spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" 5 "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." "Though he be not far from every one of us. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being." h Yet the sacred presence of the Lord, in a more peculiar manner, in congregations assembled for Divine worship, is most graciously and assuredly promised to us. "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." But in no assemblies convened for sacred purposes, can we expect to be favoured with the presence of the great God, our Saviour, so super-eminently as in those met for the celebration of the Holy Sacraments. "For sith God is himself invisible, and cannot by us be discerned working, therefore when it seemeth good in the eyes of His heavenly wisdom, that men, for some special intent and purpose, should take notice of His glorious presence, He giveth them some plain and sensible token whereby to know what they cannot see. For Moses to see God and live was impossible, yet Moses, by fire, knew when the glory of God extraordinarily was present. The angel by whom God endued the waters of the pool called Bethesda with supernatural virtue was not seen of any, yet the time of the angel's presence was known by the « Jeremiah, xxiii. 23, 24. h Acts, xvii. 27, 28. i St. Matthew, xviii. 20. troubled motion of the waters themselves. The Apostles, by fiery tongues which they saw, were admonished when the Spirit, which they could not behold, was upon them. In like manner, it is with us. Christ and His Holy Spirit, with all their blessed effects, though entering into the soul of man, we are not able to apprehend or express how, do, notwithstanding, give notice of the times when they use to make their access, because it pleases Almighty God to communicate by sensible means those blessings which are incomprehensible."* In the Levitical dispensation there was a very beautiful instance of the divine presence intimated by outward signs, -"And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." By such especial presence of God was the first Temple glorified. If, then, the Divine presence was thus testified by outward signs under the law, we may surely believe that it may be found in sacramental ordinances appointed by the Lord, Hooker, Book 5, Section 57, page 328. Ed. Keble, under the more advanced and spiritual dispensation of the Gospel. "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God."m The Holy Sacraments, then, direct us to an especial place and time wherein the presence of the Lord may be expected. They are blessed means of communication with Heaven. The ladder which Jacob saw in vision reached to heaven. "And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." This filled the patriarch with holy awe and reverential fear, when he was awakened to a recognition of it. "And he said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven." Thus an attendant at the Holy Sacraments may have to say, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." And a real contemplation of the divine presence would fill the devout communicant with pious fear and deep reverence for his God. When the blessed Jesus was baptised, "Lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him." And this appears to be an open revelation of that which occurs invisibly in every perfect baptism. In the Lord's Supper we believe that our adorable Redeemer, in his boundless condescension, vouchsafes to us His gracious presence. Here is its awfulness as well as its blessedness and great attraction. It places us where the Lord is. How can we contemplate this without feeling our whole being overwhelmed with adoring reverence and sacred awe. To the advanced Christian here is a source of "joy unspeakable, and full of glory,' while to the wicked it is a cup of trembling and dismay. "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." This is at once a fearful and an encouraging sentence. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,"— presumptuously approaching him not with devout reverence and holy adoration, but with an impenitent, unbelieving, and careless heart. But presenting ourselves at the Holy Table with sacred feelings of deep piety and lowly devotion, we see ground of encouragement of the most elevating and delightful nature. That discernment of which the absence is the ground of the indevout communicant's sin, is a source of the sweetest comfort and most cheering hope to the true Christian. He feels that he is partaking of the most precious body and blood of Christ. He believes that the unspeakable blessings purchased by His death are now appropriated to him. He considers that he is renewing and strengthening his union with the Lord of Life. In union with Him, he has fellowship with the Father, fellowship with the angelic host, fellowship with the saints, the household of God, the whole Church of Christ. 91 Peter, i. 8. r 1 Corinthians, ix. 29. Thus is accom plished the amazing prayer of our blessed Saviour, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Thus we see tending toward its fulfilment the gracious God's "good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him." Thus are Gentiles, together with the ancient people of the Mosaic covenant, brought home to God in Christ. "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God."" The Holy Sacraments, therefore, are a connecting chain between heaven and earth. And blessed are they who, drawn up by it to "high and heavenly things," are in perpetual preparation for the triumphant kingdom of Christ. Blessed are they who are thus "prepared to meet their God." For we must all "shortly put off this our Tabernacle." Then must we appear in the presence of God. We must stand unveiled before that God in whose sight are all the thoughts, feelings, affections, dispositions of our heart, in whose book are written all the words and deeds of our life. Such contemplation of God's perfect knowledge of us, together with consciousness of sin and considera W t John, xvii. 21. Ephesians, ii. 18, 19. Ephesians, i. 9, 10. V x Amos, iv. 12. |