things of him? Is he ashamed of Jesus, ashamed of his faith, ashamed of his Church, ashamed to be called a Christian, ashamed to be a Christian? Truly such a one is NOT ready, but of all men, he should make haste to be ready; for religion is the guide and law of life; and his chief concern is not to die, but to live as he ought. If he should believe that a meditation upon the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ, will help him in his endeavor, sinner though he be, let him come to the Table of the Lord and strive to realize the teachings of the Master-to conform his life to the requisitions of the Gospel. Christ came to save sinners, to call sinners to repentance, to save all men, to win and subject all to the will of the Father; and let every procrastinator remember that God is omnipotent, and he will have all men come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. Let him not then attempt longer to withstand his omnipotency; for the farther he wanders from the pathway of peace and duty, the more toilsome and sorrowful will be his return; the last wanderer must come home-worldweary, travel-worn, and sin-laden as he is, he must retrace his steps to the home of the Father. Blessed, thrice blessed, he who follows the footprints of the Savior in the straight and radiant pathway to the mansions of the Father's house.

But says one (perhaps), "I am afraid the world will expect too much of me, and I dare not, by such an open act as the observance of the Communion, invite its scrutiny." Would you be hindered by this consideration if your sense of duty demanded that you should take this proposed means of spiritual improvement? Is one hindered from reading the Holy Scriptures because the world expects him to be improved by his study and meditation? Does one refuse to join in the act of public worship or the open reverence of the holy day, because the world expects him to be benefited by such observance? Does one counsel with the world if his heart and affections prompt him, or his interest urge him, if his necessities demand him to disregard it? Surely not; and if then this plea be offered in reference to the Communion, it brings its own refutation with it. The pleader admits that he loves the world better than the hope of improve ment or benefit; better than the promptings of his sense of duty or affection; better than his true interest, the satisfaction of his necessity; better than his own soul; better than his God; or he denies the advantage of an untried and

appointed means, and acknowledges his religious insensibility and indifference.

"The world would expect him to be better," he tells us. What is the expectation of his own heart? What, so to speak, is the expectation of his God and Father? Nay, what is the requisition, the imperative command, the fixed law of God and his own Spirit and nature? Thou must live religiously and wisely-worship the Father -obey Jesus-love thy fellow man-avoid evil -avoid the appearance of evil-learn to do well, and consecrate thy life and all thy faculties to the service of God and truth. Less than this, though it satisfy the world, satisfies not the law written in thy heart, in the open volume of Nature, and the pages of Revelation.

But still urges the objector, "I may dishonor the cause of religion by my unworthiness, and thus bring reproach upon Christianity and the Church." If this fear be genuine, its influence is most salutary and helpful. The Christian professor, when he dishonors his profession, has none of the fear which withholds you. This very sentiment is an argument for the observance of the service; and let it be remembered, that you have made a profession of religion-you are, as has been said, the children of the Infinite Father, the disciples of Jesus, the members of the Church of Christ, and you dishonor the cause of Christ by declining the more free acknowledgement of your Christian obligations, and by withdrawal from an open participation in his appointed ordinance. Does any one among us question his profession of Christianity? Let him. ask himself if he believes in Jesus, that he is the anointed Savior of all men, that he is his Savior; and ask himself if that profession of belief be not veritably a confession of Christian obligation and subjection to the Gospel law? Let him ask himself if joining in public worship is not, in effect, a profession of religion? if the act of prayer is not a profession of religion? and, in truth, if there be any middle ground between open denial and infidelity on the one hand, and religious profession on the other? But will it be said, "I have not made such a profession as the observance of this ordinance implies, and this is what I hesitate to do." What is this but the reiterated and exploded plea that we are not bound till we admit our obligations; that we, not God, determine the limit of our responsibleness; and that we can do wrong, and withstand his power, and his law, if we do not transgress beyond the limits of our own appointment. But there is great peril, some think, in par

taking unworthily. "He," says Paul, "that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's body." In the words of another, we say, "The reference and import of these words have been strangely misapprehended. Correctly interpreted, they neither express nor imply any thing that should keep sincere believers away from the Communion; they were designed to have reference to the extreme abuses in the Corinthian church-abuses which it is next to impossible should occur now. It was nothing less than gross intemperance which the Apostle so sharply rebuked. This it was which he meant by eating and drinking unworthily ;' and as to not discerning the Lord's body,' the import of it is, making no proper difference between a Christian commemorative ordinance and a heathen licentious feast. In thus turning the simple and significant service of the Communion into a scene of intemperance and riot, they were guilty of the body and blood of the Lord,' guilty, that is, of treating the memorials of him, or, as we might say, his memory with gross disrespect. And what, according to Paul, was the penalty attached to this abuse of the ordinance? Damnation,' as it is rendered in the common version, which however Doddridge 'thinks the most unhappy mistake in all our version of the Bible.' And so perhaps it is. The original word does not here mean what damnation commonly signifies with us, any more than it does in James 3d, first, where it is translated 'condemnation.' But it means temporal punishment, such as weakness, sickness and death, as is evident from the next verse, 'For this cause many are weak and sickly among you.' And this, as the Apostle says, was by way of salutary punishment, in order that, being reformed by it, they might not be condemned with the world. Such is the explanation of this passage -a passage that was intended to be local and particular in its application. It was a severe rebuke of a profanation that has never occurred among us, and probably never will. We see, therefore, how little reason there is for any sincere believer in Christianity of the present day, to be prevented from coming to the Communion, as though it were a rite, which it would be hazardous to approach. Even the Corinthians themselves were advised by Paul not to refrain from it, but to engage in it with better views and dispositions." 1

