[Footnote 2: _The Reveille_, Bret Harte.]

Let us apply this thought to the command in our text, "Do this in
remembrance of Me." The facts are undisputed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the tenderness of His compassion, instituted an ordinance by which we
might remember Him and feed upon Him.

Further than this we cannot go on the ground of universal consent.
Strangely enough, that rite which is the same in its central act,
whether celebrated by the nonconformist in his ordinary dress, or the
priest clad in costly vestments, whether in the humble room or the
stately cathedral, which is, on the one hand, the well-nigh universal
mark of all who profess and call themselves Christians, is yet the
battle-ground of fierce dispute and bitter disagreement.

The present crisis is undoubtedly deepening in our minds the exceeding
value of this blessed gift of Christ to His Church.

It is deeply suggestive of the spirit of our young officers that a group
of old public-school boys, just about to leave for the front, should
have begged their late schoolmaster--now a Bishop--to give them a
Celebration of Holy Communion in his own private Chapel on their last
Sunday in England. What a beautiful send-off!

Then, turning to the scene of operations itself, we find a touching
witness in the simple record sent by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe to his
brother at Southampton. "We spent our Christmas Day waiting for the
Germans, who did not appear. But we managed to find time for church and