taking the cup, which had been filled for the fourth and last handing round, He gave thanks to God once more, and passed it to the circle, with the words, "Drink ye all of it, for this cup is the New Covenant" presently to be made "in my blood; instead of the covenant made also in blood, by God, with your fathers; "it is," in abiding symbol, "my blood of the Covenant" of my Father, with the New Israel, "which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. This do, as often as ye drink, in remembrance of Me,"

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For Himself, He declined to taste it. "I will not drink, henceforth," said He, "of the fruit of the vine-for it was still only wine-till that day, when, at the end of all things, the Kingdom of God, which I have founded, shall finally triumph, and my followers be gathered to the great heavenly feast. Then, I shall drink it new with you and them."

Such, and so simple, was the new rite of the Spiritual Theocracy. To those around Him at its institution, there could be no doubt of its meaning and nature, for it was, even in words, a counterpart of that which He had superseded with a purer and more spiritual form. The cup, He told them, was a symbol of the New Covenant, under which, as His followers, they had come; in distinction from that which they had left, for His sake. It was to be a memorial of Him, and a constant recognition of their faith in the virtue of His atoning death-that death, whose shed blood was the seal of this New Covenant between the subjects of His kingdom, and God, His Father. It symbolized before all ages, to the New Israel, the cardinal virtue of His death. The Apostles could have had no simpler or more unmistakable intimation that as the blood of the Passover lamb redeemed the people of God, of old, from the sword of the angel of wrath, His blood would be a ransom for man from far deadlier peril. A covenant, to them, implied a sacrifice, and His blood, as the New Covenant, was therefore sacrificial; the blood of a Covenant which pledged His followers to faith and duty; the blood of a new paschal lamb, with which His disciples must, in figure, be sprinkled, that the destroying angel might pass over them, in the day of judg ment. The custom of the nation to use a common meal as the special occasion of religious fellowship, made the new institution easy and natural to the Apostles, and the constant

1 Exod. xxiv. 8.

THE LETTER KILLETH.

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employment of symbols in their hereditary religion prevented their misconceiving the meaning of the one now introduced for the first time. They saw in it an abiding memorial of their Lord; a vivid enforcement of their dependence on the merits of His death, as a sacrifice for their salvation; the need of intimate spiritual communion with Him as the bread of life, and the bond of the new brotherhood He had established. The joint commemoration of His broken body and shed blood was, henceforth, to distinguish the assemblies of His followers from the world at large. Excepting baptism, it was the one outward form in the Society established by their Master.

From a rite thus simple, doctrines have been developed by theological zeal and heated fancy, which would have alike startled and shocked those who first partook of it. It has been forgotten how Jesus, Himself, in answer to the cavil, "How can He give us His flesh to eat?" repudiated the literalism which caught at sound, and missed the sense. "My flesh-my bodily person," said He, "profiteth nothing towards procuring eternal life; to talk of eating it to gain that life is unworthy trifling; it is the Spirit who quickens the soul to a new, immortal, and heavenly existence, and that Spirit acts through the words of sacred truth which I speak to you. They are spirit, and they are life." 1

CHAPTER LIX.

THE FAREWELL.

JERUSALEM was the brightest and happiest of cities on this Passover night. But though the hum of universal rejoicing rose on every side, there was only sadness in the little band round Jesus. One of their number had proved a traitor, and their Leader had told them, once more, that He would very soon leave them. They were sore at heart from shame at the baseness of Iscariot, at the dread of losing a Master they passionately loved, and at the utter miscarriage of all their half-worldly, half-religious expectations of earthly glory. Christ had instituted a rite to mark them as apart from all other men, but it looked as if there would be little use for it, in the apparently near overthrow of His infant Kingdom.

As they reclined, sad and silent, Jesus read their thoughts, and began to cheer them, by turning their minds from the gloomy present to the glorious future.

"Let not your hearts be troubled with care and anxiety in such a way," said He; "believe in God, and in me, His Son, who speak in His name, and let that faith lead you to trust confidently that the promises made you will be fulfilled. I have, indeed, told you that I must go to my Father, but I have told you, also, that I will return. You have, assuredly, nothing to expect on earth except trial, but your reward in the world to come may well raise you above all sorrow on that account. In heaven, my Father's house, are many mansions; you need not fear that everlasting habitations in glory will fail you. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I never deceive you. Nay, more, I am your forerunner thither. If I go away, it is to prepare a place for you. I am your friend, going home before you, to get all ready for your glad reception when you follow me.

