my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. (xlix. 6.) The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. (li. 6.) The LORD hath comforted his people; he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. (lii. 9, 10.)

Who hath believed our report? (or doctrine ;) and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. (liii. 1, 5, 10, 11.) Thy Maker is thine husband the LORD of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. (liv. 5.) I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. (lvii. 16.)

Well may Isaiah be called the Gospel prophet, when we find in him so much of Christ and his church, the

nature of his Gospel, and the extent of his dominion. We have given these extracts without note or comment. We have in some sense occasionally abridged the text, but never willingly altered the sense; and we earnestly recommend to all to examine the quotations and their context, and we think the result will be, that the honest and intelligent mind will be confirmed in the truth.

One part only of our text remains to be considered, and we will do it with all brevity.

If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. The word here spoken of is the law and the testimony of God; and men do not speak according to it,, when they put their own philo. sophy in the place of either the law or the testimony; they rather dictate to God, than learn of him. Can there be light in such a character? it is, in its own nature, impossible; for the wisdom of this world is fool. ishness with God. And again; the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain. (1 Cor. iii. 19, 20.). Our true wisdom is to be thankful for both the law and the testimony; for the law is the perfect rule of moral right and wrong; and the testimony, the only, but the sure way of salvation. In proportion as we reject these, are we in darkness; the entire rejection is to have "no light;" the partial rejection is to be in clouds of uncertainty, of doubt and fear. It is only the entire acceptance of all God's words, that will lead us into the path of the just, which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Prov. iv. 18.)

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

This do in remembrance of me. (1 Cor. xi. 24.)

WHO that hears these words, but knows that they refer to the divine institution of the supper of our Lord? and who is so little acquainted with the history of the Church of Christ, as not to know, that it has been observed in all ages, and in all Christian countries, from the days of the apostles to this very hour? It is, therefore, no wonder that its divine origin, its nature, the use and the abuse of it, should always have been subjects in which those who wish prosperity to the kingdom of the Redeemer, should take a lively and heart-felt interest.

The origin we find stated by three of the evangelists, Matthew xxvi., Mark xiv., and Luke xxii.

The time of its origin was the observance of the Jewish passover; and it is not irrelevant for us here to observe the origin of the passover itself.

When God would deliver his people, Israel, from the bondage of Egypt, he afflicted the oppressor with sundry plagues; but these proving ineffectual to the reformation of the tyrant, the death of the first born of every family was determined on. But, previous to this

terrible visitation, the Almighty was pleased to manifest his protection of the oppressed, by requiring that a male lamb, of the first year, and without blemish, one for each house, should be slain, and the blood stricken on the door posts of the house, in which the lamb, being roasted, was eaten. The blood was for a token to preserve the inmates, when the Lord should destroy the first born of every family not thus protected.

The result was according to the prediction: the first born of Egypt, from the first born of Pharaoh, that sat on his throne, unto the first born of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the first born of the cattle, were smitten of the Lord.

The feast of the passover was ordained to be kept as an ordinance for ever; and a reason given is, that when their children should ask them, what mean ye by this service? they should 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. (Ex. xii.)

Here it is proper to observe, that the love of God to Israel was the primary cause of this salvation ; that faith in God, existing in the believing Israelite, was the moving cause in him to that obedience which furnished to the destroying angel the sign of protection. The Israelite believed, and was saved. It was while our Lord and his disciples were eating the passover, that he instituted the ordinance of the supper; for the passover was eaten at supper time, and our observance is, therefore, with propriety called, the Lord's supper.

Of the nature of the Lord's supper, we think we may say, that it is a ceremony, pointing out the way

of salvation; and the fitness of the ceremony depends on the relation or likeness it has to the thing to which it directs us. We think that he who runs may read an analogy between the temporal salvation of the Israelite in Egypt, and the eternal salvation of the Christian, by the Lamb of God, who tasted death for every man ; (Heb. ii. 9;) and whose blood of sprinkling cleanseth from all sin, (Heb. xii. 24. 1 John i. 7.) Our Lord had taught both the Jews and his disciples, that he was the bread of God which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. (John vi. 33.) Now, as we know, that although this word is most commonly used to designate food made of ground corn, yet is it also used for food in general, for any thing that is used for the support of life at large; is there in the world one so ignorant as not to know, that for the support of the natural body he must eat bread, or die? but, alas! how few are there in the world who do know, that the spiritual bread (Christ) is as necessary for the support of the soul, as the natural bread is for the natural body.

The Saviour says again, distinctly, I am that bread of life; I am the living bread which came down from hea. ven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And again; except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. These things struck the Jews with astonishment; for as all their hopes were carnal, so, also, was their understanding of his teaching. And if we are asked, why then did he, knowing this to be the state of their minds, deliver himself in such lan. guage? we answer, that though no particular reason