Thoughts on the Lord's Supper: 32 U

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to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin." (Numb. ix. 13.)

I feel that it would be rendering really valuable service to the cause of truth, and a furtherance of the Interests of the Church of God, if an interest could be awakened on this important subject. There is too much lightness and indifference in the minds of Christians, as to the matter of their attendance at the table of the Lord, and where there is not this indifference, there is an unwillingness arising from imperfect views of justification. Now both these hindrances, though so different in their character, spring from one and the same source, viz., selfishness. He who is indifferent about the matter, will selfishly allow trifling circumstances to interfere with his attendance ; be will be hindered by family arrangements, love of personal ease, unfavori.rable weather, trifling, or, as it frequently happens, imaginary bodily ailments ; things which are lost sight of, or counted as nothing, when some worldly object is to be gained. How often does it happen, that men who have not spiritual energy to leave their houses on the Lord's day, have abundant natural energy to carry them some miles, to gain some worldly object, oii Monday. Alas! that it should be so. ΠΠο w sad, to think that worldly gain could exert a more powerful influence on the heart of the Christian, than the glory of Christ and the further-mice of the Church's benefit; for this is the way in which we must view the question of the Lord's Supper. What would be our feelings, amid the glory

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of the coming kingdom, if we could remember that, while on earth, a fair, or a market, or some such worldly object, had commanded our time and energies, while the assembly of the Lord's people, around His table, was neglected ?

Beloved christian reader, if you are in the habit of absenting yourself from the assembly of Christians, I pray you to ponder the matter, before the Lord, ere you absent yourself again. Reflect upon the pernicious effect of your absence in every way. You are failing in your testimony for Christ—you are injuring the souls of your brethren, and you are hindering the progress of your own soul in grace and knowledge.

Do not suppose that your actings are without their influence on the whole Church of God; you are, 'at this moment, either helping or hindering every meniber of that body on earth. " If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." This principle has not ceased to be true, though professing Christians have split into so many different divisions. Nay, it is so divinely true that there is not a single believer on earth, who is not acting, either as a helper to, or a drain upon, the whole body of Christ; and, if there be any truth in the principle already laid down .(viz., that the assembly of Christians, and the breaking of bread, in any given locality, is, or ought to be, the expression of the unity of the whole body), you cannot fail to see, that, if you absent yourself from that assembly, or refuse to join in giving expression to that unity, you are doing serious damage to all your brethren, as well as to your own soul. I would lay these considerations on your heart and con -

C science, in the name of the Lord, looking to Him to make them influential.*

But, not only does this culpable and pernicious indifference of spirit act as a hindrance to many, in presenting themselves at the Lord's table; imperfect views of justification produce the same unhappy result. If the conscience be not perfectly purged—if there be not perfect rest in God's testimony about the finished work of Christ, there will either be a shrinking from the Supper of the Lord, or an unintelligent celebration of it. Those only can shew the Lord's death, who know, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the value of the Lord's death. If I regard the ordinance as a means whereby I am to be brought into a place of greater nearness to God, or whereby I am to obtain a clearer sense of my acceptance, it is impossible that I can rightly observe it. I must believe as the gospel commands me to believe, that LL my sins are FOR RVER put away, ere I can take

• I can only feel myself responsible to present myself in the assembly when it is gathered on proper church ground, Í e., the ground laid down in the New Testament. People may assemble, and call themselves the Church of God, in any given locality; but if they do not exhibit the characteristic features and principles of the Church of God, as set forth in holy scripture, I cannot own them. if they refuse, or lack spiritual power, to judge worldliness, carnality, or false doctrine, they are, evidently, not on proper church ground; they are merely a religious fraternity, which, in its collective character, I am in no wise responsible, before God, to own. Hence, the child of God needs much spiritual power, aid subjection to the word, to be able to carry himself through all the windings of the professing church, iii this peculiarly evil and

my place, with any measure of spiritual intelligence, at the Lord's table. If the matter be not viewed in this light, the Lord's Supper can only be regarded as a kind of step to the altar of God, and we are told, in the law, that we are not to go up by steps to God's altar, lest our nakedness be discovered. (Ex. xx. 26.) The meaning of which is, that all human efforts to approach God must issue in the discovery of human nakedness.

Thus we see that, if it be indifference that prevents the Christian from being at the breaking of bread, it is most culpable in the sight of God, and most injurious to his brethren and himself; and if it be an imperfect sense of justification that prevents, it is not only unwarrantable, but most dishonouring to the love of the Father, the work of the Son, and the clear and unequivocal testimony of the Holy Ghost.

But it is not unfrequently said, and that, too, by those who are of reputation for spirituality and intelligence, " I derive no spiritual benefit by going to the assembly, I am as happy in my own room reading my Bible." I would affectionately ask such, are we to have no higher object before us in our actings, than our own happiness ? Is not obedience to the corn-mand of our Blessed Master—a command delivered οιι " the same night in which He was betrayed," a far higher and nobler object to set before us than anything connected with self? If He desires that His people should assemble, in His name, for the express object of sheaving forth His death till He come, shall we refuse because we feel happier in our own rooms?

