MEDITATION.

AGAIN and again, has the gracious Redeemer invited me to come to his table, for the purpose of commemorating his dying love and receiving the tokens of his mercy. But alas! how often have I most unthankfully refused his invitation? How ready has my sinful heart been to suggest excuses for treating his kind offer with neglect, and disobeying his most righteous command? I have pleaded the love of my friends, and my engagedness in the necessary business of the world. But, how futile the plea? For, a gracious God, allows, nay requires me, to cherish a reasonable affection to my kindred, and to "use the world as not abusing it." Any engagements or affections, therefore, which interfere with my duty to him, prove only that I am a rebellious and disobedient sinner; and instead of being offered as an excuse for my neglect, should lead me to cry for mercy, and pray "create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!”

I have offered as an excuse, my own unworthiness: my fear of eating and drinking damnation to myself; and a dread of living inconsistently with a Christian profession, and bringing disgrace upon the cause of religion. These excuses are indeed plausible, and have the appearance of humility; but, O my soul, how do they appear to Him who searcheth the heart?

Will they avail thee when thou art summoned before the bar of God?

I am indeed unworthy of the least of all God's mercies, much more of the distinguished honour of going as a guest to his table, and receiving the symbols of the Redeemer's body and blood. I am a poor, weak, guilty, hell-deserving sinner. But is it not "a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief?" Is not the Gospel, with all its promises; the Church, with all its ordinances; designed for the benefit of sinners? Do not the most sincere and devoted servants of God, even when surrounding his table and receiving renewed assurances of his love, confess that they have "sinned against him in thought, word and deed, most justly provoking his wrath and indignation?" It is manifest, therefore, that, to receive "worthily," means only, to receive with the repentance, and faith, and other graces, which are suited to sinners looking for mercy and acceptance through the merits of the Saviour.

To beg to be excused, therefore, on the plea of unworthiness, is to seal the sentence of my condemnation. It is to confess that I have not the feelings which are suited to my condition as a sinner:-that I have no repentance for sin; no reliance upon the merits of the Redeemer; no disposition to serve God. It is to offer as an excuse for neglect of duty, an unhumbled and impenitent heart. To make an avowal

that I am still determined to rebel against the L authority, and disobey his laws!

Such, O my soul, are the excuses with which conscience has hitherto been lulled, when stripped of their plausible disguises, and exposed to view in all their real weakness and deformity. "I am ashamed, yea, confounded before God," that I have so frequently dared to rely upon them. But henceforth, I abandon them for ever; knowing, that when I stand before the bar of judgment, they can afford me no protection, but will leave me in the speechlessness of conscious guilt, before my Maker.

I yield to the force of reason, and the influences of grace! Henceforth, I will serve the Lord! Sinner as I am, deserving nothing but indignation and wrath, I will, with an humble and penitent heart, trust in the merits of Him who died for sinners. Lord! I surrender. I lay down the weapons of my rebellion. I give myself up to thee, to be washed in the blood of the atonement, and sanctified by the spirit of grace. "I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar, O Lord!" I will go forward to thy table without fear of condemnation, because I rely upon that precious "blood which cleanseth from all sin." I will go without fear of disgracing my profession, because thy "strength shall be made perfect in my weakness," and "thy grace shall be sufficient for me." I will go without fear of final apostacy, because my soul rests upon the

promise of being "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."

Henceforth, "I am the Lord's." Henceforth, I will "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Henceforth, my back shall be turned upon the world, my face shall be directed Zion-ward, and the noble resolution of St. Paul shall be mine:-"This one thing I do; forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forward to those which are before, I press towards the mark, for the prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

"Awake my soul, stretch every nerve,

And press with vigour on,

A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
And an immortal crown.

A cloud of witnesses around,
Hold thee in full survey;
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way.

"Tis God's all-animating voice,

That calls thee from on high;

"Tis his own hand presents the prize

To thine uplifted eye.

Then, wake, my soul, stretch every nerve,

And press with vigour on;

A heavenly race demands thy zeal,

And an immortal crown."

CHAPTER VI.

REMARKS ON "THE ORDER FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, OR, HOLY COMMUNION," IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

AMONG the many causes of gratitude to Almighty God which distinguish our lot as Protestant Episcopalians, it is not one of the least, that we are favoured with a scriptural and established LITURGY; which is entitled to the warmest commendation, not only as a directory for public worship, but, also, as a standard and preservative of sound doctrine.

The Prayer-Book has been beautifully and appropriately styled, "the daughter of the Bible;" and, probably, there is no other work of human composition which has embodied so much of the substance and spirit of the heavenly Oracles. Extracts from the Bible, in the form of Gospels, Epistles, and Psalter, constitute the greater part of the volume:-and throughout the collects and prayers, the spirit of the Divine Word breathes, and glows, and animates the whole. What can be more chaste and spiritual, than its devotional services? What more humble and meek, than its penitential confessions? What more fervent and comprehensive, than its acts of intercession? What more full, ardent, and seraphic, than its adorations