of you was wounded by sin, and His stripes were the only cure for your wounds.

"Behold the man! with a plaited crown of thorns on His blessed head, with the sharp points turned inward, and these beat into His head with a staff, till all His head is but as one wound, from whence a new shower of blood ran down His neck for you! You may be ready to cry out against the Jews, or against the soldiers that used our Saviour so; but rather cry out against your sins that did worse to Him; these plaited the crown of thorns and crucified Him too. Behold the Lamb of God now willingly caught in the thickets, like the ram, to be sacrificed

in

your room, when you are bound like Isaac for that end. Behold Him willing to wear a crown of pain and ignominy, that you might wear a crown of glory and renown; willing to be disgraced and affronted, that you might be honoured and exalted; willing to let a Barabbas, the vilest malefactor in all Jerusalem, be preferred before Him, that you might be preferred to a room among God's children. Behold the man! after all these sufferings, put to bear the heavy cross on His sore wounded shoulders, a heavy load indeed, with the elect's sins, and law's curses fastened to it; yet He bears it without complaint till His strength is spent, and He is ready to faint under the burden, so that another must help! Oh! it was not the weight of the tree that made Him faint; He had a greater burden to bear than ten thousand worlds, even the infinite wrath of God due to the elect's sins! Oh! can you behold this sight with dry eyes?

"Behold the man! brought to Golgotha, nailed to the tree, lifted up, and drinking out the bitter dregs of the cup of wrath thereon, till at length He yielded himself prisoner to death by bowing His head, giving death his orders to execute his com

mission, and carry Him off the stage! Behold and wonder at the sight, the Lord of life taken prisoner by death! O man, canst thou stand and see the Lamb of God slain in thy room, and for thy sins, and not be affected? Write that man a beast, a stone, a lump of earth, that can be senseless, stupid, and unconcerned at such a sight! Oh! blush and be ashamed, O man, at thy stupidity, when the dead earth and rocks about Jerusalem quaked and rent at the sufferings you now behold represented in the sacrament. O cursed sin, which many make light of, that could not be expiated by any other sacrifice than that of our Emmanuel, the Lamb of God, the man Christ Jesus! O behold the man! and tremble at sin, the accursed thing that murdered the Son of God, the man that is God's fellow, the man that is infinitely preferable to a million of worlds full of men and angels too. Oh! that men would always look to sin in the glass of the agonies and sufferings of the man Christ, that they might be filled with horror at it, as at hell itself! Nay, in several respects sin is a greater evil than hell.

"Let every communicant, every Christian, come and behold the glorious Son of God with the greatest love and admiration, who for our sakes was willing to become a man, and the Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for the sins of men. Oh! let His name, JESUS, be always to you as precious ointment poured forth, and let the remembrance of His love inflame your souls with vehement indignation against sin, and a burning affection to the Lamb of God, the man Christ, that was willing to struggle in bloody agonies, and bleed to death on the accursed tree, to deliver you from lying in hell for ever! Oh! what can we render to Him for His free love, amazing and unspeakable love! Oh! that we could spend our whole lives in admiring His love, and contem

plating His beauty, and were thereby made meet, in some measure, for the exercises of the redeemed above. Amen."-Rev. John Willison.

PRAYER.

"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of thy wings. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows; thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name."-Psalm lxi. 1-5.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me; therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord."-Psalm xxvii. 4-6.

ŎLord Almighty, the former of my body, and the father of my spirit, I would humble myself in the very dust before Thee. I am not worthy of the least of Thy mercies; nay, rather, I have merited only Thy displeasure. And yet with Thee there is forgiveness and plenteous redemption; and to me, a sinner, yea, one of the chief of sinners, thou hast shown many tokens of thy goodness. But chiefly have I to praise Thee for the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of redemption for my soul in Him. I believe in the Son of God. This

is my rest for ever. I cleave to Jesus as all my salvation and all my desire.

I thank thee, O Lord, that in thy providence I have so near a prospect of communing with Jesus over the memorials of His sufferings and death. Grant, I beseech thee, the copious effusion of thy blessed Spirit. May my soul be raised, this day, above the secularities and grovelling affections of time-stand as it were before God's own glorious throne, and breathe the airs of heaven. O thou that didst feed thy people in the wilderness with bread from heaven, and refresh them with water from the rock, give my soul to eat of the hidden manna, and to drink of the refreshing waters of life, till my heart and all that is within me rejoice in the Lord.

May I behold in this ordinance the pledge of my salvation. May I see therein God, in my nature incarnate, crucified, and slain. May I be enabled to discern the unspeakable evil of sin, and learn to hate it; the inflexible justice of God, and stand in awe of it; the boundless love of Christ, and admire it; the infinite worth of the soul, and regard it as my most precious possession; the certainty of the Redeemer's conquest over Satan, death, the grave, and all the powers of evil, and look forward with confidence to the glories of an eternal world. Being willing to give myself to Emmanuel in a perpetual covenant, may I obtain, this day, additional grace to walk more worthy than hitherto of my Christian profession. Filled with zeal for God's glory, with love to my fellow-men, with the meekness and gentleness, and benignity of Christ, may I henceforth walk with God, and give token thereby that my fellowship has been with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And unto thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one glorious and eternal God, shall be all the praise, world without end. Amen.

V.

EVENING OF COMMUNION SABBATH.

MEDITATION AND PRAYER.

This has been a day to which I have been looking forward, and for whose solemnities I have been seeking, in some measure, to be prepared. I have gone to the house of God, I have engaged in the exercises of praise and prayer, and I have eaten bread and drank wine at a Communion Table. But now the public exercises of the day are over. I have descended from the mount where I have been with God; and all that remains is to commune with my own spirit in secret, and briefly review the proceedings of this Sacramental Sabbath. At evening time may there be light!

What have I seen in the ordinance this day?

I have gone, in the spirit, to the garden of Gethsemane and the cross of Calvary. I have seen the God-man wounded for my transgressions, and bruised for my iniquities. On one who was able to bear it the chastisement of my peace was laid. I have seen the justice of God satisfied, and the way to the holiest of all opened up by the blood of Christ, so that I have now liberty of access into the presence of the Eternal, and may with boldness say, Our Father which art in heaven.

What have I done in this ordinance?

I have publicly declared my acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and of His salvation as my portion. I have renounced the covenant of works, and signified my purpose and resolution to seek shelter within the provisions of the covenant of grace. I have made surrender and dedication of myself to God, to love Him and serve Him, to be