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Nor is this all; I will return to fetch you to my heavenly

1 John xiv. 1-31.

If you

home, that where I am, you may be also, for ever. remember what I have said in the past, you will know not only whither I am going, but, since it is I who prepare a place for you above, and I, and no other, who will come to lead you thither, you must also know the way."

He alluded to His spiritual return, at the blissful death of His servants, to guide them to Himself, above, and He had told them, not long before, that He was the door of the great fold, and that if any man entered by Him, he would be saved. But this, like so much else, had been misunderstood and forgotten.

A full and satisfying answer to the question of Peter,2 lay in these words. But it was not enough to calm the fears and doubts in the minds of the Apostles. They still clung fondly to their earthly hopes of the Messiah's Kingdom, and though they, perhaps, realized the near departure of their Master, they had not, even yet, come to comprehend that it meant His death. Hence His figurative language remained so dark to them, that Thomas, constitutionally given as he was, to seek clearness and certainty, interrupted Him with a reverent freedom 3

"Lord, we do not, as yet, know whither Thou art going, and how can we know the way in which to follow Thee? The questioner wished to find out the way by learning the goal; but Christ, in His answer, pointed him to the way as revealing all else.

"I myself, and no other, am the Way," said He, "because no one comes to the Father, in His heavenly glory, but through me. I am the true Way, for I speak only the truth given me from above, to make known; the way to life, for He who believes in me shall live by me, and shall have everlasting life, and I shall raise Him up at the last day. If ye have known me-the Way-ye will know whither I am going to my Father-for, since he who sees the Son sees the Father also, you know Him from this time, and have seen Him, in seeing me. I am the WAY, because no one can reach my Father's presence but through faith in me as the Saviour; the Truth, because I am the self-revelation of God; the Light, come into the world, without following which no one can gain salvation; the Life, because I am the source and spring of eternal life, so that he who does not receive me into his heart, by faith, is already condemned."

1 John x. 7, 9.

2 John xiii. 36.

3 John xiv. 5.

Philip had listened,1 but could not understand. He could only think that Jesus, in speaking of seeing the Father, alluded to some mysterious appearance of Jehovah, for the purpose of founding the earthly kingdom of the Messiah. With a childlike simplicity, therefore, he asked, turning to Christ" Lord, show us the Father, and all our wishes will be satisfied."

No one who had thought over the words, "If ye have known me, ye have known my Father also," and had understood them, could have asked such a question. It marked an amazing want of intelligent appreciation of the teaching of our Lord, and of His mode of speech. Hence, the answer of Christ sounds almost sad. "Have I been so long with you, and do you know so little of me, Philip? If you really knew me, you would not ask me to show you the Father. He cannot be shown to the natural sight. But he who sees me, and rightly understands whom I am, knows the Father, in thus knowing me. Such an one realizes that in me the highest possible revelation of God has appeared, and has no wish to have any higher, or other, outward and material manifestation of Him. You speak as if you did not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me, and that hence, as I said, he who sees me sees the Father also. The proof that it is so, is in my words, for they are not my own, but His. If you doubt this, you do not need to believe merely because I say so; believe it on the proof of the works that I do, for it is not I who do them, but the Father. Put away your gross earthly ideas. What I mean is, that the Father is revealed by the Son, as His image and likeness, but only in a spiritual sense, to the eye of faith and of the soul.”

Jesus now turned to the Apostles at large, and resumed His discourse at the point He had reached, when, first, Thomas, and then Philip, had broken in with their questions.

"I have promised you eternal life," said He, "if you trust me and my Father. Let me do more, that you may be cheered and supported in your future labours for my Kingdom. I tell you, with all solemnity, that if you have this true faith in me, and love towards me, you will have the power to do just such wonderful works as I have done, and even greater, for I am going to my Father, to be raised to all power in heaven and earth; so that you may feel sure that

1 John xiv. 8.

2 John xiv. 12.