II. Having now treated of what I conceive to be by far the most important point in our subject, I shall proceed to consider, in the second place, the circumstances under which the Lord's Supper was instituted. These were particularly solemn and touching. The Lord was about to enter into dreadful conflict with all the powers of darkness--to meet all the deadly enmity of man; and to drain to the dregs the cup of Jehovah's righteous wrath against sin. He had a terrible morrow before Him--the most terrible that had ever been encountered by man or angel; yet, notwithstanding all this, we read that "on _the same night_ in which He was betrayed, He took bread." What unselfish love is here! "The same night"--the night of profound sorrow--the night of His agony and bloody sweat---the night of His betrayal by one, and His denial by another, and His desertion by all of His disciples--on that very night, the loving heart of Jesus was full of thoughts about His Church--on that very night He instituted the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. He appointed the bread to be the emblem of His body broken, and the wine to be the emblem of His blood shed; and such they are to us now, as often as we partake of them, for the Word assures us that "as often as ye eat _this bread_ and drink _this cup_, ye do show _the Lord's death_, till He come." Now, all this, we may say, attaches peculiar importance and sacred solemnity to the Supper of the Lord; and, moreover, gives us some idea of the consequences of eating and drinking unworthily.[XIV.] The voice which the ordinance utters in the circumcised ear is ever the same. The bread and the wine are deeply significant symbols; the bruised corn and the pressed grape being both combined to minister strength and gladness to the heart: and not only are they significant in themselves, but they are also to be used in the Lord's Supper, as being the very emblems which the blessed Master Himself ordained on the night previous to His crucifixion; so that faith can behold the Lord Jesus presiding at _His own table_--can see Him take the bread and the wine, and hear Him say, "Take, eat; this is My body;" and again, of the cup, "Drink ye _all_ of it. For this is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins." In a word, the ordinance leads the soul back to the eventful night already referred to--brings before us all the reality of the cross and passion of the Lamb of God, in which our whole souls can rest and rejoice; it reminds us, in the most impressive manner, of the unselfish love and pure devotedness of Him, who, when Calvary was casting its dark shadow across His path, and the cup of Jehovah's righteous wrath against sin, of which He was about to be the bearer, was being filled for Him, could, nevertheless, busy Himself about us, and institute a feast which was to be both the expression of our connection with Him, and with all the members of His body.