Sacrament, we are condemned if we do not partake of it; we are condemned if we partake of it unworthily; both are equally certain. So that even if the notion were true, which some people seem to have, that the words which I read out of the Service mean, that all except very good people do themselves harm and not good by coming to the Communion, still it would avail them nothing to keep away; for it is certain that they cannot expect to be saved if they persevere in wilfully neglecting it. But the notion is not true. Let us see upon what occasion St. Paul used these words.

The Corinthians, instead of meeting together with reverence, to partake of this Holy Sacrament, turned it into a common worldly meal, or feast; and while pretending to consider it the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, they in fact used it to satisfy their own appetites and intemperance. "One man is hungry," says St. Paul, "another is drunken." This is what he calls "not discerning the Lord's body," that is, not making any difference between the Holy Communion and a common meal. It is plain then that they partook of the Sacrament without faith, not believing that it was what our Lord had said; and that they insulted God by their profane behaviour at it. Such as do this, says St. Paul, "eat and drink their own damnation :" which word, however, does not here mean what we mean by it, namely, eternal misery after death, but generally, judgment or condemnation; that is, a man sins by eating and drinking in that unbelieving and wicked way, and every sin is condemned of God, and if unrepented of, may bring punishment in this world such as St. Paul speaks of, and will certainly bring it in the world to

come. Now, we may be sure that we do not receive the Sacrament in the way in which those Corinthians did. And unless we receive it unworthily as they did, we shall not incur the same penalty.

The question then is, What is to receive it unworthily? Now the state of mind of a fit receiver of this Holy Sacrament has been already described in the words from the Catechism. And we may say, that whoever with his whole heart tries to live in that state, and prays to God, and trusts in Him for Christ's sake, that He will help him, does receive it worthily (for this is as much as any one has a right to think of himself). In as far as he fails in this, in so far does he come short of receiving it worthily, and this he will have to repent of; but unless he is living in unbelief or wilful sin, he may be sure that it would be a greater sin, and a greater loss to him, to keep away.

From all this it seems clear, that the attending the Holy Communion is a duty to all men, and that none of the excuses commonly made are of any use. No one will pretend to say that a man can make any excuse, that will serve, for not being a Christian; we know that from the parable of the man who bade guests to his supper.* He knows that the Christian religion has some things hard to be understood; that he must not be content without always striving to amend his life; and that a Christian who sins is more guilty than a heathen who commits the same sin, inasmuch as he is more favoured, and has better opportunities of knowing how to live. But for all this he does not cease to be a Christian, because he knows that he cannot expect to * Luke xiv. 16, &c.

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be saved if he does; but he tries to improve his life. The case is exactly the same with the Holy Communion; we must not keep away from it for any reason whatever, unless we know that we are living in wilful sin, and do not try to put it away from us; or unless, which is nearly the same thing, we are without that true faith in our Lord and Savour Jesus Christ which has been described. If this is our case, we must keep away certainly; but we must take with us the thought that we are in a hopeless state, till we sincerely try to amend, and come for help to the Lord's Table.

Let such then be our conduct, and such will be the benefits we shall receive. We may not at once perceive that the Holy Communion does us any good; the blessings of religion come gradually upon us, like the slow advance of spring on the earth, unperceived from day to day, till at length the whole face of nature is changed. So if we habitually seek the ordinances which Christ has given us, not failing to exert our own strength, which those ordinances assist, and to pray with a trusting faith to God for His further help day after day, we may not feel the "strengthening and refreshing of our souls" which they work within us; but let us after a while look back on our former condition, and if we have also tried ourselves to do His will, we shall see that we have had grace to improve. Without special means of grace, we know not that we can do anything; with them we have the promise of God that He will give us strength to endure to the end. The time of this Holy Sacrament is, above others, the accepted time, when God, as it were, bows Himself down upon the earth, of which we read in Scripture:

Every one that is godly shall make his prayer unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found."* And again : “He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."+

ON 1 TIMOTHY III. 16. (1845.)

God was manifest in the flesh.

(Among the London Parochial Tracts.)

THIS is a clear statement of the highest mystery of the Christian Revelation; that God Himself, in the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, became really and truly Man, and lived and died a Man. Our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, the Redeemer of men, by His Atonement on the cross, from their sins and their punishment, is both GOD and MAN.

This awful truth we recognise, in less precise terms often, in express terms in various places, in the prayers and services of the Church. In the Litany, when we pray to Christ as GOD the SON; in the Nicene Creed, when we confess Him as very GOD; in the Athanasian Creed at greater length; in many of the Collects, when we address Him as being with the Father and the Holy Ghost One GOD. It may perhaps be doubted whether all those who in words assert this wonderful fact, do duly feel and realise it; whether their belief is a real and a true one, and in some measure suitable, in its effects on the mind, to the exceeding awfulness of the subject. I say in some measure; for assuredly man cannot, with his limited faculties, lay hold of the apprehension of this Divine Mystery, GOD manifest in the flesh, with anything approaching to fulness. As the bodily eye cannot look at the sun, and as, if we try to fix our thoughts steadily on the idea of Eternity, our