A Sermon: And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.—Isaiah xxv. 6

By the Rev. Murdo Morrison, Lochinver. Preached in the First Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Vancouver, B.C., 14th September 1924. (Taken down by a Hearer.)

YOU will notice that the Prophet praises God when he considers His dealings with wicked nations in the past, and how He brought down and laid low the mighty, as described in the second verse, and on the other hand, when He remembered the poor and needy, who, as His people, bore the traits of Christian character as portrayed in the fourth verse. That shows the judgments which God was pleased to inflict upon the haughty and the high and the proud in the past, and the loving kindness which He showed to those who are here described as poor, when he says, “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat.” God’s Word tells us that He will give grace to the humble, and that He will send away the proud empty; and there would be some hope for you were you coming here this evening, conscious of your need, your poverty, your helplessness, but so long as you think that you can do something whereby you can reconcile yourself to God and procure His favour, so long will not not enjoy any of the blessings of salvation as they are set forth before us in the everlasting Gospel.

I. Now, in directing your attention to this passage, I should like to refer, first of all, to the Maker of the feast, for he says here—“And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast.” Who is it that makes this feast? It is the Lord of Hosts.

II. In the second place, we shall endeavour to direct your attention to the place where this feast is made—the place where the feast is made is “in this mountain.”

III. In the third place, we have what is provided for in the feast. The material of the feast is two-fold. There are the “fat things” and there are the “wines on the lees.”

IV. In the fourth and last place, we have the people for whom this feast is made. It is made for all people, for he says here, “And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast”—it is unto all people and for all kinds of people.

I. Now, we shall consider the Maker of this feast.

(1) As a feast is made among men, you will notice that it is not everyone who is capable of providing a feast or of going to the expense of making one. Suppose, just now, that one on equal footing with yourselves, having no more riches behind him than you have, were to announce that he would provide a feast, and that he would invite some people to that feast, and you were among those invited, it would not raise very great hopes in you, and why? Because this person’s resources could not go very far towards providing a lavish feast, and if he were to provide it for a still larger number, he would become bankrupt. He would not have sufficient resources behind him to meet the expenses involved. Further, if you heard of a very rich man announcing his purpose of providing a feast in Vancouver, and this man sent invitations to all and sundry, and that you had every warrant to come to that feast, then that would justify you in cherishing delightful hopes and expectations. You would be taken up with it. You would say to yourselves, surely this rich man will provide something very delicious and attractive. I should like to go to this feast. Now, if that man were to propose that this feast should be open, not only to the people of Vancouver, but to the whole of the inhabitants of Canada, or say, further afield, then that would mean that perhaps all his resources would be taxed to the uttermost, and he would be in danger of bringing himself to bankruptcy, however rich he might be. Now, supposing again that the Government of this country, with all its resources behind it, should undertake to provide and sustain all the subjects within its territory, and if it should say, “We shall support you, every one of you, for an indefinite period of time,” it would soon collapse. It could not meet the demands made upon it. Its coffers would soon become depleted, and it would be in danger of becoming bankrupt, and all the resources that may be behind any man, or the strongest nations of the earth, would but support a small section of the population of the earth after all.

