stay away from this table. Some of you know that you have not a spark of love to the Christians. You persecute them, or despise them. Your tongue is like a sharp razor against them; you ridicule their notions of grace, and conversion, and the work of the Spirit. You hate their conversation; you call it cant and hypocrisy. When they are speaking on Divine things with a full heart, and you come in, they are obliged to stop because you dislike it. Why should you come to this holy table? What is hypocrisy, if this is not? You put on a serious face and air; you press eagerly in to the table; you sit down, and look deeply solemnized; you take the bread into your hand, pretending to declare that you have been converted, and brought to accept of a crucified Christ. You then eat of the broken bread, and drink of that cup with evident marks of emotion, pretending that you are one of those who live upon Jesus, who are filled with the Spirit. You then pass the bread and wine to others, pretending that you love the Christians-that you wish all to be partakers with you in the grace of the Lord Jesus; and yet all the while you hate and detest them-their thoughts, their ways, their company. You would not for the world become a man of prayer. loved souls, what is hypocrisy, if this is not? I solemnly declare, that I had rather see you "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord," than come to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Are you not afraid, lest, while you are sitting at the table, you should hear the voice of the Lord Jesus saying, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss ?"

Be

Dear believer, you "know that you are passed from death unto life, because you love the brethren." This pure and holy life is one of the first feelings in the converted bosom. It is divine and imperishable. You are a companion of all that fear God. It would be hell to you to spend eternity with wicked men. Come and show this love at the feast of love. The table in the upper room at Jerusalem was but a type and earnest of the table in the upper room of glory. Soon we shall exchange the table below for the table above, where we shall give full expression to our love to all eternity. There

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no betrayers can come- no unclean thing can enter." Jesus shall be at the head of the table, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.

QUESTIONS addressed TO YOUNG COMMUNICANTS, TO BE ANSWERED IN SECRET TO GOD.

1. Is it to please your father or mother, or any one on earth, that you think of coming to the Lord's Table?

2. Is it because it is the custom, and your friends and companions are coming?

3. Is it because you have come to a certain time of life? 4. What are your real motives for wishing to come to the Lord's Table ? Is it to thank God for saving your soul? Psalm cxvi. 12, 13; to remember Jesus? Luke xxii. 19; to get near to Christ? John xiii. 23; or is it for worldly character? to gain a name? to gain money? Matt. xxvi. 15. 5. Who do you think should come to the Lord's Table ? who should stay away

?

6. Do you think any should come but those who are truly converted? and what is it to be converted?

7. Would you come if you knew yourself to be unconverted ? 8. Should those come who have had deep concern about their soul, but are not come to Christ?

9. Do you think you have been awakened by the Holy Spirit? brought to Christ? born again? What makes you think so?

10. What is the meaning of the broken bread and poured out wine ?

11. What is the meaning of taking the bread and wine into your hand? Have you as truly received the Lord Jesus Christ?

12. What is the meaning of feeding upon them? Are you as truly living upon Christ?

13. What is the meaning of giving the bread and wine to those at the same table with you? Do you as truly love the brethren ?

SCRIPTURES TO BE MEDITATED ON AT A COMMUNION SEASON.

Exod. xii.; Psalm xxii. li. lxix. cxvi.; Song of Sol.; Isa. liii.; Matt. xxii. 1-14; xxvi. xxvii.; Mark xiv. xv.; Luke xxii. xxiii.; John xiii. xiv. xv. xvi. xvii.; 1 Cor. xi

THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the Acceptable Year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."-ISAIAH lxi. 1–3.

It is six years, this day, since I first preached to you, as your pastor, from these blessed 'words. These years have rolled past us like a mighty river. It is a solemn thing to look over them. In climbing a lofty mountain, it is pleasant to come every now and then to a resting place, where you may stand and look back. You can thus see the progress you have made, and you can observe the prospect widening all around you. In like manner, in going up the hill of Zion, it is pleasant to come to such a resting place as this day affords, that we may stand and see what progress we have made, and whether we have a wider, brighter prospect of eternal glory. How many have left our company since these six years began! They have gone to render their last account in the world where time is not measured by years. Of some I trust we can say, "Blessed are the dead, for they died in the Lord." Many, I trust, have been born again-passed from death unto life-begun a new life that shall never have an end. Some, I hope, have been brought to climb a step higher on Jacob's ladder-to get nearer the top of Pisgah, to see more of Canaan's happy land. Some, I fear, have gone back, and walk no more with Jesus. Ye did run well, who did hinder you? You did put your hand to the plough, but you have turned back, and are not fit for the kingdom of God. Some, I fear, are six years nearer to hell; your ear more deaf to the voice of the charmer; your heart more wedded to its idols; more dead to God. Let us solemnly look back this day, both minister and people, and, oh, let us take warning by the errors of the past, and begin a new and better course from this day.

