do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.

Here we have plain and decisive scriptural ground to stand on. The direct and pointed and repeated command of Jesus Christ himself. If it be our duty to love one another because he commanded it, or to search the scriptures or to pray, or to forgive them that trespass against us, or to avoid anger or blasphemy or impurity because he has commanded us: then it is equally and as obviously our duty to eat of that bread and drink of that cup, because he has commanded us.

II. Consider secondly, the objects of this or dinance, so divinely appointed. What is the intention of it? It is a memorial, that is, it is to be done in remembrance of certain past transactions. Do this in remembrance of me in remembrance of my love towards you, and all I have done for you; but especially in remembrance of my death, and the purpose for which I died. This is the important point alluded to by the apostle in our text. "Christ our passover it sacrificed for us." It is impossible to explain this language without reference to the history

* Matt. xxvi. 26, 27, 28. Mark xiv. 22. 23, 24. Luke xxii1 19, 20. 1 Cor. 23, 24, 25, 26.

and the ordinances of the religion of the people of God under the old testament dispensation.

In the providence of God, his chosen people the Jews, were brought into a state of bondage in the land of Egypt; there they served four hundred years. At last God had compassion on them and sent his servant Moses to bring them out of their wretchedness and slavery. The king of Egypt was unwilling to permit them to depart, and God wrought many wonderful miracles by the hand of Moses to awe the king into compliance. "The Lord said unto Moses, yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence. hence. And Moses said unto Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid servant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me

saying, get thee out, and all the people that follow thee and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: and if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment:

I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord, throughout your generations : ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people bowed their head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they."

God

Thus the passover was a memorial. determined to rescue his people Israel when he brought destruction on the firstborn of Egypt. And he chose to preserve them in this manner; by the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb. He chose also to command them, and their children after them to kill a lamb and eat the flesh of it in remembrance of that deliverance..

In allusion to all this, Jesus Christ is frequently called the Lamb of God, and in our text the Apostle calls him our Passover, our Paschal Lamb: and says he is sacrificed for us,

to preserve us by his blood from the anger of God, that when God taketh righteous vengeance against sin, he may pass over us, and not destroy us, seeing us marked as his chosen people with the blood of his precious lamb, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." He hath also commanded us and our children after us, to eat bread and drink wine, in remembrance of his body broken and his blood shed, for the preservation of our souls and bodies to everlasting life. Thus Christ corresponds to the Paschal Lamb; and the Supper of the Lord corresponds to the feast of the Passover. It is a memorial of an absent friend. A common custom among men is to lay up some token of the affectionate remembrance of a valued friend in his absence, and keep it safe for his sake. Jesus Christ is Our "beloved and our friend," our nearest friend, "for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones:"* our best friend, he hath done for us what none else could do, he hath washed us from our sins in his own blood! our absent friend transacting our most important business, ever living to make intercession for us our coming friend, he will not be long absent, behold he says I come quickly. All this supposes some knowledge of Christ,

* Song of Sol. v. 16. Eph. v. 30.