I would cause You to drink of spiced
wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
Solomon's Song 8:2.

And of his fulness have all we received,
and grace for grace."  John 1:16.

The immovable basis of communion having
been laid of old in the eternal union
 which subsisted between Christ and His elect, it
 only needed a fitting occasion to manifest itself
 in active development. The Lord Jesus had forever
 delighted Himself with the sons of men, and he
 ever stood prepared to reveal and communicate that
 delight to His people; but they were incapable of
 returning His affection or enjoying His
 fellowship, having fallen into a state so base and
 degraded, that they were dead to Him, and careless
 concerning Him. It was therefore needful that
 something should be done FOR them, and IN them,
 before they could hold converse with Jesus, or
 feel concord with Him. This preparation being a
 work of grace and a result of previous union,
 Jesus determined that, even in the preparation for
 communion, there should be communion. If they
 must be washed before they could fully converse
 with Him, He would commune with them in the
 washing; and if they must be enriched by gifts
 before they could have full access to Him, He
 would commune with them in the giving. He has
 therefore established a fellowship in imparting
 His grace, and in partaking of it.
This order of fellowship we have called
 "The Communion of Communication," and we think
 that a few remarks will prove that we are not
 running beyond the warranty of Scripture.
The word koinonia, or communion, is
 frequently employed by inspired writers in the
 sense of communication or contribution. When, in
 our English version, we read, "For it has pleased
 them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain
 contribution for the poor saints which are at
 Jerusalem" (Rom. 15:26), it is interesting to know
 that the word koinonian is used, as if to show
 that the generous gifts of the Church in Achaia to
 its sister Church at Jerusalem was a communion.
 Calvin would have us notice this, because, says
 he, "The word here employed well expresses the
 feeling by which it behooves us to relieve the
 needs of our brethren, even because there is to be
 a common and mutual regard on account of the union
 of the body." He would not have strained the text
 if he had said that there was in the contribution
 the very essence of communion. Gill, in his
 commentary upon the above verse, most pertinently
 remarks, "Contribution, or communion, as the word
 signifies, it being one part of the communion of
 churches and of saints to relieve their poor by
 communicating to them." The same word is employed
 in Hebrews 13:16, and is there translated by the
 word "communicate." "But to do good, and to
 communicate, do not forget: for with such sacrifices
 God is well pleased." It occurs again in 2
 Corinthians 9:13, "And for your liberal
 distribution unto them, and unto all men;" and in
 numerous other passages the careful student will
 observe the word in various forms, representing
 the ministering of the saints to one another as an
 act of fellowship. Indeed, at the Lord's supper,
 which is the embodiment of communion, we have ever
 been wont to make a special contribution for the
 poor of the flock, and we believe that in the
 collection there is as true and real an element of
 communion as in the partaking of the bread and
 wine. The giver holds fellowship with the receiver
 when he bestows his benefaction for the Lord's
 sake, and because of the brotherhood existing
 between him and his needy friends. The teacher
 holds communion with the young disciple when he
 labors to instruct him in the faith, being moved
 thereto by a spirit of Christian love. He who
 intercedes for a saint because he desires his
 well-being as a member of the one family, enters
 into fellowship with his brother in the offering
 of prayer. The loving and mutual service of
 church-members is fellowship of a high degree. And
 let us remember that the recipient communes with
 the benefactor: the communion is not confined to
 the giver, but the heart overflowing with
 liberality is met by the heart brimming with
 gratitude, and the love manifested in the bestowal
 is reciprocated in the acceptance. When the hand
 feeds the mouth or supports the head, the diverse
 members feel their union, and sympathize with one
 another; and so is it with the various portions of
 the body of Christ, for they commune in mutual
 acts of love.
Now, this meaning of the word communion
 furnishes us with much instruction, since it
 indicates the manner in which recognized
 fellowship with Jesus is commenced and maintained,
 namely, by giving and receiving, by communication
 and reception. The Lord's supper is the
 divinely-ordained exhibition of communion, and
 therefore in it there is the breaking of bread and
 the pouring forth of wine, to picture the free
 gift of the Savior's body and blood to us; and
 there is also the eating of the one and the
 drinking of the other, to represent the reception
 of these priceless gifts by us. As without bread
 and wine there could be no Lord's supper, so
 without the gracious bequests of Jesus to us there
 would have been no communion between Him and our
 souls: and as participation is necessary before
 the elements truly represent the meaning of the
 Lord's ordinance, so is it needful that we should
 receive His bounties, and feed upon His person,
 before we can commune with Him.