It may assist some one in appreciating the force of this reasoning to remark on the peculiar

But, says the objector, "I am unprepared and dare not engage in so distinctive and sacred a service. I feel that it is a solemn and holy act, and I know I am unworthy." The service is distinctive, because you and those who think with you make it so. You are not required to subscribe a Church Covenant in order to be prepared to approach the table of the Cominunion; and holy, solemn and earnest as the service is, it can be no more momentous and affecting than human life, than sin or sorrow, temptation and trial, doubt and insensibility of heart, self reproach and regret, pain and death. The true office of the Communion is to prepare us for the responsibilities of daily life, and it is to be regarded as a Christian means, accessible to all, and designed to aid the unworthy and tempted, to bring them to a realization of Christ as their Master and Redeemer, their Guide and Exemplar. Any true and humble conviction of unworthiness instead of being a hindrance to this act of commemoration of the Savior, is the best possible motive and warrant for it; because a sincere conviction of sin will give birth to desire for a better and holier life; and he who feels the burden of sin, will seek by all available aids for relief and redemption. Believe it, nothing can be more serious than human life and peril, more earnest than the wants and cravings of the spiritual nature within us; nothing can be more sacred and momentous than the interests of the immortal soul; and there is, to the mind which apprehends this truth, no time for delay or parley, for an array of excuses or objections; no time for indefinite consideration and preparation. The sense of Christian duty calls for immediate action; and if the world, and pleasure,

custom that gave rise to the liability to turn the Lord's Supper into a common feast. Among the heathen, the poor were supplied from the meats and offerings at the sacrifices,-a portion being burnt, a portion taken by the priests and either eaten or sold by them in the shambles, and a portion given to the poor. To meet the exigence which would arise when the poor could no longer expect favors from the priests whose religion they had renounced, the Christians brought together, at times, provisions for the poor; at all social gatherings the Communion was celebrated, and this rite lost its sacredness in the same manner as Donation Parties to Pastors, in some places, have become not times of beneficence to him, but of self-gratification, of eating and drinking, so that the omission were better than the observance of the custom. There is no evidence that the Corinthians abused the Lord's Supper in their churches on the Sabbath Day. It was rather at a "Pic Nic" for the poor.

ED.

me, the emotion of surprise vanished in the stronger one of sympathy.

Lizzie, dear, the old world-weariness is upon me-the weariness that you have chided so often and in vain-the restlessness, the unquiet, that used to bewilder you so. Let me lay my head in your lap, and "send the boys away while I talk to you." So-push the curls from my fevered brow with that dear hand, and let me have my way. You see the Agnes that you parted from (with regret?) three months ago, is still the same wayward Agnes that you left her, disliking much exertion, having an aversion to the noise of children, yet not unwilling to contribute her share when in the mood, and liking nothing in the world so well as her own way. Do you not recognize your friend? You say you would "give much for a sight of my do'nt care face"-(I leave the flattering adjec tive out) 'peeping into your door," with the gay hat," the "curls," and the ear drops. How dare you accuse me of putting those same ear drops "coquettishly where they may glisten." Have a care, my dear, or the gay hat may peep in upon you when you least expect it, and call you to account for your assertions. Setting aside your disposition to think me something of a butterfly, you are certainly flattering, and I will not deny that from your lips it is very sweet.

I am sure that if I were actually at your feet, you would let me talk on without question as to the cause of this world-weariness, without even "looking interrogations with your eyes." Because you know so well, "how slight a thing may move" to weariness. Mayhap a careless word wakes regretful memories; or the north wind may visit too roughly a delicate frame, and call into existence an almost forgotten bodily pain that you fondly dreamed had died long since; or a common acquaintance may bow colder than usual in the street, and you go home and think the world is a mockery, and yourself the most ill used of mortals. These are a few of the numberless provocations to this worldweariness.

And so you think your Agnes is composed of rare materials. But there is so much chaff with the grain, Ma chere, whose shall be the skillful hand that shall winnow it? The clay claims the spirit, and I have not strength to deny it. Yet sometimes, I thank heaven! the spirit proves victorious and soars unfettered to its natural ether, and in the triumph the clay is forgotten and sinks to its proper level. Am I