Thus being seated in spirit around our Lord Jesus in the light of the upper room, whilst outside in the congenial "night" the devil is leading his wretched tool Judas to betray Him, and all the powers of darkness are confederate with ungodly men against Him, we will feast.

And truly our board bears "royal dainties," if there be but a healthy appetite, and the hand be free to take what our divine Host shall give.

For now He takes bread, and let us hearken whilst He speaks:'' This is my Body which is for you:this do in remembrance of Me."

With perfect divine wisdom is the emblem here chosen. We may feed upon it in our souls with ever-increasing delight and strengthening. 'Tis His holy Body that was, in the divine counsels of eternity, prepared for Him. In that sublime passage in Heb. 10:we look upon a scene in which the Eternal Persons of the Trinity are the alone Actors. The altar of the tabernacle is smoking with victims ; and as each yields its life, the blessed Son looks, as it were, to see if any can give rest and satisfaction to the heart of His God. There is not one. Bullock, or goat, or lamb, give up their lives; their blood is presented; but God cannot rest in them. There is nothing in them to really satisfy His holiness. His heart is still barred from expressing the fullness of His love; the veil is unrent; the impassable barriers of His own holiness remain; and in their utter inadequacy to admit His heart's desire in coming forth in the fullness of His grace to a sinful world, God turns from them unsatisfied.

The holy One of God marks that inadequacy, and consequent dissatisfaction, and utters His thought thereupon:"Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not." What, then, can take their place? One and only One-Himself ! As He, in that holy splendor of the glory of God, discerns the story that each ineffectual offering tells-that Himself, the only One, must take such form as shall admit of His suffering unto death; yea, a body must be prepared* for Him;-and as He recognizes the awful sublime truth, He speaks :hark, my soul! not to poor angelic songs now, but to divine notes, that an opened ear may hear,-"*The word "prepared" is not without its interest in this connection. We have already referred to the unique character of that holy Body-unlike, in its absolute holiness, any other; the same truth may now be inferred from the use of the word " prepared." It seems ever to indicate a special purpose in view for which the object is exactly fitted. Thus, in the book of Jonah, great fish, gourd, worm, and east wind, are all "prepared" for specific purposes, and for nothing else. Thus too, in the New Testament, we have "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared tor the devil and his angels "-for no other purpose, for no other race."* Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God." He shrinks not back from the infinite sacrifice, with all its sufferings. He presents Himself willingly, yea, with "delight" to do His will; and to the altar goes the holy Victim. Love leads Him there-love, the cord that binds Him to its horns ; and at last God's will is done. As the billows of His judgments roll over that holy Victim, all His holiness is satisfied, and Love may now have its way with sinners, unchallenged. Now must veil rend, and let God out to the world He loves – rend, and let repentant, blood-washed sinners in to the tender love of a God and Father. God rests at last. His will is done. The rent veil shows it. It is His flesh, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Yea, hearken to its speech, ye who eat of this Bread! Not of love does it primarily speak, but of righteousness. It is the crushed and bruised grain that has passed under the weight of the mill-stones. "This is My body," He said, "which is for you." Our version inserts "broken," but not justifiably, I think; rather would "bruised" be the more scriptural word to apply, for '' it pleased the Lord to bruise Him," whilst a bone was not to be broken. That is, evidently no human hand was to have any real part in taking away His life. He maintains the divine dignity of His person even in death; and in the sense of that dignity He Himself dismisses His spirit, as Matt. 27:50 properly and literally reads. None did, or could, take it from Him. He laid down His life Himself. Capable of dying, that holy One was absolutely free from the claim of death-was not subject to death; for death is only consequent on sin; it is sin's wages, and came by it; hence man's rude hand must not break a bone, lest that death be attributed to that blow. Nay, our Bread is God-bruised only. O wondrous word! "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him! " Think of it as ye eat.

But once more, as we are feeding on the bread, let us "consider Him" of Whom it speaks. For the first time He is now alone, forsaken. All through His life, the beams of God's delight have rested on Him; even when "all forsook Him and fled," still He was "not alone"; but now His God has forsaken Him, and for the only moment in the universe of time He is alone. Now we know that God is Light and God is Love; hence, if forsaken of God, He is of light bereft. Then is He, during those three hours on the cross (between the sixth and ninth hours), in awful darkness-darkness truly that "might be felt"; and who can tell how keenly felt, by that holy One, alone there! It is like the brass in the temple:none can measure its weight. Love too gone, wrath only remains, and those awful fires of God consume Him who is now in the place of sin, who is bearing sins. He must be now absolutely alone-where no mere creature ever did or could stand without falling.