It is one branch of this mutual
 communication which we have selected as the
 subject of this address. "Looking unto Jesus," who
 has delivered us from our state of enmity, and
 brought us into fellowship with Himself, we pray
 for the rich assistance of the Holy Spirit, that
 we may be refreshed in spirit, and encouraged to
 draw more largely from the covenant storehouse of
 Christ Jesus the Lord.
We shall take a text, and proceed at once
 to our delightful task. " And of His fulness have
 all we received, and grace for grace." (John
 1:16.)
As the life of grace is first begotten in
 us by the Lord Jesus, so is it constantly
 sustained by Him. We are always drawing from this
 sacred fountain, always deriving sap from this
 divine root; and as Jesus communes with us in the
 bestowing of mercies, it is our privilege to hold
 fellowship with Him in the receiving of them.
There is this difference between Christ
 and ourselves, He never gives without manifesting
 fellowship, but we often receive in so ill a
 manner that communion is not reciprocated, and we
 therefore miss the heavenly opportunity of its
 enjoyment. We frequently receive grace insensibly,
 that is to say, the sacred oil runs through the
 pipe, and maintains our lamp, while we are
 unmindful of the secret influence. We may also be
 the partakers of many mercies which, through our
 dulness, we do not perceive to be mercies at all;
 and at other times well-known blessings are
 recognized as such, but we are backward in tracing
 them to their source in the covenant made with
 Christ Jesus.
Following out the suggestion of our
 explanatory preface, we can well believe that when
 the poor saints received the contribution of their
 brethren, many of them did in earnest acknowledge
 the fellowship which was illustrated in the
 generous offering, but it is probable that some of
 them merely looked upon the material of the gift,
 and failed to see the spirit moving in it. Sensual
 thoughts in some of the receivers might possibly,
 at the season when the contribution was
 distributed, have mischievously injured the
 exercise of spirituality; for it is possible that,
 after a period of poverty, they would be apt to
 give greater prominence to the fact that their
 need was removed than to the sentiment of
 fellowship with their sympathizing brethren. They
 would rather rejoice over famine averted than
 concerning fellowship manifested. We doubt not
 that, in many instances, the mutual benefactions
 of the Church fail to reveal our fellowship to our
 poor brethren, and produce in them no feelings of
 communion with the givers.
Now this sad fact is an illustration of
 the yet more lamentable statement which we have
 made. We again assert that, as many of the
 partakers of the alms of the Church are not alive
 to the communion contained therein, so the Lord's
 people are never sufficiently attentive to
 fellowship with Jesus in receiving His gifts, but
 many of them are entirely forgetful of their
 privilege, and all of them are too little aware of
 it. No, worse than this, how often does the
 believer pervert the gifts of Jesus into food for
 his own sin and wantonness! We are not free from
 the fickleness of ancient Israel, and well might
 our Lord address us in the same language: "Now
 when I passed by you, and looked upon you,
 behold, your time was the time of love; and I
 spread My skirt over you, and covered your
 nakedness: yes, I swore unto you, and entered
 into a covenant with You, says the Lord God, and
 you became Mine. Then washed I you with water;
 yes, I throughly washed away your blood from you,
 and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you also
 with broidered work, and shod you with badgers'
 skin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and
 I covered you with silk. I decked you also with
 ornaments, and I put bracelets upon your hands, and
 a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel on your
 forehead, and earrings in your ears, and a
 beautiful crown upon your head. Thus were you
 decked with gold and silver; and your clothing was
 of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; you
 did eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and you
 were exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper
 into a kingdom. And your renown went forth among
 the heathen for your beauty: for it was perfect
 through My loveliness, which I had put upon you,
 says the Lord God. But you did trust in your
 own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of your
 renown." (Ezek. 16:8-16.)
