CHAPTER IV.

A Service of Hope.

THERE was silence in the cottage for a short space of time after Harry had finished the last sentence.

Michael Garth continued to look fixedly into the fire, with a thoughtful expression upon his weather-beaten face. His wife watched him anxiously, wishing that he should be the first to reply. Presently Garth turned from the fire, slowly seated himself beside it, and resting his hands on his knees, began—

"All you've said, sir, is true; but I don't feel us how I'm fit yet to take the Lord's Supper. I've been a hard-working man, I've no learning, and I don't think I'm good enough yet; that's the long and short of the matter."

"And there be such terrible words about taking the Communion unworthily," said Martha, timidly.

"Those terrible words were written to the Corinthians, who were actually guilty of intemperance when they met together for their love-feasts," replied Harry Maude. "It is impossible, as our services are conducted, that we could offend as they did."

"But sure, sir, we can take the Lord's Supper unworthily," observed Garth.

"Yes, assuredly, if we dare to approach the Table when living in wilful sin," said the officer. "If we keep the leaven of malice and wickedness in our hearts, we are unfit to partake of the feast. If we are acquiring money by fraud or theft, we are unfit to partake of the feast. If we are denying the Lord who bought us, we are unfit to partake of the feast."

"God forbid that we should do any of these things, sir!" exclaimed honest Garth. "I'm no better than others, I know, but I'd never touch a penny as was not my own, and I don't bear malice, I hope, towards any living creature."

"No, I'm sure he don't!" cried the goodwife.

"Depend upon it, my friends," said Harry, "there is nothing which unfits a believer for appearing at the Table of his Lord, but that which would unfit him for Heaven—self-righteousness and wilful sin. If a man be really unprepared to partake of the bread and the wine, he has cause to fear every hour of the day—he has cause to fear when he lies down at night, lest death should suddenly overtake him—because he is unprepared to die."

"But though we mayn't be living in wilful sin, yet we're far from being what we should be," said Michael Garth, thoughtfully shaking his head.

"And so were those whom our Lord Himself chose to appear at the very first Communion service that ever was held upon earth," cried Harry.

"Why, sir, they were the holy Apostles who took the bread and wine from our Lord's own hands," said Michael.

"And what were those Apostles but weak, erring men, whose spirit was willing, but whose flesh was weak?" asked young Maude. "Did not our Lord, when He called them around Him, know that some of them had just been disputing which should be the greatest? Did He not know that, in the course of a few hours, all would forsake Him and flee? Did He not know that one, the foremost amongst them, would deny Him with curses and oaths? The Lord knew all this, and yet He invited His Apostles to share His Holy supper. Would He have praised for humility, or rebuked for disobedience, any one of them who should have refused to come, saying, 'Lord, I feel that I am not worthy?'"

"There was no fear that they should refuse," murmured Martha, "they would not have dared to keep away when the Lord bade them come."

"But it seems that disciples in the present day dare to do that which Apostles would not have ventured to do, refuse their Lord's invitation," said Harry.

"But ye see, sir," observed Garth, after a pause, "it was all such a new thing with the Twelve; there had never been anything like the Communion before."

"Excuse me," said Harry, quickly; "the Christian feast of the Holy Supper is founded on the Jewish feast of the Passover, which our Lord Himself kept in obedience to God's command. If you turn to the 12th chapter of Exodus, you will find that on one particular evening in the year, every Israelitish household had to partake of a lamb, in remembrance of the firstborn of Israel being spared, through the sprinkled blood of a lamb, when the firstborn of Egypt were slain. 'This day shall be unto you for a memorial, said the Lord, all the congregation of Israel shall keep it.' * A Jew who should have neglected attending the Holy Feast would have shewn, by such neglect, that he cared not for the blood of sprinkling, that he did not choose to cast in his lot with that of the Lord's chosen people."

* Exodus xii. 14, 47.

"But surely, sir," said Michael, earnestly, "we Christians in Britain are not bound to keep a Jewish feast."

"No more than we are called upon to sacrifice a lamb," replied Harry, "and sprinkle its blood on our door-posts. Our sacrifice was offered once for all, when the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, died on Calvary for us. But the feast which he ordained in place of the Jewish Passover, is to be kept 'till He come.' † What are the words of St. Paul on the subject? 'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast.'" ‡

† 1 Cor. xi. 26. ‡ 1 Cor. v. 7.

"I never understood afore that the Passover had anything to do with the Lord's Supper," said Michael.

"It was what is called a type of it," replied the officer. "The Israelites in the Passover celebrated their deliverance from death, and the bondage of Egypt; Christians celebrate in the Communion their deliverance from eternal death, and the bondage of sin. The Israelites rejoiced in the gift of Canaan, Christians rejoice in the gift of Heaven. The Israelites, when starting on their long journey through the desert, gained strength in body by partaking of the food which they ate by God's command. Christians, in their long journey through life, gain strength in soul by partaking also, by God's command, of bread and wine, with faith and repentance."

"Oh! My friends, let us never forget this. If we feel that we are sinful and weak, let us go to the Lord's Table for grace and strength to struggle against sin, grace and strength to press on towards Heaven. 'Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.' * The Christian Communion is not only a service of obedience, it is also a service of hope, and a service of joy."

* Heb. x. 22.

Harry rose as he finished the last sentence, but the old labourer did not rise; Michael did not wish his visitor to quit the cottage just yet.

"Then really I may be angering God by leaving this thing undone," he began, rather as if speaking to himself, than as addressing any other person present.

"I am afraid that wilful neglect of anything which we are bidden, in the Bible, to do is sin, a sin of omission," said Maude. "We are apt to think little of such sins; and if we abstain to a certain degree from doing what we ought not to do, we are seldom much troubled by the conviction that we have left undone that which we ought to have done. But God's Word teaches a different lesson. The barren fig tree cumbered the ground, not because it brought forth bad fruit, but because it bore no fruit at all. The man with one talent was reproved, not because he had misspent the money, but because he had not used it for good."

"In our Lord's own account of the Judgment, He tells us not of the sentence which will be passed upon those who have injured, robbed, or murdered His poor; but that which awaits those who have neglected to help them. This shews us most clearly that God marks our sins of omission. I would not have ventured thus to speak to you, my friends," continued the young officer earnestly, "had I not feared that, almost without knowing it, you might be committing this sin by neglecting an ordinance of God. I own that I have often myself thus offended by leaving known duties undone, and from the bottom of my heart I join in the dying prayer of Archbishop Usher, 'Oh! God, forgive me my sins, especially my sins of omission!'"

"Amen!" murmured the old labourer, and his wife, as she folded her wrinkled hands, faintly echoed the "Amen."

"And once more I ask your pardon for having spoken thus freely," said Harry Maude, holding out his hand to Garth with cordial frankness of manner. "But I had it on my heart to entreat you not to miss a blessing by neglecting a duty, and turning away from a service of obedience, of hope, and of joy. Every loyal subject of the Lord, when of ripe years, is invited to the Table of his Heavenly King, and it is his blessed privilege as well as his bounden duty to appear there as a thankful guest, looking forward to the time when he, through Christ's merits and death, shall be welcomed to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the glorious feast in the Kingdom of Heaven."