I can see to be conceivable.

"It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God;" the taught ones of God. "Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." Exactly confirming what I have just now said, that it is impossible that a man can be a taught one of God, can have the Holy Ghost in his inwards, enabling him to contemplate the truth of God as it is in Jesus,that he can have the immediate object of the faith of God, that is Christ,-and not call for that initiatory ordinance by which introduction into Him is given him. "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the Father." I must be very short in just noticing to you here, that the Father is no more an object of sight to Jesus than He is to us. But then notice the distinction there is between the knowledge which He, that is, Christ, hath of the Father, and that which his people, or any mere creature, hath or ever shall have. The Father communicates immediately with Christ, mediately with us; so that, as you can all understand-you all understand what the peculiarity of sight is, that there is nothing interposed between me and the object I look at,-He therefore looks directly, He has his communication, his communion, immediately with the Father; but to us there is an object interposed, there is Christ interposed, and therefore through Christ we come at the Father. I understand that to be the assertion here made. "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save

He which is of God, He hath seen the Father."

But I do not understand that literally; else it would be a contradiction to that express testimony of Scripture, "Whom no man hath seen, nor can see." He is truly

the invisible God.

as

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Now we shall come here to the insight of that everlasting life. "I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Now He speaks of giving bread. He speaks of himself more expressly "that bread;" and says that this is the "bread of life," so that only he who eats this bread hath life. Now take here the distinction which you have so often heard noticed between the power or principle of life, the vital principle, and the state of life. He speaks here of the state of life. No man hath the state of life, except he hath eaten of that bread. Now, to be as short as possible, I would just disrobe this of figure. We are said to eat Christ, which you know is a figure; but the meaning is this, that the knowledge which we have of God is in the face of Jesus Christ, that is, in the contemplation of Jesus Christ. Agreeing with what is said in the 17th chapter of this gospel,

You

"This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." And the plain meaning is, that he only hath reality of life, whose enjoyment is the knowledge of God, which he derives from the contemplation of Jesus Christ. And you shall presently hear in what particular state and form of Jesus Christ it is that He is reality of life. But you cannot doubt that there is a meaning in the expression, "I am that bread of life." know that all the figures of Scripture have a meaning, and you know that they have a plain and intelligible meaning. Now I would ask what any plain man would understand by bread; whether he would not understand by it the victual of life, what supports and sustains life, so that if it be withdrawn the man dies, and if he have enough of it he is kept healthy and strong; would not he understand that by it? And that is what is meant by the figure. It is spiritual bread spoken of under a natural image. "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." Now here, as I have said, is a great deep. It is no more true that men live for ever, as far as natural life is concerned, by eating Christ, than by eating manna. What, are there not people that have lived many a blessed year in the full acting of the thing which is here spoken of, and have died at last? Why then, it cannot be natural life which He speaks of. There must be a

reality; and what is the reality?

In Baptism we put on the resurrection form. Whensoever God's elect receive his presence exhibited in Christ to them, they are led to realize their Baptism; to realize therefore what was done for them in that ordinance which was an as it were putting on of the resurrection form, and an as it were receiving into themselves of the resurrection life. And what is the testimony here? That this form and this life which they so receive shall never end. Moses's manna fed the people for a while, but they died at last. The persons who have received this life have received truly an eternal life; they shall continue in that form and in the possession and enjoyment of that reality which they have received and have been taught to refer to their Baptism, realizing that act of God when He brought them, by the sending of his Holy Ghost in Christ Jesus, to his Christ, and so to enjoy Him by faith. My dear friends, is Jesus of Nazareth a false prophet? And can you dare to give a meaning to these words which shall not make Him to be the substance of that life which He gives us, a never ending life, a life which He gives to persons whilst yet they are in the flesh, and maintains them in through the eternal ages? I ask whether there is any person in this place that is daring enough to affirm that this is not the plain and substantial import of the verses which I have read to you; whether any thing less be expressed, than a testimony to the reality that He would give eternity of form and being to those who

shall receive Him, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Take these words, they are not to be trifled with. "If any man eat of this bread,"-in contrast to Moses's manna, which gives a dying life," he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Remember what I Then, I say, we

said about "the life of the world." come here to the very insight of this food, or meat, or bread,—namely, Christ's flesh. Now take that simple assertion into your mind; Christ's flesh; which He will give, He here says, and which we are sure He has now given, for the life of the world. Wait a little, and you shall hear what that flesh really is.

"The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Now this opens the mystery; because, you know, in the state of natural life the flesh and blood are not separated. When the flesh is separated from the blood, death has taken place. Yet He speaks of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, putting his flesh and blood in a state of severment or separation. Now this will help you to the mystery. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at