Ought not the mass of professors to
 confess the truth of this accusation? Have not the
 bulk of us most sadly departed from the purity of
 our love? We rejoice, however, to observe a
 remnant of choice spirits, who live near the Lord,
 and know the sweetness of fellowship. These
 receive the promise and the blessing, and so
 digest those who they become good blood in their
 veins, and so do they feed on their Lord that they
 grow up into Him. Let us imitate those elevated
 minds, and obtain their high delights. There is no
 reason why the meanest of us should not be as
 David, and David as the servant of the Lord. We
 may now be dwarfs, but growth is possible; let us
 therefore aim at a higher stature. Let the
 succeeding advice be followed, and, the Holy
 Spirit helping us, we shall have attained thereto.

Make every time of need a time of
 embracing your Lord. Do not leave the mercy-seat
 until you have clasped Him in your arms. In
 every time of need He has promised to give you
 grace to help, and what withholds you from
 obtaining sweet fellowship as a precious addition
 to the promised assistance? Do not be as the beggar
 who is content with the alms, however grudgingly
 it may be cast to him; but, since you are a near
 kinsman, seek a smile and a kiss with every
 blessing He gives you. Is He not better than His
 mercies? What are they without Him? Cry aloud unto
 Him, and let your petition reach His ears, "O my
 Lord, it is not enough to be a partaker of Your
 bounties, I must have Yourself also; if You do
 not give me Yourself with Your favors, they are but
 of little use to me! O smile on me, when You
 blessed me, for else I am still unblest! You
 put perfume into all the flowers of Your
 garden, and fragrance into Your spices; if You
 withdraw Yourself, they are no more pleasant to
 me. Come, then, my Lord, and give me Your love with
 Your grace."
Take good heed, Christian, that your
 own heart is in right tune, that when the fingers
 of mercy touch the strings, they may resound with
 full notes of communion. How sad is it to partake
 of favor without rejoicing in it! Yet such is
 often the believer's case. The Lord casts His
 lavish bounties at our doors, and we, like misers,
 scarcely look out to thank Him. Our ungrateful
 hearts and unthankful tongues mar our fellowship,
 by causing us to miss a thousand opportunities for
 exercising it.
If you would enjoy communion with the
 Lord Jesus in the reception of His grace, endeavor
 to be always sensibly drawing supplies from Him.
 Make your needs public in the streets of your
 heart, and when the supply is granted, let all the
 powers of your soul be present at the reception of
 it. Let no mercy come into your house unsung.
 Note in your memory the list of your Master's
 benefits. Wherefore should the Lord's bounties be
 hurried away in the dark, or buried in
 forgetfulness? Keep the gates of your soul ever
 open, and sit by the wayside to watch the
 treasures of grace which God the Spirit hourly
 conveys into your heart from Jehovah-Jesus, your
 Lord.
Never let an hour pass without drawing
 upon the bank of heaven. If all your needs seem
 satisfied, look steadfastly until the next moment
 brings another need, and then delay not, but with
 this warrant of necessity, hasten to your treasury
 again. Your necessities are so numerous that you
 will never lack a reason for applying to the
 fulness of Jesus; but if ever such an occasion
 should arise, enlarge your heart, and then there
 will be need of more love to fill the wider space.
 But do not allow any presumptive riches of
 your own to suspend your daily receivings from the
 Lord Jesus. You have constant need of Him. You
 need His intercession, His upholding, His
 sanctification; you need that He should work all
 your works in you, and that He should preserve you
 unto the day of His appearing. There is not one
 moment of your life in which you can do without
 Christ. Therefore be always at His door, and the
 needs which you bemoan shall be remembrances to
 turn your heart unto your Savior. Thirst makes
 the deer pant for the waterbrooks, and pain
 reminds a man of the physician. Let your needs
 conduct you to Jesus, and may the blessed Spirit
 reveal Him unto you while He lovingly affords you
 the rich supplies of His love! Go, poor saint, let
 your poverty be the cord to draw you to your rich
 Brother. Rejoice in the infirmity which makes room
 for grace to rest upon you, and be glad that you
 have constant needs which compel you perpetually
 to hold fellowship with your adorable Redeemer.
