pointed institution-before him on the table and he then permanently consecrated those elements to be ever afterwards a retrospective memorial of that death to which the passover had looked forward; and thus, in a remarkable manner, he united the two dispensations. The bread and the wine, which had a subordinate part in the ancient typical, but sanguinary service, were lifted up into the place of the animal sacrifice, and were ordained to commemorate, through future ages, the realized antitype itself.

The Romanists have a foolish figment, which has been eagerly caught at and promulgated by their near connexions, the nonjurors of the days of William and Mary, and the Puseyites in our day, that it was at this supper, and not on the cross, that the Lord offered himself. Their object is, that by attaching the notion of an offering and a sacrifice to the first institution of the sacramental supper, when no blood-shedding and death occurred, they might more colourably insinuate the idea of a sacrificial offering on every future observance of the rite. But the whole tide of Scripture runs against them. That was the preparation, not the passover. It was not the proper time for the offering. The typical period was not come. The offering would have been out of place. It was only the preparation, beginning with the feast of unleavened bread; and on certain features of that preparation the Saviour stamped the sacredness of a perpetual service and memorial. Besides, the Scriptures show very plainly that the offering was the actual sacrifice; not the expressed intention, however solemn. It is said, Hebrews vii. 27, "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests to offer up sacrifice," &c., for this he did once, when he offered up himself. And in Hebrews, ix. 25," Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood. For then must he often have suffered." The offering here is evidently the sacrifice, the suffering, the bloodshedding; and this did not take place

in any sense on the Thursday evening, either actually in his own person, or typically in the passover lamb.

All that occurred on this occasion was that our Lord, in the preparatory meal, availed himself of his only opportunity to institute, out of the elements of the former appointment, a bloodless ceremonial and memorial; and having thus used the initial hours of the appointed feast, he is found ready himself for the great offering at the proper moment of the passover, and he leaves his infant Church properly instructed and provided for comfort and encouragement for the future, till his return.

But, secondly, what occurred on the Friday, the sixth day of the Jewish week, and the latter and remaining portion of the paschal day, which commenced in its preparation the evening before? Our blessed Lord passed the hours of night in the hall of the high priest. We have a curious and interesting marking of its waning hours. After Peter had denied his Master, the cock crew the first time, that is at midnight; when that denial was completed, "the cock crew" again, that was, the cock-crowing, or three in the morning. Three long hours yet lingered on, and then it is said, (Matt. xxvii. 1.) "When the morning was come;" or, (Mark xv. 1.)" and straightway in the morning they carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate."

The day began at six, or sunrise. Three hours are whiled away in the scene before Pilate; and then, at what they called the third hour, i. e., our nine o'clock, at the time of the regular offering of the morning sacrifice, Pilate assented to the wish of the priests and the people, and delivered Jesus to be crucified. It was probably at the sixth hour, or noonday, that our blessed Lord was actually crucified, or nailed and lifted up on the cross; and immediately an

unnatural darkness came over the scene, shrouding those melancholy and mysterious sufferings in gloom. About the ninth hour, or three in the afternoon, that is at the time of offering the usual evening sacrifice, and at the proper time for the killing the

paschal lamb, the gracious suffering Saviour uttered his last exceeding bitter cry-said, "It is finished !" and gave up the ghost. And at the same hour, priests and pharisees, like many another formalist in religion, having put from them the grand reality of blessing for which all the foreshadowing figures were appointed, went coolly to their respective homes, safe, as they thought, in their ceremonial undefiledness, to eat of a sacrifice which, as an exploded form, had ceased to have any meaning or efficacy; and to congratulate themselves on that vindictive infliction of death, which carried with it all the blessing originally typified by the passover; and through which alone, notwithstanding their present unbelief, would be their only way of escape from everlasting misery.

In this way, the whole succession of events is made out very distinctly; and the conclusion is fairly and naturally arrived at, that our Lord did not eat, and could not with propriety have eaten, the passover—that the consentaneousnesss of the antitype with the type, required that he should not have eaten it, except by way of anticipation-and that any such step would have brought confusion into the typical detail, and irregularity into our Lord's actings. And, on the other hand, it appears that our Lord went on regularly and properly in the fulfilment of the appointed typical service, till he was himself taken by the heads of the great Jewish family, as the appointed lamb, and prepared by insult and contumely for the slaughter, and then at the precise period required, offered as the "Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." And here comes in the great lesson inculcated by the inspired apostle in direct connexion with the facts we have considered, (1 Cor. v. 7.) "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread

