away, and bestows on me a gracious God and father, by His obedience even unto death. Then, secondly, He suffered and died, to win for us, and to confer upon us grace, spirit, strength, and life, for the sanctification and renewing of the inner man. His death is a fountain of life, a well of salvation, of which all that drink are made whole. Thirdly, He suffered and died as an example, and a consolation for us, in life and death, that we should look to Him and follow His steps, as the Apostles distinctly write. Whoever always contemplates Him only as a mediator, and never as an example, does not think and act after the manner of the Apostles, any more than those that represent Him only as an example, and a pattern of virtue, but never as a mediator. He is all to us. We must on no account divide Him, and take Him piece-meal, but accept Him entire, as He exhibits Himself to us, and as the Apostles declare Him.

MARCH THE THIRTIETH.

"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause, &c."-1 COR. xi. 28-30.

(ELF examination is necessary at all seasons,

daily and hourly, but least of all ought we to neglect it, or put it off till a more convenient season, when we partake of the blessed sacrament of the supper. Then it is thoroughly in

dispensable, and so essentially necessary, that life and death, blessing and cursing, mercy and damnation hang upon it and depend upon it. Paul pronounces heavy judgments upon an unexamined, or, which is the same thing to him, an unworthy partaking, and points to facts and examples from his own time, in which an unworthy participation had occasioned many bodily and mental weaknesses, maladies, and even death. So the Lord chastises those that partake of His body, that for their sakes was given up to the bitterest of deaths, and of His blood that was dearly shed for them, without examination, heedlessly and unworthily; that do not discern between His body and ordinary earthly food. Do not therefore bring disease upon thyself, do not eat death and damnation at the Lord's Supper, for thou mayst as readily find them in it as life and salvation. Wholesome food is not for sick persons, it makes them worse, more wretched, and may even kill them. The sick ought by no means to eat what the healthy eat; that which brings health, nourishment, and strengthening to the healthy, becomes poison and death to the sick when they partake of it in that condition. Beware then of changing the food of life, the divine bread, the heavenly manna into poison and a curse, damnation and hell, by thy heedlessness and profanity. Examine thyself, prove thyself, pray for light and knowledge of thyself; confess thy known sins to God and thine offended neighbour; make good the mischief done, as far as thou canst, and at least give no new offence, so as to approach the table of the Lord

with a heedless disorderly conversation. Reconcile thyself to God, to thy neighbour, and to thine own heart. Seek to restore peace within and without thee, and show unmistakeably that thou purposest repentance, penitence, faith, and new obedience. Show that thou knowest and feelest whom thou art approaching-Him whose eyes are as flames of fire, and who tries and proves the reins and the heart-who is aware of what is in thee, and knows all the hidden designs of thine heart.

MARCH THE THIRTY-FIRST.

"With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer."-LUKE xxii. 15.

WITH

WITH desire He desires thee, beloved partaker of the supper! He hungers more after thee than thou dost after Him, as if He were the partaker and thou the food. Therefore He says elsewhere: I have meat to eat that ye know not of, John iv, 32. And what was it on that occasion? A poor sinful woman. So to Him it is really food, for which he hungers, and longingly yearns, if thou comest to His table with most fervent desire, and most passionate yearning to be very near to Him, to unite thyself very closely to Him, so to think of Him, and so to place Him in faith before thy mind's eye, as if he were crucified before thee, as if He exhibited Himself to thee, as if thou sawest His blood flow, and Him bow His head and die for thee. The Saviour hath

great purposes in His mind with this supper. He gives us no empty symbols of His death, He gives himself; therefore He will have no small, narrow hearts, but broad ones, a large mouth of faith, and a famishing hunger, in order that He may give much, give all, give Himself. The more room that is prepared in thee for Him, the more wilt thou receive from Him; the greater thy long ing, the more wilt thou be a partaker of Christ.

APRIL THE FIRST.

"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."2 COR. v. 19-21.

1OD has so loved the world-the sinful, faith

less, sunken, ungrateful world, that He gave up for it His blameless, holy, and righteous Son, as if the great shameless sinner had been dearer to Him than was His most beloved Son. The man that to-day, when he beholds the Son of God dying on the cross, dying for all sinners, put to death for the dead, does not here learn to read the holy scripture of God, which He has written for all men, to invite them to His great Communion, and to entreat them to become reconciled to God; that does not learn to read this on the cross, and to understand and believe it, will never learn it at all; for there-there it stands written in words of flame, there is preached

as loudly, as suitably for general comprehension, as forcibly, and as attractively as possible, that which Moses already foresaw and said:-How the Lord loveth his people! O, place yourselves all upon Golgotha, beside the cross of Christ; and in spirit gaze on Him till the fulness of the love of God, wherewith He hath loved us in the death of His Son, has pierced through heart, mind, and soul, marrow and bone, and your whole being; till ye can say with your whole souls: Let us love Him, for He hath first loved us. However, words are of no avail here; thou must thyself go to Golgotha, must gaze on the Son of love, bleeding on the cross for thee, and must tarry beside Him with unaverted gaze. He, His blood, His death, His wounds, the bowing of His head shall speak to thee;-listen only, and let all that is in thee be silent.

APRIL THE SECOND.

"Then they took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid."-JOHN xix. 40, 41. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb."-MATT. xxvii. 59, 60.

HE sufferings of Christ began in the garden,

THE ended in the garden. Blessed garden!

that received the body which was sacrificed for us; honoured grave, that held the body of Him that shall call forth and awaken all that lie