Study yourself, seek out your necessities,
 as the housewife searches for chambers where she
 may bestow her summer fruits. Regard your needs as
 rooms to be filled with more of the grace of
 Jesus, and suffer no corner to be unoccupied. Pant
 after more of Jesus. Be covetous after Him. Let
 all the past incite you to seek greater things.
 Sing the song of the enlarged heart,—

      "All this is not enough: methinks I grow
         More greedy by fruition; what I get
    Serves but to set
An edge upon my appetite;
And all Your gifts invite
  My prayers for more."

 Cry out to the Lord Jesus to fill the dry beds of
 your rivers until they overflow, and then empty
 you the channels which have hitherto been filled
 with your own self-sufficiency, and beseech Him
 to fill these also with His superabundant grace.
 If your heavy trials sink you deeper in the flood
 of His consolations, be glad of them; and if your
 vessel shall be sunken up to its very bulwarks, be
 not afraid. I would be glad to feel the mast-head
 of my soul twenty fathoms beneath the surface of
 such an ocean; for, as Rutherford said, "Oh, to be
 over the ears in this well! I would not have
 Christ's love entering into me, but I would enter
 into it, and be swallowed up of that love."
 Cultivate an insatiable hunger and a quenchless
 thirst for this communion with Jesus through His
 communications. Let your heart cry forever,
 "Give, give," until it is filled in Paradise.
 

Overcome with Jesus' condescending love for me,
Brought into sweet fellowship with Him,
And feasting with Him in His house of wine,
I am sick with His love for me.

And yet I pant for more dealings with You, my loving Lord.
Visit me with buckets full of Your choicest wine,
Pressed from Your heart upon Mount Calvary,
To cheer and comfort my love-conquered soul.

Lord Jesus, You alone I crave!
Your presence is my life, my joy, my heaven,
And all, without You, is rubbish to me.
Visit me with basketfuls of Your love,
My Savior, hear my cry.

Let Your promises, like apples, comfort me;
Apply Your atoning blood, and covenant love,
Until I see Your radiant face,
At the great eternal wedding feast."
     -Joseph Irons (adapted)

 This is the only covetousness which is allowable:
 but this is not merely beyond rebuke, it is worthy
 of commendation. O saints, do not be straitened in
 your own affections, but enlarge your desires, and so
 receive more of your Savior's measureless
 fulness! I charge you, my soul, thus to hold
 continual fellowship with your Lord, since He
 invites and commands you thus to partake of His
 riches.
Rejoice yourself in benefits received. Let
 the satisfaction of your spirit overflow in streams
 of joy. When the believer reposes all his
 confidence in Christ, and delights himself in Him,
 there is an exercise of communion. If he
 forgets his psalm-book, and instead of singing
 is found lamenting, the mercies of the day will
 bring no communion. Awake, O music! stir up
 yourself, O my soul, be glad in the Lord, and
 exceedingly rejoice! Behold His favors, rich,
 free, and continual; shall they be buried in
 unthankfulness? Shall they be covered with a
 winding-sheet of ingratitude? No! I will praise
 Him. I must extol Him. Sweet Lord Jesus, let me
 kiss the dust of Your feet, let me lose myself in
 thankfulness, for Your thoughts unto me are
 precious, how great is the sum of them! Lo, I
 embrace You in the arms of joy and gratitude, and
 herein I find my soul drawn unto You!
This is a blessed method of fellowship. It
 is kissing the divine lip of blessing with the
 sanctified lip of affection. Oh, for more
 rejoicing grace, more of the songs of the heart,
 more of the melody of the soul!
Seek to recognize the source of your
 mercies as lying alone in Him who is our Head.
 Imitate the chicken, which, every time it drinks
 of the brook, lifts up its head to heaven, as if
 it would return thanks for every drop. If we have
 anything that is commendable and gracious, it must
 come from the Holy Spirit, and that Spirit is
 first bestowed on Jesus, and then through Him on
 us. The oil was first poured on the head of Aaron,
 and thence it ran down upon his garments. Look on
 the drops of grace, and remember that they distill
 from the Head, Christ Jesus. All your rays are
 begotten by this Sun of Righteousness, all your
 showers are poured from this heaven, all your
 fountains spring from this great and immeasurable
 depth. Oh, for grace to see the hand of Jesus on
 every favor! So will communion be constantly and
 firmly in exercise. May the great Teacher
 perpetually direct us to Jesus by making the
 mercies of the covenant the handposts on the road
 which leads to Him. Happy is the believer who
 knows how to find the secret abode of his Beloved
 by tracking the footsteps of His loving
 providence: herein is wisdom which the casual
 observer of mere second causes can never reach.
