"The King of Heaven his table spreads,

And blessings crown the board;

Not Paradise, with all its joys,

Could such delight afford.

That doleful night before his death,
The Lamb for sinners slain

Did, almost with his dying breath,
This solemn feast ordain.

See, Jesus stands with open arms;
He calls, he bids you come :
Ye happy souls, his grace adore ;
Approach, there yet is room.
All things are ready, come away,
Nor weak excuses frame;
Crowd to your places at the feast,

And bless the Founder's name."

Now the hallowed bread, in deft morsels cut,
Is doled to every waiting child of faith,
The priest assevering with no faltering voice:
"This is the body of the Crucified —

Him who hath said, Except ye eat my flesh And drink my blood, ye have no life in you."" Anon the wine is poured, the chalice kissed, To typify the fount of Calvary,

And there is awful stillness in the fane;

For all the saints are musing on the Cross,
The deathless love and earthquake agony
Of their expiring God.

Hear what the first Christian doctor of divinity claimed for himself and his colleagues:

"Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ; for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man; for I neither received it of man, nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."

And so the Church has said of all her lore.
How Paul's presumption flatters modern priests!
And aged men have almost ceased to stare,
When beardless preachers say without a blush:
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ,
As though God did beseech you, sirs, by us:
We pray you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God."

When the Church makes of men her ministers,
She bids them say they think most heartfully
Jesus has called them to the godly work;
Demands an honest faith, an active zeal,
A will of love to know and do and teach
"His doctrine, sacraments and discipline."
To greaten trust, she aptly quotes from Paul:

:-

"Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

And whom he consecrates the bishop first exhorts :

"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye have in remembrance, into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge ye are called: that is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach, and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family; to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ forever. Have always therefore printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For they are the sheep of Christ, which he bought with his death, and for whom he shed his blood. The

church and congregation whom you must serve is

his spouse and his body."

Now bend their knees, and on their willing heads
The prelate lays his hands, charged from above
With all the priestly powers the very gifts
That Jesus gave first to his chosen twelve.
The rite is done; the bishop bids them go
The way of clergymen, and after them
The benedictive voices of the Church:

Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim
Salvation in Immanuel's name :
To distant lands the tidings bear,
And plant the Rose of Sharon there."

SECTION III.

The Church professes to know and teach the whole Gospel of Jesus, and to be the exclusive medium of his saving grace.

Where is the Christian sect that proposes to teach only a part of the Gospel? In manner, if not in word, every preacher seems to say that he is ready to "declare the whole counsel of God." It is a no

torious fact, that, in all ages, ecclesiastics have made it their business to instruct, always manifesting great unwillingness to learn anything of others, and boldly proclaiming that all who receive not their doctrine must perish for its lack. Assuming that the sacred scriptures constitute the only valid form of Revelation, and so the sole medium of religious intelligence, they argue that the New Testament, being a work of Divine Inspiration in which the whole Trinity was concerned, is therefore a perfect summary of all that Jesus himself would teach. So every clergyman carries the Gospel in his pocket, and missionaries proffer it to the heathen between a thumb and finger.

Look at the attitude of the Church to-day. Is it at all like that of a Truth-seeker? Is it for more light that she prays, or more faith in what she has? Is she making the best use of her faculties to be undeceived and to grow in knowledge; or does she pretend to have already attained all the religious truth that is worth wishing for, and this unmixed with error? Does she honor science and philosophy in their application to her creed; or does she denounce all rational tests of her revelations as dangerous and