He tells us to be there; we reply, " We feel happier at home;" our happiness, therefore, must be based on disobedience, and, as such, it is an unholy happiness. It is much better, if it should be so, to be unhappy in the path of obedience, than happy in the path of disobedience. But I verily believe, the thought of being happier at home is a mere delusion, and the end of all who are deluded by it will prove it such. Thomas might have deemed it indifferent whether he was present with the other disciples, but he had to do without the Lord's presence, and to wait for eight days, until the disciples came together on the first day of the week, for there and then the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to his soul ; and just so will it be with those who say, We feel happier at home than in the assembly of believers; they will surely be behindhand in knowledge and experience ; yea, it will be well if they come not under the terrible woe denounced by the prophet, " Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." (tech. xi. 17.) And again, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there rernaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb. x. 25-27.)

As to the objection upon the grounds of the barrenness and unprofitableness of christian assemblies, it will generally be remarked that the greatest spiritual

barrenness will aiways be found in connection with a captious and complaining spirit : and I doubt not that, if those who complain of the unprofitableness of meetings, and draw from thence an argument in favour of their remaining at home, were to spend mere time in secret waiting on the Lord, for His blessing on the meetings, they would have a very different experience.

And now, having shewn from the scripture, who ought to be at the breaking of bread, we shall proceed to consider who ought not. On this point scripture is equally explicit: in a word, then, none should be there who are not members of the true Church of God. The same law which commanded all the congregation of Israel to eat the passover, commanded all uncircumcised strangers not to eat; and now that Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us, none can keep the feast which is to extend throughout this entire dispensation, nor yet break bread, or drink wine in true remembrance of Him, save those who know the cleansing and healing virtues of His precious blood. To eat and drink without this knowledge, is to eat and drink unworthily—to eat and drink judgment, and, like the woman in Numbers v. who drank the water of jealousy, to make the condemnation more manifest and awfully solemn.

Now, it is in this that . Christendom's guilt is specially manifest. In taking the Lord's Sugper, the professing church has, like Judas, put her hand on the table with Christ, and betrayed Him—she has eaten with Him, and, at the same time, lifted up her heel against Him. What will be her end? ' Just like the

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end of Judas. " He then, having received the sop, went immediately out: and," the Holy Ghost adds, in awful solemnity, "‚T was NIGHT." Terrible night! The strongest expression of divine love only elicited the strongest expression of human hatred. So will it be with the false professing church collectively, and each false professor individually ; and all those who, though baptized in the name of Christ, and sitting down at the table of Christ, have, nevertheless, been His betrayers, will find themselves, at last, thrust out into outer darkness—involved in a night which shall never see the beams of the morning—plunged in a gulf of endless and ineffable woe; and though they may be able to say to the Lord, "We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou bast taught in our streets," yet His solemn, heart-rending reply will be, while he shuts the door against them, "Depart from me, I never knew you." Oh! my reader, think of this, I pray you; and if you be yet in your sins, defile not the Lord's table by your presence; but, instead of going thither as a hypocrite, repair to Calvary, as a poor ruined and guilty sinner, and there receive pardon and cleansing from Him, who died to save just such as you are.

IV. Having now considered, through the Lord's mercy, the nature of the Lord's Supper; the circumstances under which it ''as instituted; and the persons for whom it was designed; I would only add a word as to what scripture teaches us about the time and manner of its celebration.

Although the Lord's Supper was not first instituted

THE LORD'S SUFFER.

en the first day of the week, yet the 24th of Luke, and the 20th of Acts, are quite sufficient to prove, to a mind subject to the word, that that is the day on which the ordinance should specially be observed. The Lord broke bread with His disci μ les on " the first day of the week" (Luke xxiv. 30); and "on the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread." (Acts xx. 7.) These scriptures are quite sufficient to prove that it is not once a month, nor once in three months, nor once in six months, that disciples should come together to break bread, but once a week at least, and that upon the first day of the week. Nor can we have any difficulty in seeing that there is a moral fitness in the first day of the week, for the celebration of the Lord's Supper; it is the resurrection day—the Church's day, in contrast with the seventh, which was Israel's day; and as, in the institution of the ordinance, the Lord led His disci μ les away from Jewish things altogether, by refusing to drink of the fruit of the vine, and then instituting another ordinance, so, in the day on which that ordinance was to be celebrated, we observe the same contrast between heavenly and earthly things. It is in the power of resurrection that we can rightly shew the Lord's death. When the conflict was over, Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine, and blessed Abraham, in the name of the Lord. Thus, too, our Melchizedek, when all the conflict was over, and the victory gained, came forth, in resurrection, with bread and wine, to strengthen and cheer the hearts of His people, and to breathe upon them that peace which He had so dearly purchased.

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If, then, the first day of the week be the day on which scripture teaches the disciples to break bread, it is clear that man has no authority to alter the period to once a month, or once in six months. We must be as strictly subject to scripture as to the time for celebrating the ordinance, as we would be in reference to any other point connected with it. And I doubt not, that when the affections are lively and fervent toward the Person of the Lord Himself, the Christian will desire to shew the Lord's death as frequently as possible; indeed it would seem from thy opening of Acts, that the disciples broke bread whenever they met. This we may infer from the expression " breaking bread from house to house." However, we are not left to depend upon mere inference, as to the question of the first day of the week being the day on which the disciples came together to break bread; we are distinctly taught this, and we see its moral fitness and beauty.