 Labor, O Christian, to follow up every clue which
 your Master's grace affords you!
Labor to maintain a sense of your entire
 dependence upon His good will and pleasure for the
 continuance of your richest enjoyments. Never try
 to live on the old manna, nor seek to find help in
 Egypt. All must come from Jesus, or you are
 undone forever. Old anointings will not suffice
 to impart unction to our spirit; your head must
 have fresh oil poured upon it from the golden horn
 of the sanctuary, or it will cease from its glory.
 Today you may be upon the summit of the mount
 of God; but He who has put you there must keep
 you there, or you will sink far more speedily
 than you dreams. Your mountain only stands firm
 when He settles it in its place; if He hide His
 face, you will soon be troubled. If the Savior
 should see fit, there is not a window through
 which you see the light of heaven which he
 could not darken in an instant. Joshua bade the
 sun stand still, but Jesus can shroud it in total
 darkness. He can withdraw the joy of your heart,
 the light of your eyes, and the strength of your
 life; in His hand your comforts lie, and at His
 will they can depart from you. Oh! how rich the
 grace which supplies us so continually, and does
 not refrain itself because of our ingratitude! O
 Lord Jesus, we would bow at Your feet, conscious of
 our utter inability to do anything without You, and
 in every favor which we are privileged to
 receive, we would adore Your blessed name, and
 acknowledge Your unexhausted love!
When you have received much, admire the
 all-sufficiency which still remains
 undiminished, thus shall you commune with Christ,
 not only in what you obtain from Him, but also in
 the superabundance which remains treasured up in
 Him. Let us ever remember that giving does not
 impoverish our Lord. When the clouds, those
 wandering cisterns of the skies, have poured
 floods upon the dry ground, there remains an
 abundance in the storehouse of the rain: so in
 Christ there is ever an unbounded supply, though
 the most liberal showers of grace have fallen ever
 since the foundation of the earth. The sun is as
 bright as ever after all his shining, and the sea
 is quite as full after all the clouds have been
 drawn from it: so is our Lord Jesus ever the same
 overflowing fountain of fulness. All this is ours,
 and we may make it the subject of rejoicing
 fellowship. Come, believer, walk through the
 length and breadth of the land, for as far as the
 eye can reach, the land is your, and far beyond
 the utmost range of your observation it is your
 also, the gracious gift of your gracious Redeemer
 and Friend. Is there not ample space for
 fellowship here?
Regard every spiritual mercy as an
 assurance of the Lord's communion with you. When
 the young man gives jewels to the virgin to whom
 he is affianced, she regards them as tokens of his
 delight in her. Believer, do the same with the
 precious presents of your Lord. The common bounties
 of providence are shared in by all men, for the
 good Householder provides water for His swine as
 well as for His children: such things, therefore,
 are no proof of divine complacency. But you have
 richer food to eat; "the children's bread" is in
 your wallet, and the heritage of the righteous is
 reserved for you. Look, then, on every motion of
 grace in your heart as a pledge and sign of the
 moving of your Savior's heart towards you. There
 is His whole heart in the affections of every mercy
 which He sends you. He has impressed a kiss of
 love upon each gift, and He would have you
 believe that every jewel of mercy is a token of
 His boundless love. Look on your adoption,
 justification, and preservation, as sweet
 enticements to fellowship. Let every note of the
 promise sound in your ears like the ringing of
 the bells of the house of your Lord, inviting you
 to come to the banquets of His love. Joseph sent
 to his father donkeys laden with the good things of
 Egypt, and good old Jacob doubtless regarded them
 as pledges of the love of his son's heart: be sure
 not to think less of the kindnesses of Jesus.
Study to know the value of His favors.