(2) This is one thing we must realise as true—that when one makes a feast, he must be rich. A poor person could never provide a feast. But here we have one who makes a feast, and it is the Lord of Glory, and He is rich, infinitely rich, infinitely and unspeakably rich; for He is rich in His nature, in His own nature—the nature of God embracing His eternal attributes; infinitely rich and glorious in Himself, altogether lovely, and should be the object of every rational creature’s adoration and admiration. For this God of the Bible is a God who is infinitely holy and blessed in Himself, and that necessarily arises from His own nature and the perfections of that nature. He is boundless in His immensity as He is self-existent in His being. He derives no existence from any, but in and from Himself, and He is without a beginning and without an end; everlastingly the same, and unchangeable yesterday, to-day, and for ever. That is the Person who provides this feast. A Person rich in His nature, and not only is He rich in His nature, but He is rich in His Providence. Ah, dear friends, the earth and all that it contains belongs unto the Lord. The whole earth, all its riches, all the minerals in its bowels, all that the earth yields on its surface, and all the creatures that move upon the face of the earth, God can claim as His own. He is the Creator of all, and His claim is by right of possession and creation. Think of His riches in His providence, when He sustains all beings. When He gives them their meat in due season, and sustains man and beast, as we were singing in the opening Psalm. He upholds them day after day, out of the riches of His providence. The earth is yielding continually its riches to man for his sustenance and support, and is it not because of Him that these have never failed? We are daily laden with His benefits. Great is His faithfulness in giving us health and life, and in providing food convenient for us from the earth and from the sea. The earth and the sea are laid under tribute to provide for the sustenance and for the support of human life. Think of His riches in His providence, how He is providing for everyone. His resources never fail; His providential resources never come to an end; He is continually meeting our wants, and yet how seldom we think of Him, the great and merciful God. We will not as much as acknowledge Him. The most of the people in Canada and upon the face of the earth to-day will not acknowledge God, in His mercies, which He is showering upon them day after day. They are ashamed to own Him. When the Heathen, the Chinese, and the Japanese, and all the devotees of false religions are not ashamed to acknowledge their own false gods—the Japanese in his worship to Buddha, the Chinaman in his worship of Confucius—all have their own gods, all acknowledge them, bowing down before them, and yet, when you think of this great and mighty God whom we profess to worship, and whom the lukewarm professors of this age will not as much as own in connection with the food they eat from day to day. To-day you have an example of the most callous ingratitude. Do they ever express their thankfulness to Him for providing them with the necessaries of life, and yet, on the other hand, if a present were given to you by some person, you would be profuse in your expressions of thankfulness and gratitude for such a gift, but not one word will come out of your mouth in acknowledgment to God for supplying your needs day by day. Ah, what an awful condition we are in. No wonder though our condemnation will have many aggravations at last.

(3) Let me now speak of the riches of His grace. The riches of Grace are infinite, for we read of the riches of His Grace, of His Glory; the exceeding riches of His Goodness; the riches of His Mercy; the riches of His Love; and all these riches are behind the feast that is here set before you, and these are vast and inexhaustible resources. The riches of His Love and of His Glory and of His Mercy, as revealed to us, are altogether wonderful, and should be the subject constantly of our meditation, as well as of our adoration. Fellow-sinner, is He not a rich provider? As has been said already, he who makes a feast must be rich, or else the feast might draw too much upon his resources and cause him to fail; but not so Jehovah, who giveth liberally in the riches of His Grace, and it is the riches of His Grace that are wholly responsible for this feast; that move Him to make this feast for man, for He sees man as poor and destitute; as He says here, “For thou hast been a strength to the needy in His distress; a refuge from the storm; a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” And we, friends, came all to be bankrupt in the fall of our first covenant head. God had enriched us when we came from His hand, with His own image, and He kept up communion with us by the Holy Ghost; but when we fell, we were deprived of all these rights, and we became exceedingly poor and destitute, and hopelessly ruined and undone for time and for eternity. Here, then, you have God providing a feast. Man is in a spiritually starving condition. His soul is starving, and he will inevitably die eternally, unless there is a provision made such as the prophet says, “And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” Think now of His riches, for there are no bounds to them. They are incalculable. They cannot be searched. They are incomprehensible; Jehovah’s riches, which are behind this wonderful feast for man’s soul, are exhibited in the everlasting Gospel.

(4) There is another thing which is always associated with the maker of a feast, and that is, he is not only rich, but he is also kindly disposed and liberal-handed, for when he makes a feast, it implies that he is a very kindly disposed person, and not only kindly disposed, but exceedingly liberal with his resources. He is not niggardly at all, and there is something noble about a person who, when under no obligation whatsoever to do so, provides a great feast. It reveals his liberality and his generous disposition, and that he likes to share with others his possessions. Is there not something noble in this feast? Oh, friends, think of God, the Lord of Heaven, desiring to share with us His own possessions, His own blessings, and His own happiness; His own grace, His love, His truth, and all that He has He desires to share with us. He is so liberal-minded and so liberal-handed, as it is said in Isaiah, 32nd chap., 8th verse—”But the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand,” and here is One who is exceedingly liberal in His nature, desiring liberal things for us, and by these liberal things He is ready to say that He will stand, and does He not give proof of it in the Gospel, of the feast He is making, otherwise, the Word of God is meaningless. It is said that He giveth liberally unto all and upbraideth not. He says, “Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Here is liberality and generosity of an unusual kind on the part of God towards men; so you shall have no excuse at last, if you continue in a Christless state and in the state in which you came into the world.