It seems to be the one common characteristic of all creation that it can only be maintained by the constant upholding care of the Creator. It cannot be independent of Him for one instant, or there is some awful fall. In physical things this is true; by constant dependence is every living thing maintained. "He openeth His hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." By no primeval law is the Sun upheld in his course, kept in his orbit, and daily set on his mission of benevolence. The Hand that made him alone keeps, moment by moment, or confusion and chaos would result instantly. For whilst we know but little of what preceded the creation of our own race, of the first beginning of evil, yet we do learn that grace, and grace alone, upheld even the angels in their places-those so upheld are the elect angels. Not an angel could stand alone. As to man, that truth has been too clearly shown ; fall after fall has told it from Eden onwards, throughout the ages of time. Thus it is evident that no moral creature with a will and intelligence ever maintains perfect integrity of character if left alone. He loses his place as quickly and naturally as a stone dropped from the hand falls to the earth. But here is One thus forsaken – heavy judgments bruising Him – thick darkness about Him-fires consuming Him- absolutely alone; but still, with infinite sublimity and perfection of holy character, He stands-maintains His absolute perfection as a man even there, and gives expression to those perfections in His justification of God:"Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." Can judgment be eternal upon such an One? The fire has done its perfect work; sins, our sins, were upon Him, and those fires have consumed them; and lo, nothing but perfection is found ! He has been looked upon as sin; and all God's judgments passing, the Holy One in perfect beauty is seen, and He is "heard from the horns of the unicorns," "heard for His piety." Righteousness, even righteousness, now demands that the holy One be raised by Him Who was thus able to save Him out of death. (Heb. 5:)
Yet once more, then, let us enjoy the Divine wisdom in the Lord's taking the bread first. Is there any meaning, any beauty, in this order ? Was it a matter of indifference whether wine preceded bread, or bread wine ? An acquaintance, though it be indeed but superficial, with the glorious and perfect ways of that Divine One may still lead us to expect a meaning in everything He said or did-in the place He chose to say it, and in the order. Nothing is without its significance to an open ear. Not always may we be able to discern it. Dull and heavy are we still in these heavenly exercises; but it is in meditation on such themes that the holy and gracious Spirit, the Comforter, leads us "into all truth." Under His guidance we walk in pleasant pastures, and our eyes open to ever-unfolding beauties, to which we had hitherto been blind. Thus, let us feel well assured that there is a depth of holy meaning and purpose in the order chosen by the Lord Jesus. First, the bread. What, then, is always first in the ways of God with man ? Righteousness, and afterwards peace. As surely as, and for the same reason as, the Holy Spirit speaks of the name of the royal priest Melchizedek as being "first by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of peace," so must that which so clearly speaks of all the demands of righteousness fulfilled, come first. First, a solid foundation must be laid, in order that, in unshaken security, the edifice may rest upon it. First, everything must be right, in such sort as is fully consistent with the Light of God, in order that the Love of God may freely act. First, the Throne of God must be guarded, that it may not "shake" in showing mercy to the guilty. It is the mark of the "wisdom that is from above," that it is first pure ; then peace happily follows. First, sins must have their just due; then may God press to Himself the penitent sinner with a holy kiss. Thus shall we, if we listen intently, find this "bread " to be in sweet, if solemn, harmony with all this accord in the ways of God. It is His Body, bruised for us. Oh, how well and admirably chosen is the symbol! "Bread corn is bruised," says the prophet (Isa. 28:28). Indeed it is; and until it is bruised, as we may say in a sense, "it abideth alone"; none may feed upon it. We may admire its beauty as it waves like billows of gold in the autumn sunlight; but no food, no strengthening, do we get from it. Crush it between the millstones, grind it, bruise it, and so we shall eat of it; yes, and so shall it tell us of His body which is for us. Then, as we eat first the bread, are we called to remember the holy One of God bruised under the stroke of judgment ; with reverend awe, and affections all astir, may we watch Him once more as He enters all alone into that cloud where no man could be. No Moses and Elias with Him now. It is still God's "beloved Son"; and indeed, indeed we "hear Him," as He cries, " Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani." We feed;-this is indeed the staff of our life-this the power of God in the Gospel, the joyful boast of the apostle, and, in measure, of all saints; for "herein is the righteousness of God revealed;" and in the solemn silence of the Holiest of all, we eat the bread in remembrance of Him in perfect peace.

Let us further note, before closing our meditation on the bread, that it represents specifically His holy body which was bruised-not, therefore, the Church, which is also in another sense His body, but never bruised. The loaf upon our table is to bring to our minds His human body; and yet the oneness of all believers is evidenced by their partaking of the one loaf, as chap. 10:16 distinctly teaches :" For we being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf." It is therefore distinctly the divinely-given privilege of every member of that mystic body, whether a babe, young man, or father, -irrespective of intelligence or attainment,-to partake of that "one loaf;" and, thus partaking, to show the oneness of all believers, who are as closely united by the indwelling Spirit as are the members of the natural body. Thus the guests at this holy supper are divinely marked out. F. C. J.