who is therefore represented as smelling a sweet savour of rest in it, reposing upon it as the chief of all his undertakings, and the brightest display of the moral perfections of his nature. We participate in these views and feelings, when we enter into the spiritual meaning of the ordinance of the supper. We rejoice in that which satisfies the mind of God, and on which he dwells with ineffable delight. The sacrifice of Christ is the food and life of our souls, that which constitutes our chief blessedness here, and which we believe will be our delight through eternity.'.........

It is very obvious from the nature of the service, that the partakers have fellowship with one another, as well as in a common benefit. All eat of one bread, and drink of one cup, and surround the same board, to shew that they are friends, connected in heart, sentiment, interest, and pursuit. Eating and drinking is among all nations an emblem of friendship. In the East, this kind of fellowship is held exceedingly sacred. It is the pledge of friendship, as well as its expression. Hence, enmity and treachery to those with whom we may have enjoyed it, are regarded as most hateful. This partly occasioned the poignant grief of the Redeemer: "He that ate bread with me, lifted up his heel against me."

Towards the close of this chapter, the subject of which is the fellowship enjoyed in the ordinance,' Mr. Orme adverts, too slightly we think, to a subject of some delicacy, by way of inference from these views of the institution.

It seems very evident, that the Lord's Supper is not an act between an administrator and a receiver; it is a social ordinance, a religious feast, in which all are partakers of common blessings, and for which they in common give thanks to God. No instance exists in Scripture of its being administered privately to an individual; indeed, the very phrase is foreign from the phraseology of the New Testament. It was never attended to at first, except by a church or public body of Christians assembled for religious purposes. The exercises of a feast are not compatible with the dying chamber or the

last struggles of expiring nature. That it may have comforted many a Christian in such circumstances, we doubt not; but the tendency of the practice to deceive, is too obvious to need illustration. If it has constituted a viaticum to some, it has been the last opiate to many, from the effects of which they have never awoke in this world. When we depart from the Scriptures, there may be a "shew of wisdom" in what we do; but, in the things of God, human wisdom will be found no better than folly. There must be great difference between the feelings of a Christian, receiving, as an individual, from the hands of an administrator, the emblems of the Saviour's love; and feeling himself as part of the family of God, surrounding the common table, and sharing with his brethren and sisters the provision of his Father's house. There may be fellowship with God in the one case, but there is certainly little of communion with men.'

From the general sentiment which is here expressed, we do not dissent; but Mr. Orme must, we think, be aware, on re flection, that he has in some degree blinked the question, hop

far the private administration of the ordinance, or its administration in private houses, is justifiable or expedient. It is by no means necessary that, in such cases, its character as a social ordinance should be lost sight of. Even the Church of England practice requires that some person besides the administrator and the receiver be present, but it adopts the maxim (we think of Tertullian), ubi tres, ecclesia. That the exercises of a 'feast are not compatible with the dying chamber,' is a position that cannot be subscribed to when the nature of the feast is properly considered. What was the upper room in which the feast was first instituted, but the dying chamber of our Lord? With intense desire he desired to eat that passover before he suffered; and when he delivered to them the cup, it was accompanied with the declaration, that he would not drink thenceforth of the fruit of the vine till the day when he should drink it new in the kingdom of the Father. Now what is there unnatural in the Christian's desiring to celebrate the Christian passover, even in his dying chamber, under the probability that his next act of fellowship will be with the saints above?" What is there incongruous in his presenting as a memorial before God ⚫ the great sacrifice of sin,ʼas exhibited in this ordinance,—that sacrifice which is the sole ground of his acceptance and hope,' —even in ‘the last struggles of expiring nature? Why may not the receiver, even in this private or domestic act, feel himself part of the family of God?

No valid argument can be founded on the abuse of the ordinance which consists in its being administered to improper persons, inasmuch as its public celebration is not less open, in such cases, to the same objection. Thousands attach to what is called taking the sacrament' at church, the idea of a meritorious and propitiatory service. If, in the dying chamber, it has proved a fatal opiate, (which there is too much reason to fear, is often the case,) this must have arisen, not from the circumstance of its being privately administered, but from its being indiscriminately administered, if not unfaithfully prostituted. The tendency of such a practice is obvious; but Mr. Orme has not shewn, that any departure from the Scriptures, or any pernicious effect, is involved in the private celebration of an ordinance,-adapted, as he admits, to comfort many a Christian when debarred from attendance in the house of God. At the same time, we quite agree with Mr. Orme in his views of the Sabbatical observance of the ordinance, and admit that its ordinary administration properly connects it with social worship.

The thanks of the religious public are due to Mr. Örme for this volume, which we earnestly commend to the attentive pe

rusal of our readers.

ART. XIII. SELECT LITERARY INFORMATION.

Preparing for the press, The Mosaic Precepts Elucidated and Defended; by Moses Ben Maimon or Maimonides. Translated from the " More Nevochim;" and accompanied with Notes and Dissertations, and a Life of Maimonides. By James Townley, D. D. Author of Illustrations of Biblical Literature, &c. In the press, The Revolt of the Bees. A Tale, in Prose.

Mrs. Peck, Author of the Bard in the West, has in the press, Napoleon, or the Mysteries of the Hundred Days.

Mr. M'Henry, Author of the improved Spanish Grammar, &c. has in the press, Synonyms of the Spanish Language explained, and illustrated by co

pious extracts from the best Spanish

Poets.

The Rev. Rutton Morris has in the press, The Elements of French Grammar, illustrated with cuts: translated from the French, and intended as a First Book.

The Rev. Ingram Cobbin has in the press, Elements of Arithmetic for Children, on a plan entirely new.

In the press, in one vol. 8vo., The History of the Crusades against the Albigenses in the Thirteenth Century. Translated from the French of J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi. With an Introductory Essay by the Translator.

ART. XIV. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE had intended to abstain from all further reference to the Apocrypha Controversy;' but seven or eight pamphlets have since appeared, of which some brief notice shall be taken in our next.

GENERAL INDEX.

VOL. XXV. NEW SERIES.