II. I come, secondly, to notice the place where this feast is made.

(1) It is made “in this mountain,” and you will observe that the word “this” as a demonstrative pronoun, lays emphasis upon the word “mountain” in the phrase “in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts,” as if He were pointing out a certain location as distinguished from every other place. Now, when you come to look upon a mountain, you will find that the word is invariably used in the Word of God to mean great difficulties and trials which the Church of God meets with in the world; secondly, it is taken to mean the nations and powers of this world; but here it is used in a different sense. It is used to mean the Church of God, and it is the Church of God that is represented by “this mountain,” or in other words, the kingdom that Christ was to set up when He would appear in the fulness of the times, and it was to be a mountain. We have a wonderful display of mountains beyond this City of Vancouver, and I could not but be very impressively struck with the picturesque grandeur exhibited by these mountains when passing through them. I was exceedingly impressed with the awe-inspiring spectacle which the Rockies presented to my gaze. Think of the wonderful display of infinite power and of wise design we find in these mountains. What design is there, and what power was put forth to call them into being in such wonderful array and order. There is no confusion or disorder there, peak after peak rising in constant succession, and they impressed us with the thought of the infinite being of God who formed them. What a puny creature man is after all. You have only to go and read the book of creation, and you should then have your mouth for ever closed; never more to speak against God or charge Him with folly. The mountain here to which our attention is directed represents the Church Christ was to set up in the world, or the Kingdom He was to found. A mountain is, in its formation, something rising high above the ordinary plain, and begins from its base to gradually taper towards its summit, and when you contrast the mountain with the level plain, what thought will strike you? What but the thought that there is a vast difference between the mountain and the plain below. Well, that is the way with the true Church of God in the world. The world is down in the swamp and in the plain, wallowing in sin, corruption, and lust; lying in wickedness. It is an enemy to God, to truth, to the salvation of man—an enemy to all that is good. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for the things that are in the world are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” and these are the things you find in these lower plains, in the swamp. But here you have the true Church of God. I am not speaking of the churches of Vancouver, Canada, or Great Britain. The true Church of Christ is where two or three are gathered in His name and He in their midst. As godly Alexander Peden, the Scottish Covenanter, said, “Where you find a poor lass behind a dyke, praying to the Lord for the Kirk of Scotland, that is the true Church of God.” The Church is a mountain that cannot be moved. It is the mountain that rises majestically above the earth and the things of the earth, and wherever you find a poor soul praying to God, looking to Him for salvation, depending upon Him for happiness in time and throughout eternity, you find there the true Church of God. Not the cathedrals of the Roman Catholic Church or of the Church of England, or the beautiful edifices which are reared by the Presbyterian Churches of Canada, and the Methodist and Congregational and all other sects you find here—these are not like the Churches of Christ. No, they are more like nurseries of the enemy, leading people astray. Much of what they are concerned about is fine music, or anything but the truth, so much so that music is becoming idolised. “He was a lover of music.” That is the praise that is very often given to young men who die, by ministers at funerals. That is Roman Catholicism. That is an evidence of the fact that we are turning into the ways that will lead to destruction. They are doing as the Jews did in the time when Christ Himself entered into His Father’s House, and took a scourge of small cords, and said, “It is written, my Father’s House shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” That is what we have to-day. Every kind of theatrical amusement and form of recreation is set up in connection with the present-day churches. The world would plead that if the Church came more and more into line with it, that she was likely to win the world. The Church began to pander and cater to the fancies and notions of godless men and women in congregations, until, at last, they took down the Church to the level of the theatre and the concert hall. The Church will never succeed in raising the world to its plane and level, but the world will succeed in bringing the Church down to its level. The Church should be high above the world and its ways, its fashions and its wickedness. Then again, it is true about this mountain that the higher you go or the more you frequent Gospel ordinances, the more you see of the glory of God, and the less you will see the world to be. When you rise upon the slopes of the mountain peaks beyond Vancouver, you will see the city very small, but when you are down in the plain, then the peaks appear small. That is the way with the true Church of God. Go into the Church of God, and if you have a spirit of worship at all, you will see how little is the world and everything in it, compared with the one thing needful. They fade into insignificance when compared with the things of God. The higher you go up, the smaller you see the objects down below; the lower you are down, the smaller you see the objects above you. The eye of faith is like a telescope, the one end of which magnifies, the other diminishes. So the enlightened mind or the eye of faith views the things which are above great and the things below small. You remember that the Psalmist envied the condition of the wicked, they prospered always, but then he says he went into the House of God, and he saw the end they would have, and so his envy came to an end. He saw vanity written upon the things of the world. But, my friends, come you unto the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, for “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”