Thus much as to the time. And now one word about the manner. It should be the special aim of Christians, to shew that the breaking of bread is their grand and primary object in coming together, on the first day of the week. They should shew that it is not for preaching or teaching that they assemble, though teaching may be a happy adjunct, but that the breaking of bread is the leading object before their

minds. This can be done by making it the first thing

at their meetings. And there is a moral fitness in this order, as well as in the time. It is the work of Christ which we shew forth in the Supper, wherefore it should have the first place, and, when it has been duly set forth, there should be a full and unqualified opening left for the work of the Holy Ghost in ministry. The office of the Spirit is to set forth and exalt the name, the Person, and the work of Christ; and if He be allowed to order and govern the assembly of Christians, as He undoubtedly should, He will ever give the work of Christ the primary place.

I cannot close this paper without expressing my deep sense of the feebleness and shallowness of all that I have advanced, on a subject of really commanding interest. I do feel before the Lord, in whose presence I desire to write and speak, that I have so failed to bring out the full truth about this matter, that I almost shrink from letting these pages see the light. It is not that I have a shadow of doubt as to the truth of what I have endeavoured to state; no:

but I feel that, in writing upon such a subject as the breaking of bread, at the time when there is such sad confusion among professing Christians, there is a demand for pointed, clear, and lucid statements, to which I am little able to respond.

We have but little conception of how entirely the question of the breaking of bread is connected with the Church's position and testimony on earth; and we have as little conception of how thoroughly the question has been misunderstood by the professing church. The breaking of bread ought to be the distinct enunciation of the fact, that all believers are one body; but the professing church, by splitting into sects, and by setting up a table for each sect, has practically denied that fact.

In truth, the breaking of bread has been cast into the back-ground. The table, at which the Lord should preside, is almost lost sight of, by being placed in the shade of the pulpit, in which man presides ; the pulpit, which, alas ! is too often the instrument of creating and perpetuating disunion, is, to many minds,. the commanding object, while the table, which, if properly understood, would perpetuate love and unity, is made quite a secondary thing. And even in the most laudable effort to recover from such a lamentable condition of things, what complete failure have we seen. What has the Evangelical Alliance effected ? It has effected this, at least, it has fully developed a need existing among professing Christians, which they are confessedly unable to meet. They want union, and are unable to attain it. Why? Because they will not give up everything, save what they have as Christians, and meet together as disciples, to break bread. I say, us disciples, and not as Churchmen, independents, or Baptists. It is not that all such may not have much valuable truth, I mean those of them who love our Lord Jesus Christ: they certainly may, but they have no truth that should prevent them from meeting together to break bread. How could truth ever hinder Christians from giving expression to the unity of the Church ? Impossible ! A sectarian spirit in those who hold truth may do this, but truth never can. But how is it now in the professing church ? Christians, of various communities, can meet for the purpose of reading, praying, and singing together, during the week, but when the first day of the week arrives, they have not the least idea of giving the only real and effectual expression of their unity, which the Holy Ghost can recognize, which is the breaking of bread. " We being many are one bread and one body, for we are c11 partakers of that one bread."

The sin wt Corinth was their not tarrying one for another. This appears from the exhortation with which the apostle sums up the whole question (1 Cor. xi.), " Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another." Why were they to tarry one for another? Surely, in order that they might the more clearly express their unity. But what would the apostle have said, if, instead of coming together, into one place, they had gone to different places, according to their different views of truth? He night then say, with, if possible, greater force, " Ye cannot eat the Lord's Supper." (See margin.)

It may, however, be asked, " How could all the believers in London meet in one place?" I reply, if they could not meet in one place, they could, at least, meet on one principle. But how did the believers at Jerusalem meet together? The answer is, they were "0/ one accord." This being so, they had little difficulty about the question of a meeting-r πο m.

" Solomon's porch," or any where else, would suit their purpose. They gave expression to their unity, and that, too, in a way not to be mistaken. Neither various localities, nor various measures of knowledge and attainment, could, in the least, interfere with their unity. There was "one body and one Spirit."

Finally, then, I would say, the Lord will assn redly

honour those who have faith to believe and confess the unity of the Church on earth; and the greater the difficulty in the way of doing so, the greater will be the honour. The Lord grant to all His people a single eye, and an humble and honest spirit.

C. Η. Μ.

Thy broken body, gracious Lord,

Is shadowed by this broken bread, The wine which in this cup is pour'd

Points to the blood which Thou hast shed.

And while we meet together thus,

We shew that we are one in Thee Thy precious blood was shed for us,

Thy death, O Lord, has set us free.

Brethren in Thee, in union sweet,

(For ever be thy grace ador'd), Tissin Thy name, that now we meet, And know Thou'rt with us, gracious Lord.

We have one hope—that Thou wilt come,

Thee in the air we wait to see, When Thou wilt take Thy people home,

And we shall ever reign with Thee.