and called you into His family. This is the Gospel, the good news of
Christ's free grace, and pardon, and salvation; and that bread, that
wine, the common food of all men, not merely of the rich, or the
wise, or the pious, but of saints and penitents, rich and poor.
Christians and heathens, alike--that plain, common, every-day bread
and wine--are the signs of it. Come and take the signs, and claim
your share in God's love, in God's family. And it is in Jesus
Christ, too, that you have eternal life. It is because you belong to
Jesus Christ, to mankind, of which He is the head and king, that God
will change you, strengthen your soul to rise above your sins, raise
you up daily more and more out of spiritual death, out of
brutishness, and selfishness, and ignorance, and malice, into an
eternal life of wisdom, and love, and courage, and mercifulness, and
patience, and obedience; a life which shall continue through death,
and beyond death, and raise you up again for ever at the last day,
because you belong to Christ's body, and have been fed with Christ's
eternal life. And that bread, that wine are the signs of it. "Take,
eat," said Jesus, "this is my body; drink, this is my blood." Those
are the signs that God has given you eternal life, and that this life
is in His Son. What better sign would you have? There is no
mistaking their message; they can tell you no lies. And they can,
and will, bring your own Gospel-blessings to your mind, as nothing
else can. They will make you feel, as nothing else can, that you are
the beloved children of God, heirs of all that your King and Head has
bought for you, when He died, and rose again upon this day. He gave
you the Lord's Supper for a sign. Do you think that He did not know
best what the best sign would be? He said: "Do this in remembrance
of me." Do you think that He did not know better than you, and me,
and all men, that if you did do it, it would put you in remembrance
of Him?