 They are no ordinary things, no paste jewels, no
 mosaic gold: they are every one of them so costly,
 that, had all heaven been drained of treasure,
 apart from the precious offering of the Redeemer,
 it could not have purchased so much as the least
 of His benefits. When you see your pardon,
 consider how great a boon is contained in it!
 Bethink you that hell had been your eternal
 portion unless Christ had plucked you from the
 burning! When you are enabled to see yourself as
 clothed in the imputed righteousness of Jesus,
 admire the profusion of precious things of which
 your robe is made. Think how many times the Man of
 sorrows wearied Himself at that loom of obedience
 in which He wove that matchless garment; and
 reckon, if you can, how many worlds of merit
 were cast into the fabric at every throw of the
 shuttle! Remember that all the angels in heaven
 could not have afforded Him a single thread which
 would have been rich enough to weave into the
 texture of His perfect righteousness. Consider the
 cost of your maintenance for an hour; remember that
 your needs are so large, that all the granaries of
 grace that all the saints could fill, could not
 feed you for a moment.
What an expensive dependent you are! King
 Solomon made marvellous provision for his
 household (1 Kings 4:22), but all his beeves and
 fine flour would be as the drop of the bucket
 compared with your daily needs. Rivers of oil, and
 ten thousand rams or fed beasts, would not provide
 enough to supply the necessities of your hungering
 soul. Your least spiritual want demands infinity to
 satisfy it, and what must be the amazing aggregate
 of your perpetually repeated draughts upon your
 Lord! Arise, then, and bless your loving Emmanuel
 for the invaluable riches with which He has
 endowed you. See what a dowry your Bridegroom has
 brought to His poor, penniless spouse. He knows
 the value of the blessings which He brings you,
 for He has paid for them out of His heart's
 richest blood; do not be you so ungenerous as to
 pass them over as if they were but of little
 worth. Poor men know more of the value of money
 than those who have always reveled in abundance
 of wealth. Ought not your former poverty to teach
 you the preciousness of the grace which Jesus
 gives you? For remember, there was a time when
 you would have given a thousand worlds, if they
 had been your, in order to procure the very least
 of His abundant mercies.
Remember how impossible it would have been
 for you to receive a single spiritual blessing
 unless you had been in Jesus. On none of Adam's
 race can the love of God be fixed, unless they are
 seen to be in union with His Son. No exception has
 ever been made to the universal curse on those of
 the first Adam's seed who have no interest in the
 second Adam. Christ is the only Zoar in which
 God's Lots can find a shelter from the destruction
 of Sodom. Out of Him, the withering blast of the
 fiery furnace of God's wrath consumes every green
 herb, and it is only in Him that the soul can
 live. As when the prairie is on fire, men see the
 heavens wrapped in sheets of flame, and in hot
 haste they fly before the devouring element. They
 have but one hope. There is in the distance a lake
 of water. They reach it, they plunge into it, and
 are safe. Although the skies are molten with the
 heat, the sun darkened with the smoke, and the
 earth utterly consumed in the fire, they know that
 they are secure while the cooling flood embraces
 them. Christ Jesus is the only escape for a sinner
 pursued by the fiery wrath of God, and we would
 have the believer remember this. Our own works
 could never shelter us, for they have proved but
 refuges of lies. Had they been a thousand times
 more and better, they would have been but as the
 spider's web, too flail to hang eternal interests
 upon. There was but one name, one sacrifice, one
 blood, by which we could escape. All other
 attempts at salvation were a grievous failure.
 For, "though a man could scourge out of his body
 rivers of blood, and in neglect of himself could
 outlast Moses or Elias; though he could wear out
 his knees with prayer, and had his eyes nailed on
 heaven; though he could build hospitals for all
 the poor on earth, and exhaust the mines of India
 in alms; though he could walk like an angel of
 light, and with the glittering of an outward
 holiness dazzle the eyes of all beholders; no (if
 it were possible to be conceived) though he should
 live for a thousand years in a perfect and
 perpetual observation of the whole law of God, if
 the only exception to his perfection were the very
 least deviation from the law, yet such a man as
 this could no more appear before the tribunal of
 God's justice, than stubble before a consuming
 fire." How, then, with your innumerable sins,
 could you escape the damnation of hell, much
 less become the recipient of bounties so rich and
 large? Blessed window of heaven, sweet Lord Jesus,
 let Your Church forever adore You, as the only
 channel by which mercies can flow to her. My soul,
 give Him continual praise, for without Him you
 had been poorer than a beggar. Be you mindful,
 O heir of heaven, that you could not have had
 one ray of hope, or one word of comfort, if you
 had not been in union with Christ Jesus! The
 crumbs which fall from your table are more than
 grace itself would have given you, had you not
 been in Jesus beloved and approved.
