Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-04-25

Lesson for April %.
Golden Text.-''This do In remembrance
Of me."-Luke %: 10.
As the text given would indicate, the
subject Of this lesson 10 1.-THE Lords
Supper" Mark IA: 1926. The Lords
supper In its true conception emphasizes
the Christ rather than the meal. II II not
the elements that are to fix our attention
but the person suggested by the elements
This do In remembrance of me-" Mind
and heart must be clear and active, or
we will miss the blessing. "Take. eat
this 10 my body"-not in substance but
In shadow. For when Christ spoke the
word he was still in the body. And SO,
just as the disciples at the first looked
beyond and above the bread at the real
Christ, so will we in. humble trust It'll
he come" mi
sand as they did eat Jesus took bread
and blessed and brake it." He brings
his own and our provision with him. Or
rather he takes our poor providing and
turns 1t into heavenly substance. The
passover is changed into the Lords sup
per. The bitter is turned to sweet; in
other words, he takes the bitter and
leaves us the sweet. Right in the midst
| of the old supper he institutes the new.
And how happy we are that in our pain
aud penury we let him in! o believe 1t:
"Behold l stand at the door, and knock,
II any man hear my voice, and open the
door, will come In to him, and will sup
with him, and he with me-"
"Take, eat, this is my body" Christ
says it. Fix the eye upon him. How
could Luther have made the mistake OF
| suppOsing that Christ then and there, or
at any time after, since he even liveth
to make intercession, transferred himself
into the midst of the material bread and
wine? The disciples understood him and
reverenced not the bread but the Lord.
Their eye was not down upon the ele-
ments, but up toward the face of their
Master.
| And forward to. "Until that day."
says Jesus. This lifts the heart away
from the damps and fogs of earth to the
glorious light Of the throne. Christ is
coming again. The Supper looks forward
to it. 1t is not funeral occasion; it is
glad feast of anticipation. SO take it,
80 eat it It'll he comes" "Amen. Even
30 come Lord Jesus"
Hints and illustrations.
| What is the proper demeanor for the
observance of the Lords Supper? Not
gloom, neither mirth; but kind of glad
sOlemnity or solemn joy. That blessed
old hymn puts it well:
Father, whater of earthly bliss
Thy sovereign will denies,
Accepted at a throne of grace,
Let this petition rise.
"Give me calm and thankful heart,
From every murmur free;
| The blessings of thy grace impart,
| And make me live to thee.
"Let the sweet hope that thou art mine
My life and death attend
Thy presence through my journey shine,
And crown my journeys end"
The Lord make no mistake in his pre-.
dictions. The disciples found it "as he
had said unto them" Did they ever find
| 1t else than so, and shall we ever find it
otherwise? There be those who are en-
deavoring to convince us that our Lords
humiliation included much of human ig-
norance and liability to error. Our lack
of conviction here may be due to dull
| ness, perhaps, yet we have never been
able to think comfortably, and as we be-
lieve rightly. of our Lord, in such a con-
ception of his theanthropic nature. His
humanity took not away from his deity,
his deity did not thwart or submerge his
humanity. He was always everywhere
wholly God, wholly man. Deal with the
mystery as you will, but leave us our
Christ, perfect God, perfect man, able
to save unto the uttermost. Says John
Reid, 1--WE sometimes compare one man
with another, but Christ can be compared
| with no one. He cannot even be de-
scribed."
There are some who decline to dome to
the Lords table because there are those
present whom they cannot fellowship.
But Christ ate with his betrayer. "One
of you which eateth with me-" he says,
"shall betray me-" Whether we under
stand Judas to have gone out before the
institution Of the Lords supper or not,
the fact remains the same that so far as
fellowship was concerned, Christ was
not withheld from the feast by the pres
ence of an unworthy guest. The mistake
here is plain. 1t is putting the empha-
sis ut the table on man rather than i'm HIS
Lord. "Our sins will not save you," was
a right answer to the one who was stay
ing away from Christ because Of the in
constituencies of Christians. So also to
the man or woman who stays away from
the table because of undeserving partak-
ers we may say, Our want will not re-
fresh you, or our deficiencies make up for
your lack u
The Lords supper was both q fulfilment
and an advance upon the passover. The
significance and worth of each depended
on this, that there should be distinct
step of progress here. DR.. Trumbull,
when n soldier, took his boy to one Of the
great saviours of our country and said
81 want my boy to meet you, general,
SO that in after years he may feel, when
he knows of your fame, that he has taken
you by the hand" The officers pregnant
response, as he took the boys hand was,
II hope you will make better man than
your father" Quick came DIR. Trumbull's
rejoinder, "Unless he is, general, both
our lives are failure" b,I
"A large upper room furnished and pre-
pared" How have we let the Lord into
our lives? Has he come in ut the rear
door to be overlooked and forgotten, like
n wayfaring man that tarres for the
night; or have we let him in at the front
door and given him the choice upper
room, an honored guest? According as
we let him In and welcome him does he up-
lift and bless us. He glorifes us as we
glorify him. DR.. d, NJ, Stearns has aptly
said, hJust as the Lord asked Simon for
the loan of his boat that he might speak
from it to the people, so he isasking us
for these bodies of ours-earthen vessels
(Rom. xii, IL. 2 Cor. w., q, that out of
them he may continually preach his word
through us in the power of the Spirit. 1t