race; as it is written, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." When the manna fell down from heaven, the Israelites were so surprised at it that they exclaimed, Manhu - What is this? They could hardly believe it was really nutriment for their perishing bodies. So when the Redeemer came from heaven to redeem the lost, the world "saw no beauty in him;" he appeared as "a root out of a dry ground," he was "despised and rejected of men;" "they esteemed him not." The manna was the unsought, unmerited gift of God. So was our blessed Redeemer; not one soul cried from its ruin for the interposition of Heaven's mercy; "all flesh had corrupted its way," and the simultaneous expression of every man's real feelings was, "No God:" but God "remembered us in our low estate;" "not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for us." Further; the manna descended equally upon the rich and the poor, the priests and the people, the learned and the unlearned. So Christ comes, and is offered to every creature under heaven; the richest man that lives cannot spend eternity in happiness without Christ, and the poorest beggar by the way-side need not live and need not die without Christ. Again: the manna spread itself over the length and breadth of the desert; and if any man perished for lack of food, it was not because there was no manna wherewith to nourish him, but because he had no desire or disposition to gather it. So now, if one soul is lost in that eternity which is to come, it is not because there is no efficacy in the Saviour's blood, it is not because there is no love in God's heart; it is because it has loved sin more than it has loved its own high interest, and preferred the world to Jesus Christ, "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." The Israelites, however, had to go out of their tents in order to gather the manna

as if to show that God will not work a miracle, where ordinary means are perfectly sufficient. So is the preaching of the Gospel: you must come and hear, and the very fact of coming to hear involves some sacrifice; and our blessed Lord's words, whilst they imply no merit on the part of man, yet compel a vigorous use of means "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." We read, again, that when the manna fell, it was so wisely and so beautifully arranged, that "he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack." So is it with faith in Christ; it is not that the man who has great faith, thereby receives a great saviour, and the man who has little faith, a little saviour; the man who has strong faith, that "can remove mountains," and the man who has a faith that trembles on the very verge of extinction, receive equal righteousness, an equal Saviour, equal pardon, equal happiness, and an equal home. It is also related, that when the manna fell, it adapted itself to every man's taste. So is it with our blessed Redeemer; he is so fitted to supply the wants, and suit all the varied tastes of the children of men, that they who have known most of his grace, find it sweetest; and they who can perceive sweetness in nought beside, are constrained to admit that his word is sweeter than honey from the honey-comb, and his truth more precious than fine gold. Such is Christ, as he is set before us in the Scriptures; and such the free welcome of all, to receive the benefits and blessings of his glorious salvation.

When the Israelites collected the manna, we find the time but not the manner of gathering it prescribed. It is not stated that they were all obliged to use only one kind of basket, and that only that one kind of basket sufficed to contain it. This teaches us a very beautiful and catholic lesson: what the basket was to the manna, the visible ministry is to the bread of life, the true bread that cometh down

We do not read, in

from heaven. It is God's ordinance that there shall be a visible church, but it is not God's ordinance that it shall be the same in all circumstances, the same in all its rites, in its discipline, in its formularies, in its laws, and internal arrangements. The color, and shape, and size of the baskets vary, but the contents are all the same. the simple record of the Israelites collecting the manna in the wilderness, that one collected it with a golden basket, another with a silver, and a third with a wicker; and that he who had but a wicker basket did not receive true manna, and that it was collected by, and nourished and refreshed, only by those who had golden baskets. Nor is it so with the living bread. I will grant, if you please, that in the Church of England they have a golden basket wherewith to collect the manna, and that in the Church of Scotland they have but a wicker basket; but in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, the question will not be, by what process or with what vessel you collected, but whether you have really gathered and been nourished with the bread of life. Living nutriment for the soul is the main thing; secure this, and all besides is subordinate. The existing distinctions by which the visible church is now characterized will all be abolished. The question at the judgment-morn will not be what is made so much of now. Attendant angels will in

quire, "What are these, and whence came they?"-and the answer, in reference to those who are about to enter the kingdom of glory, will not be, "These are worshippers from St. Paul's," "These are worshippers from St. George's," "These are from the English, and these from the Scotch Church," "These are from Surrey Chapel," "These are Dissenters, and those are Churchmen;" but the response that will come from the Judge upon the throne, and from the redeemed myriads around him, will be simply this"These are they that have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God."

LECTURE XIII.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.

IN last Lecture I discussed the doctrine of Transubstantiation; and on that occasion I proved to you, that this doctrine involves so many extravagant consequences, implies so many absurd and improbable demands, and contradicts so plainly and expressly the whole analogy of Scripture, that we are bound to reject it as a superstitious dogma, -as either no part of Sacred Writ, or directly condemned in it. I also observed upon that occasion, that the doctrine of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass is based upon the previous doctrine of transubstantiation; and that if transubstantiation has been proved to be false, it is utterly impossible that the doctrine of the mass can be proved to be true; the latter resting for its strength and existence upon the former. such is the power, and so vast and varied are the resources of Christian truth, that we can afford, for the sake of argument, to grant to the Roman Catholics that transubstantiation is true, and yet we can demonstrate from Scripture that the so-called propitiatory sacrifice of the mass is untenable.

But

The propitiatory sacrifice of the mass, I may observe, is the great and distinguishing peculiarity of Roman Catholic worship. Ask the Roman Catholic on a Sunday morning where he is going, and his answer will immediately be— "To Mass." It is the substance and body of worship in the Roman Catholic service, constituting, on the one hand, the great distinction of the Church of Rome, in contrast to all

the churches of the Reformation; and forming, on the other, the great basis of the faith and hopes of the Roman Catholic worshipper. If it be false, all Popery is an awful superstition; if it be true, we Protestants are in extreme and instant jeopardy.

The meaning of the expression-"the Mass," may be briefly stated. Some ancient Roman Catholic doctors have tried to deduce this word from the Hebrew; but as it is quite clear that the mass was unknown to the Hebrews, even by Roman Catholic admission, we cannot suppose that it is derived from any part of their service, or probably from any expression in their language. The true origin of it would seem to be this: At the close of the service in the Latin or Western Church, when the Holy Communion was to be celebrated, and the ordinary ritual of the day was done, the priest addressed the people from the pulpit, and said "Missa est;" that is, "The congregation is dismissed;" and then followed the Communion, immediately after the dismission of the congregation - that is, of those who were not strictly what we call members or communicants. From this expression, "Missa est," being thus anciently used previously to the celebration of the Communion, the Communion came to be called, in very early times, "Missa," and hence, in English, "the Mass."

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Let me now explain to you, from Roman Catholic documents of authority, what the doctrine of the Mass really is.

The following declaration is contained in the Creed of Pope Pius IV., which is a summary of the faith held by every Roman Catholic. The words are solemn, and the doctrine they imply peculiarly awful: "I profess, that in the mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead."

In the chapters on the Sacrifice of the Mass, from the twenty-second session of the Council of Trent, held in the year 1562, there are various definitions and explanations