(2) In the second place, this mountain is immovable. Its foundations are deep in the earth, and if you should happen to see a person go to move even a small mountain, you would say that he was mentally unbalanced. It has never yet been attempted. No creature has ever gone the length of imagining he could remove a mountain. Well, we may say that this is a mountain which cannot be moved, the true Church of God, as Christ says, and as it is written in another place, “Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.” This is the kingdom which cannot be moved, and if it were possible for those who have seen these mountains two or three hundred years ago, to see them again, they would immediately say, “I know them; they are not changed,” and that is the way with the truth of God and His Church. Man may change and people may want new religions, but the things of God never change, they are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The Church, unchangeable in truth, government, and discipline, is like a mountain that cannot be moved, and when a sinner is born again, you will find that he also is like those of God’s people hundreds of years in the past—no change in them. Wicked generations are changing, but God will visit them with calamities; they are turning aside from the truth, unto vanities and lies, but God’s truth shall endure for ever.

(3) In the third and last place under this head, it is awe-inspiring to behold a mountain. Its majestic appearance strikes you with awe and dread. Well, when was the Church of God an object of majesty and dread and of fear to man? Just when she was keeping to the truth, and when she was giving obedience to Christ and acknowledging His rights as the Redeemer in Zion. That is when she became awful, and an object that caused fear and dread in the minds of men. As Mary Queen of Scots said, she feared the prayers of John Knox much more than she feared 10,000 armed soldiers. Just because that man of God was so near to the Lord and was destitute of fear and full of the cause of Christ, and was ready to offer himself for his God. He was awful to behold, and was like a mountain in his steadfastness. In the Song of Songs the Church is in the following words viewed as terrible: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” That is the Church or the bride of Christ, looking terrible as an army with banners. Mountains are terrible to behold, and excite due feelings of dread and awe as you approach them.

III. I proceed now to consider the material that is provided in the feast. It is made up of two things, of wines on the lees and the feast of fat things.

(1) I should like to speak now of the “wines upon the lees,” and you will notice that it is repeated and further amplified, to show the wonderful qualities of the wine set before us in the feast. You never saw a feast without wine and fat things. Rich people have their cellars filled with the best wines, and the older these wines are, the better they are in value and in quality. With regard to a feast made by man, it costs an extraordinary sum of money, but then it is only for one diet. It might be as there have been in England, feasts costing many hundred pounds, but only one diet. But here is One who is providing a feast for all time, yea, and through all eternity, and He never fails. His resources never came to an end, and He is providing here wine on the lees, well refined; wine calculated to make one merry and cheerful. We have seen people who have been at death’s door with weakness and faintness, and when wine was administered, the person received strength and felt cheered, as wine is a means of restoring health at times. The everlasting Covenant between Father and Son embraced this very material for the feast He proposed to make for sinners. In the Gospel you will find this often compared to a supper or dinner. Christ says a certain King made a marriage for his son, and he killed the oxen and everything was ready, and he sent his servants to ask them that were bidden to come to the marriage. In another place, in the 9th chapter of Proverbs, God’s provision in the everlasting Covenant for perishing sinners is declared in the words, “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens. She crieth upon the highest places of the city, whoso is simple let him turn in hither.” Now that idea was brought out in the Proverbs by Solomon, and the Saviour Himself is, as it were, putting light upon it when He says, it is like a dinner or a supper a certain man made, and you know a supper or a dinner is the last meal, and very often feasts are made at dinner-time or supper-time. Then, as the supper is the last meal, I may say this feast is the last provision, which is the Gospel. God made other arrangements in Old Testament times. He gave the Law and He gave the Prophets, as meals going before, but now He has given a feast in the everlasting Gospel; a last supper or dinner, and He will make no further provision. The feast of the Gospel is God’s last gracious dispensation until the end of time, and if you do not come to partake of the material of this feast, then there is no other provision for you. Ah, think just now of this wine! What is the wine on the lees, well refined? It is just the love of God. The love of God is compared to wine. It is like wine on the lees, well refined, very old wine—old as Eternity. God loved them with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness has He drawn them, and this aspect of God’s character is the most wondrous of all, namely, that He should have loved sinners, and that this love should be manifested in the gift of His dearly beloved Son. When a man makes a feast, he is impelled by love and kindness towards those for whom he provides it, and we may say God was impelled by everlasting love in His heart to make this feast for sinners. Oh, what a wondrous provision! How old? As old as Eternity; before man had a being. Think of this provision! Think of God loving sinners from Eternity! Now, friends, I say the love of God, shed abroad in the heart, is just as you take wine out of a cup literally; you feel the effect in your soul, you feel it affecting your whole being; your body as well as your soul. The whole being of man feels the effect of this love, like wine well refined, well refined in the cross of Christ, in Christ’s dying upon the accursed tree. Could there be any higher manifestation of the love of God? That is the greatest proof you have of this love; God giving His own Eternal Son, and that Son coming to die upon the cross, and remaining under the power of death for a time. Well, friends, think of this wine upon the lees, well refined.

