as the most important requisites in the characters of his true disciples.

It is, accordingly, in this sense that the Author has employed the words which he has prefixed to this part of the Work, viz. "that whosoever will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein."*

See note (D).

CATECHISM.*

MARK X. 15. Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

QUESTION. Who instituted the ordinance of the Supper?

ANSWER. Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Q. What does this consideration suggest to

you?

A. It reminds me of the high authority and great solemnity of the ordinance, and of my obligation to keep it holy;—it having been appointed by a person of such transcendent dignity,-and of such pre-eminent love to the human race.

Q. On what night did our Saviour institute this ordinance ?

* See note (E).

A. The same night in which he was betrayed ;that is, on the evening of the day preceding that on which he was crucified.

Q. What effect ought this consideration to have on you?

A. It ought to give the ordinance a character of deep interest to my mind,-as having been instituted at a time when the sorrows of the Redeemer were gathering around him in all their darkness, and when events of such importance to the spiritual welfare of mankind were about to take place.

Q. Who were present with our Saviour at the supper, when this ordinance was first instituted ? A. His twelve disciples. “When the evening was come," says the sacred historian," Jesus," having previously made all things ready for the celebration of the Paschal solemnity," sat down with the twelve.".

Q. Does not this meeting then appear to you to have been, on several accounts, the most remarkable of all the meetings that ever took place upon earth?

A. It was so, indeed,-from the character of the party that composed it,-from the importance

of the events that were at that moment taking place, and from the behaviour of the persons themselves who were then assembled.

Q. What were the characters of the party that composed the meeting?

A. He who presided was the Son of God,—the Messiah of whose coming in the flesh so many glorious promises had been given,-the "Man of sorrows," who was to work out salvation for mankind, the blessed and now glorified Saviour of the human race. And the other members of the party were those humble, but now honoured men, by whose "foolishness" God had destined to put to silence "the wisdom of the wise,”—and who have, accordingly, been the ministers of the most valuable of all the knowledge that has ever been communicated to men,—and the instruments of the most wonderful changes that have ever taken place upon the intellectual, the moral, and the religious character of the human race.

Q. What were the events that were about to occur at the time when this last meeting of Jesus with his friends took place, and which gave, as you said, so peculiar an interest to their “ sitting down" together?

E

A. They were to eat the Paschal Lamb that evening for the last time, before its meaning should be accomplished in the death of him who, as the Lamb of God without spot or blemish, was to take away the sins of the world;-the most wonderful event that was to grace the annals of time was accordingly about to take place, in the sacrifice of the Son of God for the salvation of mankind; and a new and glorious era was about to commence, during the progress of which the Gospel should be preached among all nations,-and mankind, from all countries, and from all the ages of time, should be gathered as into one fold, under one shepherd.

Q. What was remarkable in the conduct of the persons themselves who sat down to this last supper?

A. It was then that the Redeemer seems to have spoken more freely than at any preceding time respecting the character of the death which he was about to suffer, as the sacrifice appointed by his heavenly Father for the remission of sins to mankind. It was then, too, that he filled the hearts of his disciples with grief and amazement, by uttering those awful words, " Verily I