. Let its voice be daily and loudly lifted, that upon its strong wings the groanings of creation, the "how long?" of the departed, the cry of all the sorrow of mankind, with the longing and pleading of the Bride of the Lamb for His appearing and kingdom, may come up with acceptance before the throne of God.

The second is, that, seeing how much of the incense is spent, how near the time for inverting the censer in judgment has come, we be earnest in inviting the attention of our brethren to what the Lord is doing, and diligent in making our own calling and election sure. For "the vision is yet for an appointed time: surely come, it will not tarry."

it will

* Ezek. x. 2.

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER

PENTECOST.

The Real Presence.

John vi. 59-63.

WE have already, in the course of the weeks which follow Pentecost, meditated upon the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as it is a means of grace and an occasion of worship. But the Scripture read at this evening's Service suggests to us another aspect of its value. It is that which we express in the words we use every Lord's Day :—“Thou hast vouchsafed to us herein Thy presence, and nourished us with spiritual food." Let us consider today the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

It is evident, directly we begin to think about it, that our Lord's real presence here is not to be contrasted with His real absence elsewhere. It is not a spot of light amid surrounding darkness; but only a star exceeding other stars in glory. It is a point of sure faith that our Lord is verily and indeed present with His Church. His own words are guarantee of the fact. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you." "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." "Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of

the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." These promises are very plain. Christ has gone to the Father, yet the Church is not left an orphan : the world sees Him no more, but we see Him. He is as truly present in the midst of all congregations for worship in His Name, as when He passed through the closed doors into the presence of His disciples of old, and said to them, "Peace be unto you!" And He is with His Apostles, and with all commissioned by them, when they make disciples of the nations, when they baptize in the threefold Name, and when they teach the observance of all things that He has commanded. In all the Church's life, in all her assemblies, in all her ministrations, Christ is present, and not absent: we believe in His real

presence.

And how is this Presence effected? Does it come about through His being God as well as Man, and therefore everywhere present and filling all things? Nay: for after this manner He is with the lowest beast of the field, with the stars of heaven, with the very stocks and stones of the earth. This is not the presence of which He said" And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee" and then"Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more: but ye see Me." It is a limited presence, vouchsafed only to those that are His, who, because He lives, live also. How, we ask again, is this effected?

The answer is obvious. It is by the Holy Ghost. It was because the other Comforter should be sent unto the disciples, even the Spirit of truth, that Jesus would not leave them orphans, but would come unto them. And

how is it that the coming of the Holy Ghost brings Christ to His Church? Not merely because He is, essentially and eternally, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; but because, by gift and in time, He has become the Spirit of the Man Christ Jesus. He was first poured on the Head before He flowed down to the skirts of the garment. Christ, ascending, received Him before He gave Him, and sent Him charged, as it were, with all the virtue that was in Himself. The Spirit of God is now the Spirit of Christ: and to have the Spirit of Christ means that Christ Himself is in us.*

This is that presence of Christ which is unknown to the world, and peculiar to His Church. It began, after the little while" of its interruption upon His ascension, on the Day of Pentecost. Then "the things which Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day in which He was taken up," and which the Gospels record, He resumed the doing and the teaching of in the acts of His Apostles. By the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them, He became present with them. By receiving the same Holy Ghost for his office in the Church of God, every minister ordained by them obtained the guarantee of the same presence in all his acts. By this one Spirit all were baptized into the one Body, and taught all things, whatever the hand or voice He used. And in all the grace which He imparted, and all the truth into which He guided, He was taking of the things of Christ, and shewing them to those that were His. He did not speak from Himself, but from Him Who sent Him, and of Whose things He received that He might give them. And so the believers grew into a holy temple in the Lord, as they became a

*Rom. viii. 9, 10.

habitation of God through the Spirit. The Body into which the one Spirit baptized them was the Body of Christ, an organism in which He is Head, and whose life is His life.* The whole work of the Holy Ghost is to form Christ in us, and to conform us to the image of God's Son: and when He has won the Bride for the Lamb, He joins her in crying, "Come, Lord Jesu." In all things He is the true Spirit of Christ, His breath exhaled on all that are His, coming in no independent subsistence, and on no private errand, but with the one end and aim of imparting all that is in Him Who has breathed Him forth.

:

Thus, by no figure of speech but in the deepest reality, Christ is present in His Church because the Holy Ghost is there. By the Holy Ghost He dwells in our hearts through faith, the substance of grace, and the hope of glory by the Holy Ghost He is in the midst of us when we gather together in His Name: by the Holy Ghost He is with His servants when they act and speak according to His commandments. And now, how otherwise is He present in this Holy Sacrament of which we speak? That He is present there, we cannot, may not doubt. In obedience to His commandment we have done in remembrance of Him what He did on the night before He suffered. We have taken bread, and declared it to be His Body: we have nounced it to be His Blood. the ministry of the Gospel is bread has become His Body, and where His Body and Blood are, there is He Himself, for they are part of Him. But is it in any exceptional

blessed the cup, and proIf words are not vain,-if not an empty thing, the and the wine His Blood;

* John xiv. 19.