solemnly broken, as the emblem of the Saviour's body, and the wine poured out as the emblem of His blood: but one grand feature of this sacrament is, that each communicant for himself eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. Thus each of us declares, in effect, that he takes Christ, the Crucified One, as his atoning Sacrifice, and the Source of his spiritual life. Such an appropriation of the sacrifice of our Lord is the very essence of saving faith; and whenever we come to His table we should put forth renewed acts of this faith. While we avow to our brethren and to the world, that we renounce every other refuge than the cross, and hope for salvation only through the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us,' we should receive Christ afresh, and feed on Him as the 'living bread that came down from heaven.'

3. A believing participation of the Lord's supper is an act of fellowship, or communion, with the universal Church of

Christ.

In this sacrament we avow our oneness with each other, as resulting from our common appropriation of the Redeemer's sacrifice, and our common union with Him by faith. Thus it is that we sometimes speak of it as 'the holy communion.' We all partake of one bread and drink of one cup,—that bread symbolising the body of our crucified Lord, and that cup symbolising His blood poured out for our redemption. St. Paul has placed this sacrament before us under this aspect :- The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread' (1 Cor. x. 16, 17).*

4. Finally, the sacrament of the Lord's supper is to be regarded as a seal of the new covenant established through the blood of Jesus, and as involving, in the case of all who receive it with

*The marginal rendering of the last clause in the Revised Version is clearer, and, on several grounds, preferable :-'Seeing that there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body.'

sincere devotion and lively faith, a renewal and confirmation of

that covenant.

The correctness and importance of this view are placed beyond a doubt by the words of our Lord in the institution of this sacrament. He spoke of the cup as His blood of 'the new covenant'; and the reception of the sacramental elements is thus marked out as a covenant-act. If we enter upon this service with thoughtful earnestness and an intelligent faith, we renew the dedication of ourselves to God in Christ; and God, in effect, seals and confirms to us the promises of that covenant. We bind ourselves to Him to be His people; and He assures us that He will be to us a God in time and in eternity.

CHAPTER V.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY-THE APOSTLES, PROPHETS, AND EVANGELISTS-THE THEORY OF THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.

UR Lord, during His earthly ministry, made provision for

of

claims, for the

6

of the entire system of truth and duty which He inculcated, after His own departure to the Father. He gathered around Him disciples, and from among them He chose twelve to be His constant attendants, that He might train them to be His ambassadors to the world, and to establish and regulate Christian Churches. These were privileged not only to listen to His public teaching, but to witness the more private developments of His character, and to hear His conversation when retired from the multitude. The impression made upon the minds of the faithful eleven, by their intercourse with their Lord, has been recorded by St. John in the words, The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth' (John. i. 14). As He was about to enter upon His deepest sufferings, He addressed them on the position in which they would be placed by His departure, and assured them of the rich communication of the Holy Spirit, to qualify them for their special duties, and to sustain them under all their trials. After His death and resurrection, He gave them His solemn commission. On the very day on which He rose from the dead, He said to them, As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you' (John xx. 21); and subsequently, on the mountain in Galilee, He charged them to go and make disciples of all the nations,'

6

6

assuring them of His constant presence and support. They were not, however, immediately to enter upon this world-wide. mission, but to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father.' On the day of Pentecost that promise was fulfilled; and the grace of the Holy Ghost gave to the Apostles a wisdom, a boldness, and a power, which they had never before possessed. Gifts of utterance, also, were imparted to them and to many others; and for several years-probably until the last of the Apostles passed away from earth-miraculous endowments, in diverse forms, were continued in the Church. Ultimately these were withdrawn; but from the day of Pentecost until now the

Lord Jesus has raised up men to carry the message of His grace

to the ignorant and the careless and impenitent, to lead men to Him in self-renouncing trust,-to build up His people in faith and holiness,-and to watch over and rule His Churches in subordination to Himself.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul has given us a comprehensive view of this action of our glorified Lord. Having referred to the varied gifts by which the people of Christ are distinguished as all conferred by Him, he goes on to speak of the fulfilment in Him of the prophetic oracle, 'When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men,' and then He adds, ' And He gave some to be Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, Evangelists; and some, Pastors and Teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' (iv. 11—13).

Of the ministers named in this passage, three classes—the Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists-were extraordinary. They belonged to the period of the planting of the Church; and they have had no successors in the ages that have followed.

1. The office of an Apostle was distinguished by several peculiar characteristics.

(1) It was essential that they who sustained it should be

able to bear a personal testimony to the great fact of our Lord's resurrection from the dead,-that fact on which the whole system of Christianity reposes. In St. Peter's address to the assembled disciples, soon after our Lord's ascension, he referred to the fall of Judas Iscariot, who had been one of the twelve, and added, 'Of the men, therefore, which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that He was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of His resurrection' (Acts. i. 21, 22). St. Paul, also, when asserting his own Apostolical authority, appeals to his personal knowledge of this fact as included in the proof of his claims. 'Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord?' (1 Cor. ix. 1.) It was the risen Saviour who arrested him when a fiery persecutor; and to that event, which changed the whole current of his life, he was never weary of referring.

(2) A second peculiarity of the office of the Apostles was, that they were empowered to teach authoritatively the whole system of Christianity, so that from their decision there could be no appeal.

It was to them, especially, that our Lord, in the days of His flesh, addressed the words, 'Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven' (Matt. xviii. 18). Jesus Himself left no written record of His teaching: but it was His design that, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, His Apostles should recall His words, and hand them down to successive generations. Nor was this all. The Holy Spirit was to guide them into all the truth,' so that they should be able to unfold the perfect scheme of Christian doctrine, privilege, and duty (John xiv. 25, 26; xvi. 12—14). We accept, then, the writings of the Apostles, and those which they endorsed, as constituting the Scriptures of the New Testament; and in these writings they still speak to us, and, in one sense, continue to discharge their high and peculiar function.