All you have, you have in Him: in Him
 chosen, in Him redeemed, in Him justified, in Him
 accepted. You are risen in Him, but without Him
 you had died the second death. You are in Him
 raised up to the heavenly places, but out of Him
 you would have been damned eternally. Bless
 Him, then. Ask the angels to bless Him. Rouse all
 ages to a harmony of praise for His condescending
 love in taking poor guilty nothings into oneness
 with His all-adorable person. This is a blessed
 means of promoting communion, if the sacred
 Comforter is pleased to take of the things of
 Christ, and reveal them to us as ours, but only
 ours as we are in Him. Thrice-blessed Jesus, let
 us never forget that we are members of Your
 mystical body, and that it is for this reason that
 we are blessed and preserved.
Meditate upon you gracious acts which
 procured your blessings. Consider the ponderous
 labors which your Lord endured for you, and the
 stupendous sufferings by which He purchased the
 mercies which He bestows. What human tongue can
 speak forth the unutterable misery of His heart,
 or describe so much as one of the agonies which
 crowded upon His soul? How much less shall any
 finite comprehension arrive at an idea of the vast
 total of His woe! But all His sorrows were
 necessary for your benefit, and without them not
 one of your unnumbered mercies could have been
 bestowed. Do not be unmindful that—

       "There's never a gift His hand bestows,
            But cost His heart a groan."

 Look upon the frozen ground of Gethsemane, and
 behold the bloody sweat which stained the soil!
 Turn to the hall of Gabbatha, and see the victim
 of justice pursued by His clamorous foes! Enter
 the guard-room of the Praetorians, and view the
 spitting, and the plucking of the hair! and then
 conclude your review upon Golgotha, the mount of
 doom, where death consummated His tortures; and
 if, by divine assistance you are enabled to
 enter, in some humble measure, into the depths of
 your Lord's sufferings, you will be the better
 prepared to hold fellowship with Him when next
 you receive His priceless gifts. In proportion
 to your sense of their costliness will be your
 capacity for enjoying the love which is centered in
 them.
Above all, and chief of all, never forget
 that Christ is your. Amid the profusion of His
 gifts, never forget that the chief gift is
 Himself, and do not forget that, after all, His
 gifts are but Himself. He clothes you, but it is
 with Himself, with His own spotless righteousness
 and character. He washes you, but His innermost
 self, His own heart's blood, is the stream with
 which the fountain overflows. He feeds you with
 the bread of heaven, but do not be unmindful that the
 bread is Himself, His own body which He gives to
 be the food of souls. Never be satisfied with a
 less communication than a whole Christ. A wife
 will not be put off with maintenance, jewels, and
 attire, all these will be nothing to her unless
 she can call her husband's heart and person her
 own. It was the Paschal lamb upon which the
 ancient Israelite did feast on that night that was
 never to be forgotten. So do you feast on Jesus,
 and on nothing less than Jesus, for less than this
 will be food too light for your soul's
 satisfaction. Oh, be careful to eat His flesh and
 drink His blood, and so receive Him into yourself
 in a real and spiritual manner, for nothing short
 of this will be an evidence of eternal life in your
 soul!
What more shall we add to the rules which
 we have here delivered? There remains but one
 great exhortation, which must not be omitted. Seek
 the abundant assistance of the Holy Spirit to
 enable you to put into practice the things which
 we have said, for without His aid, all that we
 have spoken will but be tantalizing the lame with
 rules to walk, or the dying with regulations for
 the preservation of health. O you Divine Spirit,
 while we enjoy the grace of Jesus, lead us into
 the secret abode of our Lord, that we may sup with
 Him, and He with us, and grant unto us hourly
 grace that we may continue in the company of our
 Lord from the rising to the setting of the sun!
 Amen.