two sides.

(i) It is Christ Who saves us; that is, Who is the actually putting away
of sin, attainment of holiness, union with God, eternal life, by what He
does in us. "Christ _for_ us" finds its perfect fulfilment and end in
"Christ _in_ us."

(ii) Yet, Christ does not save us apart from ourselves. Else the
Eucharist would be degraded to the level of some heathen, magical charm.
We must will and intend the putting off of sin, and the putting on of
holiness. We must recognise, and this is a truth of experience, our
complete inability to attain this without Him. That will, and that
recognition, are the repentance and faith which constitute the necessary
contribution on our part to the work of Christ for our salvation.

Our Communions are the most important moments in our lives. Each marks a
distinct and definite stage in the fulfilment of the purpose of God for
us, the fulfilment in us of all that is meant by the Death and
Resurrection of the Lord. We ought to come, therefore, not only after
due preparation, with repentance and faith, but also with hope and joy;
not to perform a duty, but to receive the best gift which God Himself can
bestow upon us--that gift which is the perfect conquest of sin, the
complete realisation of holiness, union with God, eternal life; the
fulfilment of every aspiration, the accomplishment of every dream, the
achievement of every glory, the crown, the consummation, the attainment
of our manhood in union with Jesus Christ the Son of man.

VIII
THE SACRIFICE

"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve
the living God?"--HEB. IX. 13, 14.

No Christian doctrine is more commonly misunderstood than that of the
sacrifice of Christ. This misunderstanding arises from ignorance as to
the meaning of sacrifices in the ancient world.

Sacrifice is one of the earliest and most widely spread of all human
institutions. Behind the laws regulating sacrifice in the Old Testament
there lies the long history of Shemitic ritual and religion. These
sacrificial rites were not then introduced for the first time. They
formed part of the inheritance of the Israelites from their far-off
ancestors; an inheritance shared by them with the Ammonites a