It is not, therefore, from any mystical property in the bread and wine themselves that we expect a blessing, but from the act of receiving them in obedience and faith. In the way of his judgments, we then wait on Christ, and trust to him to nourish our souls with grace. We do not expect to feed in any literal, carnal, or material manner, but we do expect, that while with the body we receive the bread in faith, our souls will receive Christ; and when with the lips we drink the wine, the heart will be made by the Holy Ghost partaker of his blood. Thus, to hungering and thirsting souls, the communion becomes inestimably precious. When we feel our weakness, we rejoice to come before him that we may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; when we know, that without Christ we must perish, we count it our highest joy to wait on his love as he has told us, that the fainting soul may feed on him by faith. And he does strengthen and refresh the souls of his people; he meets and communes with them from the mercy-seat; he grants to each the needful grace, and oftentimes sends them back rejoicing to their homes, and saying, “It has been good for me that I have been there.” (3.) There is a third point of view in which the Lord’s Supper is presented in the passage, viz., _as a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb_. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death _till he come_.” The line of sacraments forms, as it were, the long chain connecting the first and second advents, and each celebration has a reference both to the present, past, and future; to the present, for we cast the sins and burdens of the day before the footstool of a present Advocate; to the past, for the heart is full with the thankful recollection of his death; and to the future, for our present delightful communion is a faint, but true image of the blessedness of that glorious hour, when the whole company of God’s elect shall be gathered in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The sacraments are very peaceful, but they are not to last for ever; they are to be observed for a given time, till the Lord come. Then, “Faith will be sweetly lost in sight, And hope in full supreme delight And everlasting love.” We now bow down to hold communion with Christ, but then we shall behold him as he is, in all his love and all his majesty; we now meet with God’s people in the affectionate sympathy of a common faith, but then we shall reign with the vast multitude of God’s chosen saints in the triumphant fellowship of a common glory. And to those who long for the reality, there is delightful encouragement in partaking of the figure. They then lay hold on the chain that reaches heaven; they take to themselves God’s emblems, and receive them in faith as pledges and tokens of the final fulfilment of his promises.