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In whatever form our Saviour comes to us, He will merely accompany us for a little while, and then make as though He would go farther. Let us remember that every holy thought, and every good resolution, is a messenger from Him. When our hearts burn within us, it is a sign that He is talking with us by the way. But such thoughts and resolutions merely join themselves to us for a little while; they come indeed in the first instance unbidden, but should they prove unwelcome guests, they are ready in an instant to go away: nay rather, it requires an effort on our part to keep them. To be indifferent or irresolute is in truth to suffer them to depart. If we really wish them to abide with us, we must of our own will recall them, and constrain them to stay.

To conclude. We have seen how our Saviour may be with us in the daily walk of life; we have seen that He is with us when we meditate on His passion;with us when we show charity to our

brethren ;--with us when we have faith in His power; with us when we bear rebukes with patience;-with us when we study with meekness His written word;—and that He abides with us when we cherish the better thoughts which His Holy Spirit has put into our hearts. Such is now His ordinary intercourse with His disciples: He meets them in their own familiar paths, and they must ask for no miracle to convince them of His presence. And yet, besides all this, there is still a special manner in which He vouchsafes to manifest Himself to us, a means of grace which He has appointed to be, so to speak, the very channel of our receiving Him; and this also is typified in the narrative that we have now been following. It was not until "He took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to them,” that the eyes of the disciples were opened, and they knew Him. Their whole journey seems, as I have said, to have been but a prepara tion for its closing scene. So also must

our daily life, with all its duties, its trials, and its privileges, be but a preparation for the Holy Communion. Although our Lord be always with us, yet if we seek Him not there, we exclude ourselves from the consolation of His Presence.

For it

is there, in the words of our Prayer-book, that "we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink His blood;" that "we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us;" that "we are one with Christ, and Christ with us." There it is that He makes His face to shine upon us, and gives us comfort in our sorrows, rest from our troubles, and pardon for our sins. We cannot, indeed, tell how He then manifests Himself to us, any more than we can tell the manner of His manifestation to the two disciples at Emmaus. We merely read that their eyes were opened and they knew Him. Let then our prayer be that the eyes of our

understanding may in like

manner be

opened, and that we may feel in our Communions the presence of Christ. But

222 THE REMEDY FOR ANXIOUS THOUGHTS.

do not let us forget that we must first of all approach them, as they did, by the path of quiet obedience, with a remembrance of His death, trust in His promises, and hearts burning with His love. If we fail in this, we cannot wonder at the blessing being withheld from us which was vouchsafed to them. In the language of the text, we must strive to resemble them "in the things done in the way," or we have no reason to hope that our Lord will make Himself known to us "in the breaking of bread.”

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Easter Tuesday.

OUR LORD'S APPEARANCE TO ST. THOMAS. (ON THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.)

24-29.

"BUT Thomas, one of the twelve, called John xx. Didymus, was not with them when Jesus

came.

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut,

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