I. The anointing of the Holy Spirit makes a successful Gospel minister. So it was in Christ's ministry. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me," &c. So it is in every ministry. The more anointing of the Holy Spirit, the more success will the minister have

You remember the two olive trees that grew close beside the golden candlestick, and emptied the golden oil out of themselves. Zech. iv. 12. These represent successful ministers—“ anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth." Oh see what need there is that ministers be filled with the Spirit-that, like John, they be "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day"-that Christ's people may be kept "like a lamp that burneth!" You remember John the Baptist. The angel said of him before he was born-" He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." What then will his success be? "And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God." Oh learn what need there is that ministers be filled with the Holy Ghost, that they may be converting ministers-that, like John, they may 66 turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just."

You remember the Apostles; before the day of Pentecost they were dry, sapless trees. They went over the cities of Israel preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom, and yet it would seem they had little or no success. They could not number many spiritual children. But when the day of Pentecost was fully come-when the Spirit came on them like a mighty rushing wind-then behold what a change! Under the first sermon three thousand men were pricked in their heart, and said, "Men and brethren, what must we do?" Oh see what need we have of a day of Pentecost to begin in the hearts of ministers, that our words may be like fire, and the hearts of the people like wood!

In looking back upon my ministry, I am persuaded that this has been the great thing wanting. We have not been like the green olive trees-we have not been like John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Ghost-we have not been like the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, filled as with a mighty rushing wind- -we have not been able to say, like the Saviour, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me"-or you would not be as you are this day. There would not be so many dead sinners amongst you-slumbering under the voice of gospel mercy, on the very brink of hell. There would not be so many labouring and heavy laden souls going from mountain to hill, forgetting your resting place. There would not be so many children of light walking in darkness-dull, heavy, beclouded Christians. That is a piercing word-" If they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned from their evil way

and from the evil of their doings;" Jer. xxiii. 22. Success is the rule under a living ministry. Want of success is the exception. Oh pray that if God spare us another year, we may be more like the high priest who first went into the holiest of all, and then came out and lifted up his hands and blessed the people. Pray that we may be more like the angels, who always behold the face of our Father, and therefore are like a flame of fire. "He maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire." You know that a heated iron, though blunt, will pierce its way, even where a much sharper instrument, if it be cold, cannot penetrate. So if only our ministers be filled with the Spirit, who is like fire, they will pierce into the hardest hearts, where the sharpest wits cannot find their way. It was thus with Whitfield; that great man lived so near to God, he was so full of heavenly joy and of the Spirit of God, that souls were melted under him like snow in thaw-time. John Newton mentions it as a fact that, in a single week, Whitfield received no fewer than a thousand letters from persons distressed in conscience under his preaching. Oh pray that we may not be "clouds without water," which indeed have all the appearance of clouds, but have no rain in them. Pray that we may come to you as Paul came to the Corinthians, “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling; and that our speech and our preaching may not be with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power;" 1 Cor. ii. 2-4.

II. The subject matter of all faithful preaching.

1. A faithful minister preaches good tidings to all distressed consciences.-This was one great object of Christ's ministry. "The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek," &c. Jesus came to be a Saviour to the meek-not the naturally gentle and sweet tempered, but those who are concerned about their souls. Men naturally say, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" therefore they are proud, and their tongue walketh through the earth. But when God begins a work of grace in their heart, he convinces of sin, he humbles them to the dust, and makes them feel "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Jesus always offered himself as a Saviour to such. One poor leper said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;" Jesus said, "I will, be thou clean." Nay, he left an invitation which will be precious to burdened souls, even to the end of the world, "Come unto