Holy ordinance presents, to the view of faith, under forcible symbols, the victim again bound and offered on the altar. The bread broken on the altar forcibly recals to our mournful recollection the sacred body of the Saviour, which was bruised for our iniquities by the tremendous arm of divine wrath, And the wine which is pressed from the grape, is a lively emblem of that precious blood which the agonizing burden of our sins pressed from the tortured body of the Saviour of the world. O my soul, discern through these humble but affecting emblems, thy crucified Lord; and, penetrated with the view of his awful agonies, render him the homage of ardent gratitude and love.

The thankful remembrance which thou art called to cherish, of the death of thy Redeemer, is not merely a glow of sympathy and sorrow which the view of suffering and distress is calculated to excite in every heart, Thou art to contemplate the sufferings of Christ, not as the sufferings of a common man; but as the sufferings of a divine instructor, come to proclaim the most important truths to the world, to enforce and seal them by his sufferings and death; and as the sufferings of a divine Redeemer who atoned for our sins, and purchased, by his blood, our everlasting redemption. Consider the sufferings of Christ as a powerful seal to the truth of his holy religion; consider his sufferings and death as the all-sufficient expiation for the sins of man

finally, consider them as powerfully impress ing and enforcing, the spirit of meekness, patience and love, the essential and principal characteristics of his disciples. This view of the sufferings of Christ, will tend to excite the emotions of devout admiration, faith, gratitude and love; and it will also tend to impress on the heart the most useful and important instruction, the most grateful and exalted joy and consolation.

Consider the sufferings and death of Christ as a powerful seal to the religion he proclaimed.

In the humble and suffering Saviour whom the altar sets forth, we behold displayed magnanimity, condescension, disinterested love, that call for our devout, and grateful admiration, and that tend to excite our full and firm confidence in the divine instructor who, by these sufferings, sealed the truth of his mission. He was ushered into the world not amidst the sumptuous splendour of courts and palaces; but amidst the meaness, the inclemencies, the degradations of a manger. He chose, for his kindred in the flesh, not the noble, the rich and the mighty; but the humble, the obscure, the despised. He selected, for the sacred companions of his private hours, for the affectionate soothers of his cares and sorrows, for the endeared partakers of all his labours and instructions, not the learned, the refined, and the wealthy; but fishermen, humble, illiterate, and contemned.

He courted, not the cheering company of the gay, the luxurious, and the opulent; but the contemned society of the children of poverty, of ignorance and affliction. The Redeemer did not proudly surround himself with the splendid and luxurious trappings of wealth and power; he did not sedulously court the seducing ease of elevated and wealthy stations, and shun the walks of poverty, calamity, and distress-Ah! revilings, contempt, insult repaid all the prodigies of love which distinguished his beneficent life. At the unrighteous and cruel judgment seat of Pilate, this innocent and holy martyr was arraignedAll the insults and tortures which ingenious and inflamed malice could suggest, were poured into that hallowed bosom which beat only with ardent love to mankind-On Calvary's Mount that innocent blood was poured forth, which pleaded for mercy on the barbarous hands that shed it. Oh! my soul! impotent is language to do even feeble justice to the exalted magnanimity, the astonishing love of the holy Jesus. His divine dignity and glory rendered still more. astonishing and profound the stoops of his mercy. The uncreated image of the Father's glory, was born, the child of poverty and wretchedness. He, who in heaven received the profound adoration of the angelic host, placed himself among the ignorant and profligate herd of publicans and sinners. He, who held in his

hand the thunders of omnipotence, calmly submitted to be the sport of an infuriate rabble. He, whose head divine lustre surrounded, was crowned with thorns, and mocked with the impious acclamations of his implacable enemies. The Lord of life and glory, he, who created, and sustained the worlds, sunk in the agonies of death an ignominious victim on the cross. The bitter sufferings, which, unmitigated and uncheered by friendly sympathy, pursued him, afford the strongest proof that no sinister motives of pride, of interest or ambition could have swayed his breast. The exalted messages of salvation which he proclaimed, the pure and heavenly precepts which he inculcated, the works of mercy and love which he performed, did not procure for him affection, gratitude, and love; they did not receive the applauses, and honors by which the benefactors of mankind are rewarded. Ah! Contumely, insult and death crowned his benevolent exertions. O my soul! thy Saviour exhibited, in his suffering life, the strongest proof of sincere and disinterested zeal, of exalted and magnanimous virtue. Persevering in his divine work of love, though contempt and suffering met him at every step; though he foresaw, that the malignant hatred of his enemies would at length prevail in his destruction; and that, amidst their bitter taunts and revilings, he should sustain an ignominious death, thy exalted Re

deemer claims thy highest admiration and confidence. Zeal, thus self-denying and disinterested, in the pursuit of the noblest objects, should silence every base and ungenerous suspicion. Contemplating the divine fortitude and resolution, with which, the Saviour sealed in death the truth of the doctrines which, through his suffering life, he had in-. culcated, thou shouldest acknowledge, in the holy fervors of a faith, like that which ani-mated the Centurion beholding at the cross the magnanimity and patience of the crucified Redeemer" Truly this was the Son of God."

At the altar, therefore, O my soul, thou art called to commemorate the sufferings and death of a divine teacher, whose magnani-. mity, fortitude and patience, while they claim thy fervent love, gratitude, and homage, are powerfully calculated to confirm, strengthen and exalt the ardors of thy faith. Contem plate the gross ignorance of all the interesting truths and duties connected with the spiritual welfare, hopes, and destination of man, which enveloped the world, before this divine teacher. rose in the glorious splendor of celestial truth and knowledge. Contemplate the impious superstition, the cruel rites, the debasing crimes which enthralled the world, before this divine teacher, by the lustre of his beams,. chased before him the dark clouds of pagan idolatry, error, and vice. Then turn thy view to the glorious revelation, which he promul