The

of sincerity and truth." The union. of the evangelical atoning sacrifice with the ancient passover feast, all speaks to this one great practical lesson. It tells us of worse than Egyptian darkness and bondage. It tells us that not only our first-born, but that ourselves carry a forfeited life. It tells of sparing mercy through an appointed and anointed offering-the Christ; and that our offering has been once offered, and is offered no more. The paschal lamb appeared not on the table of Gospel memorial; but only the unleavened bread. Christ was the Lamb, the passover, the bloody offering, the atoning propitiatory victim. There is no blood, but the one blood which he poured out on the cross, and which cleanseth from all sin. He was sacrificed for us, once, when he suffered, when he offered up himself; and now the essential feature of the feast which remains to us, is that which our Lord's gracious appointment has constituted for permanency, to keep the feast of this one worthy and effectual passover, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He that hath this hope in Christ's passover sacrifice, and the sprinkling of his bloodhe who applies it in confidence to his heart, his way, his dwelling, and looks to it only for deliverance from the destroying angel-purifieth himself even as Christ is pure. brings himself, by a lively faith, into a near and glowing consciousness of the reality of this great and mysterious bloodshedding; and in the affectionate commemoration of it in the appointed way, he finds all the mighty motives of that cross telling with power upon his heart to bring forth all the blessed fruits of sincerity and truth. To be a new creature, under the agency of new motives, is the joy of his heart. The believing Israelite felt the confidence of faith when, through the dark hours of night, the blood of sprinkling was displayed upon his door; and when the morning was come he found his danger past, and his journey to the promised land effectually begun. And so is it with the Christian believer. He says confidingly, "We

He

have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" and the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal-"The Lord knoweth them that are his," he knows them by the faithful sprinkling of blood; "and let them that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity." The lamb is slain in ages long gone by: slain once for all. Faith is an indi

vidual act in every age, making application of the blood of the one sacrifice; and the one powerful and effective result is, in the consideration of that bloodshedding, a holy constraint to live no longer to ourselves, but to Him who died for us, with our lamps burning, our loins girded, and our staff in our hand as pilgrims to the promised rest.

CEPHAS.

m

It was a pleasant phantasy
That named these Easter flowers,
Singing beneath a leafless tree
With purer lips than ours;

In the dingles everywhere
Praising God, who made them fair,
Alleluya! Alleluya!

Where most the lowly mosses twine,
In many a Lapland brake,
To watch the sun at midnight shine
These tender blossoms wake;

Heard not, for their voice is low,
Praising God who gave the snow,
Alleluya! Alleluya!

Amongst the awful Alps they grow,
And, fearless as a child,
Look up to far-off worlds of snow
Where never rose-bud smiled,
Singing, though the wind is
chill,

In the hollows of the hill,
Alleluya! Alleluya!

When Easter winds the signal give
From graves beneath the sod,
In English dells they rise and live,
Lifting their face to God;

Yea, for it is Easter morn,
Singing through the misty dawn,
Alleluya! Alleluya!

How of the resurrection hour.

The small field-voices teach!-"The dead shall wake as doth the flower,"

This is their unknown speech:
Mortal ears are dull to hear,
But the whisper words are clear,
Alleluya! Alleluya!

Ah! happy they who bend and learn
While flower-buds speak of God:
Their reliques, in a fragile urn,
He heaps beneath the sod:

Hark! He speaks, the babes of
light,

So! they waken, stoled in white,
Alleluya! Alleluya!

ye well!

H.T.

*

"Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth." -GEN. xxvii. 28.

IT seldom happens that God's richest spiritual blessings are bestowed in seasons of worldly prosperity. The breath of heaven might swell the sail of our frail bark to inflation, so that it would be endangered if the Captain of our salvation did not proportion the ballast of trials, and thereby preserve its steadiness and security. But when grace is proportioned to our need, and "the dew of heaven" accompanies the "fatness of the earth," the Christian has indeed cause to acknowledge the special blessing of God, whilst he prays in the language of our experimental Liturgy, "In all time of our wealth, Good Lord, deliver us."

"Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."-JOHN vi. 65. In a previous discourse (ch. iii.) our blessed Lord had been teaching a ruler of the Jews his own ignorance of the fundamental doctrine of his Gospel; that without spiritual illumination he could not understand heavenly truths. In the 45th verse of this chapter he repeats this doctrine, in other words, to all his hearers, with this important addition, that all who have "learnt of the Father shall come unto Him." It will be not only knowledge of the head, but the obedience of the heart, which is expressed by coming unto Christ."

"Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."-EPHES. ii. 18.

"THE man who knows not how to use the Mediator's name, may pray from a sense of duty, or under the urgency of present distress. But if

mere duty compel him, there is no comfort nor enlargements in the formal exercise; or if distress constrain him, coming as a stranger, there is no confidence in his approach, and he has no security that God has heard him. He stands in the empty vestibule, and without obtaining a glance of the sovereign, at last leaves his petition, uncertain whether it shall ever reach its destination. The sinner who comes in the name of Jesus is ushered at once to the throne of grace, and obtains the propitious ear of an all-sufficient God. He finds in prayer not only entrance to the palace of the King, but access to that Father whom Christ has taught him to regard with the affectionate security and tender reverence of a child."

"Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar."-EZEKIEL Xiii. 10. THERE is a principle implied in this awful charge which we should never forget. There can exist no holy peace nor security, whilst error of doctrine, or viciousness of practice is countenanced. On this account, we so often find "truth and peace," grace and peace," associated in the word of God. The peace of God must be associated with a Scripture knowledge of him, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." (Job xxii. 21.) And under the New Testament dispensation, we find that the beloved disciple, whose peculiar characteristic was affection, states, (2 John 1.) that "truth" was the foundation of his attachment to the "elect lady." Wilful ignorance of Gospel truth always lessens the value of every earthly attachment, whilst at the same time it involves greater danger from temptation.

"ARCHBISHOP USHER foretold the Irish rebellion forty years before it came to pass, with the very time when it should break forth, in a sermon preached in Dublin in 1601, where from Ezekiel iv. 6, discoursing concerning the prophet's bearing the iniquity of Judah forty days, the Lord therein appointed a day for a year; he made this direct application in relation to the connivance at Popery at that time: From this year,' says he, 'will I reckon the sin of Ireland, that those whom you now embrace, shall be your ruin, and you shall bear this iniquity,' which prediction proved exactly true; for from that time, 1601, to the year 1641, was just forty years, in which it is notorious that the rebellion and destruction of Ireland happened, which was acted by those Popish priests, and other Papists, which were then connived at: and of this sermon the Archbishop reserved the notes, and put a note thereof in the margin of his Bible; and for twenty years before, he still lived in the expectation of the fulfilling thereof. And the nearer the time was, the more confident he was that it was near accomplishment, though there was no visible appearance of any such thing." “And,” says Dr. Bernard, "the year before the rebellion broke out, the Archbishop taking his leave of me, being then going from Ireland to England, he advised me to a serious preparation, for I should see heavy sorrows and miseries before I saw him again; which he delivered with as great confidence as if he had seen it with his eyes." Dr. Bernard enquired of him what his present apprehensions were concerning a very great persecution which should fall upon the Church of God in these nations, England, Scotland, and Ireland, of which the reverend primate had spoken with great confidence many years before, when we were in the highest and fullest state of outward peace and settlement. I asked him whether he did believe those sad times to be passed, or that they were yet to come? To which he answered,

that they were yet to come, and that he did as confidently expect it as ever he had done;' adding, that this sad persecution would fall upon all the Protestant churches of Europe.' I replied, that I did hope it might have been past as to these nations of ours, since I thought, that though we, who are the people thereof, have been punished much less than our sins have deserved, and that our late wars had made far less devastations than war commonly brings upon those countries where it pleased God in judgment to suffer it; yet we must needs acknowledge, that many great houses had been burnt, ruined, and left without inhabitants; many great families impoverished and undone ; and many thousand lives also had been lost in that bloody war; and that Ireland and Scotland, as well as England, had drank very deep of the cup of God's anger, even to the overthrow of the government, and the utter desolation almost of a very great part of those countries." But this holy man's turning to me, and fixing his eyes upon me with that serious and ireful look which he usually had when he spake God's word, and not his own, and when the power of God seemed to be upon him, and to constrain him to speak, which I could easily discern much to differ from the countenance wherewith he usually spake to me; he said thus: Fool not yourself with such hopes, for I tell you all you have yet seen hath been but the beginning of sorrows to what is yet to come upon the Protestant churches of Christ, who will, ere long, fall under a sharper persecution than ever yet was upon them; and, therefore, (said he to me,) look you be not found in the outer court, but a worshipper in the temple before the altar, for Christ will measure all those that profess his name, and call themselves his people; and the outward worshipper he will leave out to be trodden down by the Gentiles. The outward court, (says he,) is the formal Christian, whose religion lies in performing the outside duties of Christianity, without