(2) Let me now consider the second part of this provision of the feast, which though mentioned first in the verse, I take up last, that is, “A feast of fat things.” It is again Christ in His death and suffering. Christ took our nature unto Himself, for as God He could not suffer. He could not offer the sacrifice required until He became man. I may say that Christ exhibited the sap and marrow of divinity in all His words, for “He spake as never man spake.” The people wondered at the gracious words that came out of His mouth. The words of the Saviour when He preached on earth were like a sweet-smelling myrrh. People were conscious of a wonderful fragrance in His word; they felt that no man ever spake like this Man, yet the Pharisees resented the Lord of Glory. They felt great authority accompanying His words: they felt their consciences disturbed as they listened and realised the authority with which the Son of God spake; the Grace that was in every word that came out of His mouth; in every step of obedience on earth; every step He took in obeying the law and satisfying justice. The Psalmist, in reference to this, says:—”They with the fatness of thy house shall be well satisfied,” and again, the 63rd Psalm reads—”Even as with marrow and with fat my soul shall be filled.” Ah, when a creature partakes of this marrow and this fat provided by God it is like filling and satisfying the hungry soul. Nothing else will satisfy the hungry soul. Are you hungering for Christ? Here is a feast provided—a feast of fat things, full of marrow. The offerings of lambs under the Mosaic economy were typical of the Saviour, the Lamb of God. In the Old Testament the fat of animals was roasted and the smell inhaled by the priests was altogether appetising and savoury. Here you have Christ offering Himself in His body and soul, a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile God to us. That is the feast here for you to-night; a feast of fat things, full of marrow. There is nothing else like it. What is marrow ? Marrow is that which every living creature must have in its bones. A creature without marrow in its bones would not be able to move. If its bones were to break, without marrow, they would not heal. Well, we have all broken bones. All fell in Adam. We can do nothing. We are hopelessly helpless, like a maimed man who cannot move. Such is man, as he is in himself. He has nothing whereby he can move towards God or make himself acceptable to God. Therefore, this marrow is provided to heal man and to give strength to the poor, and to bring him nigh to God. Here we have a feast of fat things, full of marrow, and this is what you need—that marrow might be put into your bones, and that you might be raised up to serve the Lord and to obey His commandments; to cleave to His truth, and to walk in His ways, and to delight in His ordinances. Faith from heaven will enable you to partake of this feast. This is the feast of fat things; for Christ says—“My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me,” and you have life in you if you partake of Him. And how are you to partake of Him ? By faith. What is faith ? Faith is a firm, full, and whole-hearted persuasion of the veracity of the Word of God, and of the truthfulness of these things that are set before you. Remember, it is not in a corporal way at all you are to partake of this. Not as you take ordinary bread and wine. You are to partake of it in a spiritual manner, and the soul has a mouth, and that mouth is faith, and it is this you are to put into the mouth of faith and which comes into the soul, just as if you were swallowing your ordinary food which goes into yourself and becomes part and parcel of your body. The Christian comes to be like Christ, and assimilates Christ, or the Divine nature to himself. It is in this way they grow up unto the full stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus. The more a creature partakes of Christ, the more spiritual he becomes. Ah, then, it is by faith we are to partake of this feast. What a wonderful feast it is. Think of this feast this evening. I invite you in the name of the Lord to partake of it, and if you will not partake of this feast, you will perish and you will die eternally. You have resisted God’s way of salvation too long. You would have none of this provision in the everlasting Covenant. But yet once more Christ is offered to you here. Ah, friends, seek that God would beget in you this faith, and remember that it is Christ set before you in His humiliation, by taking our nature unto Himself, and in our nature obeying the law and satisfying the demands of justice, and dying upon the accursed tree, and coming under the power of death for a time; rising again on the third day, ascending into Heaven and sitting on the right hand of God—that is the provision set before us, and you must take it spiritually and by faith your soul must feed upon it, and you never tasted such a sweet portion as Christ in the Gospel; and remember He is set before you at this table, and the most costly dishes placed thereon, and the material of the feast is placed there, so, my friends, the table we have here is the everlasting Gospel and Christ offered there for sinners. As Dr Duncan said, sitting at the Lord’s Table at a Communion in Edinburgh, when he heard behind him a woman sobbing and weeping as the elements were being distributed, and when the minister brought them to this poor woman who was weeping, as she was in the act of putting out her hand to take the elements, he turned round and said, “Tak’ it, woman, tak’ it ; it is for sinners.” This provision is for needy sinners, and I invite you to come to this table, and there is no bar set before you. You have nothing to pay for it; without money and without price, as it is said in Isaiah, “Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live, and I will make with you an everlasting Covenant, even the sure mercies of David.” Oh, what a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees well refined, is the love of God set forth here! God under all aspects under which He reveals Himself as Saviour, as the feast of fat things full of marrow, will give health and life to you and will restore you to the image of God and will give you a title to eternal happiness.

