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Tracts for the Christian Seasons.

THURSDAY BEFORE EASTER.

Jesus institutes the Sacrament of the Last Supper-suffers agony in the garden—is betrayed by Judas-is denied by Peter-is condemned by the High-priest and Council.

THROUGHOUT this day, until eventide, nothing happened that needed to be recorded. Our Lord was still in His retirement at Bethany. And good reason there seems to have been for His stillness and repose, when we consider what His nature was going to endure towards the end of the day. He then revisits Jerusalem, never again to return from it on this side of the grave. And all at once in following Him in our thoughts we are in the throng of the awful events, which come one upon another, like claps of thunder, and disclose to us the frightful wickedness of men and the enduring mercy of the Redeemer.

The first event is one which He, at the very time of its occurrence, especially ordered to be remembered to the end of the world by the members of His Church. It was the supper, in which He appeared for the last time before His death.

among His disciples, and took His leave of them, and instituting the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." And it has been done in remembrance of Him unto the present day, wheresoever His Gospel has been preached. But has this been done so often and by so many as it should have been done? Must it not be confessed that amongst us at least, but a small proportion, often not a tenth part, of those who have solemnly ratified their baptismal vows at confirmation, concern themselves in that remembrance. What do you say to this? Surely, you will not say that you do as most others do, and rest content with that. Will the consent of any number of people turn wrong into right? into right? Only consider what was the general consent of the people of God in those days in Jerusalem. Was not "Crucify Him, crucify Him," their general cry? Do you think that Christ will judge His people in this day, and accept anything from them as right because it has been done by the most part? Then the man of this world will have no reason to fear; he is as safe as the general consent of the world can make him. Childish, and utterly contrary to common sense as such an argument is, yet it lies at the bottom of the heart of every careless Christian.

He has not forsaken the way of the world, and made Christ the way for himself, and therefore conforming to it he must needs defend and uphold its fashion.

But you carefully keep the Lord's day. And now what are the words of the commandment which orders that to be kept? Are they not, "Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbathday ?" Are they then more positive than these, "Do this in remembrance of Me?" Is this then your liberty in Christ, to obey that commandment which came in threats amid fire and tempest; and to disobey that which came with every token of gentleness and love? Can you have that love which "casteth out fear ?" Are you not most truly slavish in heart, and requiring the scourge to set you to work, and not the kind voice of the Master, who calls you friend, if you keep only that which comes in the shape of stern commandment, but neglect that which comes under the form of a loving request? Had our Lord said, "Do this, and remember the dreadful judgment with which I will visit the neglect of it," do you think that it would meet with the neglect which now befals it? Would you yourself dare to neglect it? But because He says, "Do this, and remember Me, who so love

My sheep, that I am laying down My life for them," you think yourself quite free to do or not do; you presume upon His goodness, and trouble not yourself about the words. Is not this the same slavish spirit which at that time possessed the populace of Jerusalem? And are you in no danger of crucifying Him afresh, to whom you refuse to render your testimony of love, rejecting the dying words of Him who died to save you?

Terrible are the examples before you this night. Will you not be warned, whoever turn away from the table on which the remembrance of Him is made. There were then at that table two who would not take our Lord's warning. There was Peter, too confident in his courage to understand the meaning of it, and Judas, too desperately engaged in his treason to accept it. And on this very night they both fell: one for a time, the other for ever. And remember that they had both followed the Lord and attended to His word in public and in private up to that moment. They had both shared with Him perils in the wilderness and perils on the deep. What have you yourself done? Can you call to mind one day or one transaction in which you have distinctly and purposely put yourself in Christ's company, wrought purely for His sake, and with

the thought of His eye, as of a loving Lord, upon you? Then you may have come to the point of peril in which these two disciples were. But if you have so little thought of being under His eye that you have not even given attention to the ready and easy means of remembering Him, and communicating with Him, which He has Himself established, how infinitely beyond that point must your peril be. Can Can you claim to be a disciple at all? Can the disciple who will not think of his master be really a disciple; or a servant who will not think of his Lord be really a servant? Do you think that there is only one way of denying Christ, namely, that in which Peter denied Him; and only one way of betraying Christ, namely, that in which Judas betrayed Him? Alas there are hundreds and thousands of ways, as there are hundreds and thousands of kinds of that shame which led Peter to deny his Lord while He was standing as a criminal at the bar of the high-priest; and hundreds and thousands of that base spirit of worldly gain which led Judas to betray Him. How many are daily ashamed of the cross of Christ, being afraid of the ridicule of the world and mockery of companions, if they pursue that line of duty which their conscience, informed by

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