2 Sermon Illustrations on Communion

A more devout communicant at the table of the Lord, says Dr. Doddridge, in his life of Colonel Gardiner, has, perhaps, seldom been any where known. Often have I had the pleasure to see that manly countenance softened into all the marks of humiliation and contrition on these occasions: and to discern, in spite of all his efforts to conceal them, streams of tears flowing down from his eyes, while he has been directing them to those memorials of his Redeemer's love. And some, who have conversed intimately with him after he came from that ordinance, have observed a visible abstraction from surrounding objects, by which there seemed reason to imagine that his soul was wrapped up in holy contemplation. And I particularly remember, that when we had once spent a great part of the following Monday in riding together, he made an apology to me for being so absent as he seemed, by telling me that his heart was flown upwards, before he was aware, to Him whom having not seen he loved; and he was rejoicing in him with such unspeakable joy, that he could not hold it down to creature converse.

answered he with surprise, "are there There are almost as many as there are lines." You astonish me," said I; "what then have all these authors been doing?" "These authors," returned he, "never searched the Scriptures for what ought to be believed, but for what they did believe themselves. They did not consider them as a book wherein were contained the doctrines which they ought to receive, but as a work which might be made to authorize their own ideas."

# THE LORD'S SUPPER.