IV. For whom is this feast made ? For all people. It is not only to some as distinguished from others. No, it is for all alike. It is for the Jew not more than for the Gentile. It is for both and all. It is for black and for white and for the yellow. It embraces all races. Ah, yes, this feast has been made, and it is for all people, as it is said, “and they shall come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.” Thus the Jews that rejected Christ, when they were bidden to come to the feast, are suffering the consequences of that rejection in their descendants unto this day, for the Jew is still outside, and he is still refusing to acknowledge this Christ, and he will die eternally for his sins. It is for you and for such as you, a sinner, a great sinner, a hell-deserving sinner. It is for high and low, rich and poor, young and old, no matter what they are. This is the only thing that will meet the condition of all classes of people, the only thing to meet your needs as a sinner. Who is at the head of the feast? God himself. What does He do there? You know that the person, who makes a feast, condescends to the condition of those whom he has invited to the feast and mingles with them and places himself on the same level. In this feast have we not marvellous condescension? He was high and lofty, He also dwells with him who is of a broken heart and contrite spirit. He shows every token of loving kindness and gives every expression possible of hearty welcome to this feast and He says, “eat O! friend, drink abundantly.” Oh, what a wondrous Jehovah our Jehovah is! What is to become of you if you reject him? I put it to your poor soul personally this night. The only hope for you if you are to be saved is that you partake of this feast. As I close my discourse, I leave my subject with you. Are you a sinner? You are invited and none are excluded but those that exclude themselves. As the maidens sent forth crying, “Come ye simple ones and eat of my flesh and drink of my wine which I have mingled.” If you obey His command to come, oh what a feast we have here! I leave these words with you, and eternity alone will reveal what responsibility attaches to you in connection with this truth in which I endeavour to set forth the provisions of His love and grace. If you willfully refuse its terms, I say if you continue as you are, a Christless sinner, steeped in your wickedness, there is no other hope for you but to be cast away where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. I press upon you this evening the command to flee from the wrath to come to where God has made this wonderful provision in the everlasting Gospel, and which is here displayed in its wondrous riches and glory, and may the Lord, in His mercy, give you a taste and appetite for this feast, for I fear that you are more for the world and for the things of time, and that you are grovelling in the flesh and the world, and never rising higher to think and to meditate on that which is of supreme moment for time and for eternity. May the Lord bless His Word. Amen.