At the Lord's table...

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

AT THE LORD'S TABLE.

AT

Contents

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I. The Real Presence 7

II. Communion Seasons 10

II. Communion Seasons

HPHERE can be no doubt that in the time immediately following the institution of the Supper, its observance was a feature of every holy convocation of the church. The brethren came together daily, and never separated without partaking of the emblems of their Lord's death in their behalf. But even in the apostolic days we find an increase in the length of the period between the celebrations of the Supper, and that these occurred not daily as at first, but on the first day of every week. I think it is a misfortune that different parts of the Church ever departed from this apostolic custom and lengthened the intervals between the communion seasons, making them in some cases a year apart, or six months, or three months, or two months.

Communion Seasons. 1 1

One of the evils growing out of this custom is a sort of suggestion of intermittent piety, an unacknowledged notion that Christians may be quite worldly for most of the time, and then gather themselves up into a pious frame of mind at the approach of the communion season, only to fall into worldliness again as soon as the season has passed. A more frequent observance of the Supper would, I think, correct this, and by bringing our Lord's death constantly before us, be a quickener of our faith and a powerful agent to keep us closer to his side and thus farther away from the world and farther away from temptation.

God's wish for us His children is that we should be full of joy and peace, and He has made ample provision for this. A verse in Psalm XCII. tells us how: " Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." "To flourish" is to be happy, and happiness is a subjective condition that does not at all depend upon earthly circumstances of

12 Communion Seasons.

any kind. But those who thus flourish are such as are planted in the house of the Lord, that is, make it their abiding-place. Just here is the difference between Christians. Many Christians (to keep the figure) seem to be planted in boxes which are now and then rolled into the Lord's house and then rolled out again. Such Christians cannot flourish, cannot be happy. Happiness is found in the house of the Lord, and belongs to those who are planted there.

Is not this a good time to think over our own case, to see whether we make our religious life, our true life, our life hid with Christ in God, our main thought, subordinating all else to it ? Only in this way can we be planted in the house of the Lord, and it is the only place where we can become holy and happy, filled with joy and comfort and peace.

III. The Nature Of The Supper

T^HROUGH the ages of the Church's life the Lord's Supper has received various names, and some of them have been sad misnomers. The " sacrament " is one of these. " Sacrament " in its Latin form had two meanings. The first was that of a vow or an oath taken by a soldier to his commander; and this notion has fastened itself upon a large part of the Church, causing great terror and distress where neither terror nor distress should exist. We do not come here to-day to take vows of obedience upon ourselves ; we do not come to bind ourselves by oaths of service. We are too weak for either vows or oaths ; we should break them all if we made them. God vows, not we, — God vows to give us eternal salvation and glory, and binds Him-

14 The Nature of the Supper.

self by an oath that He will bring this to pass. We do nothing but receive his promise.

The other and later meaning of " sacrament " is "mystery," and this grew out of its use in the Church. It is just as false as the other. There is nothing specially mysterious in the holy Supper; there is no more mystery in it than there is in prayer, or in faith, or in our daily life. We are only children, and to children everything has somewhat of mystery. The Supper is simple enough for a child to understand; it is coming to the Lord's table to remember him, that is, "to see Jesus bearing my punishment, broken for me, dying for me." All there is of mystery is in the great principles which lie behind the facts here memorialized.

In the Bible this holy ordinance is called a " supper," and we sit at a supper with our friends when the day's work is over. It is a time for rest and refreshment, for loving intercourse and mutual confidence.

The Nature of the Supper. 15

And it is called, or w call it, using one of the words found in the account of the institution of the Supper, the " Eucharist." " Eucharist" means " thanksgiving ; " and this is a most appropriate name, — for where should our thanksgiving be more fervent, where should our gratitude be more ardent, than here where we see before us the emblems of the sufferings of our Lord for us?

Then, while this holy ordinance is a supper to which the Lord invites us, to which we come in obedience to him, that we may have our gratitude enkindled and our love strengthened by our remembrance of his work for us, there is also in it the element of a divine union, a union with God established by Jesus. No heart sits at the table in child-like faith without receiving the peace and joy and strength that must come from such a union. And so the supper becomes to us a seal and pledge as well as a memorial rite. I sit at the table and partake of the bread and the wine, and my

1 6 The Nature of the Stepper.

faith perceives in these the body and blood of my Lord, while God imparts to me through my faith a pledge of my salvation. Why ? Because God has made the Supper the sign and the seal of a covenant between my soul and Himself, — a covenant in which all my part was done for me by Jesus Christ.

IV. The Supper A Festival, Not A Fast

A MONG all the false notions concerning the Lord's Supper that have pervaded the Church, none has been more pernicious than that which has associated with it thoughts of gloom and severity. It is true that there is a vein of sadness in the past or historic view of the Supper. It was instituted at the beginning of the terrible sufferings undergone by Him who came to redeem the world, and the shadows of the coming agony — an agony so great that it pressed out that awful cry upon the cross — were already thrown upon him. And there was much in the surroundings of the first supper to increase this gloom. One of those who sat at the table was to betray his Lord; another was to deny him; all were to forsake him. The very

1 8 The Supper a Festival, not a Fast.

emblems chosen by the Saviour were emblems of suffering, — of a broken body and of poured-out blood.

But as soon as we leave the past the whole aspect of the Supper alters. The gloom and the suffering and the approaching death are gone, and only their results remain. This suffering wrought our release ; this death secured our life; this sorrow brought forth our joy. The very emblems now change their significance, and we see bread, the staff of life, and wine, that makes glad the heart of man. No severity is here, for these emblems tell of pardon; no sorrow is here, for they tell of the removal of sin, the source of sorrow; no gloom is here, for we are in the clear bright sunshine of God's love. We look not upon a dead Christ, but a risen Christ. We see not a suffering Saviour, but an exalted Saviour. Christ is not in the tomb; he is here, and we are with him. It is this that makes the Supper a feast, the one great festival of the Christian Church

The Supper a Festival, not a Fast. 19

It is true that as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we remember the Lord's death, but we are remembering it until he comes. He is coming again to perfect in glory what he began in suffering. We remember his death and the awful price he paid for our redemption, and we keep our eyes on the coming glory. Our deliverance is accomplished; our salvation is attained; and just before us is the crown of righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give to all who love His appearing. That crown of righteousness shall be given to us, as we pass through the heavenly gates in the name of the King of Glory, and hear our dear Lord's voice bidding us sit down at His board amid all the glories of our heavenly home. This is what the Supper means to us, — salvation here, glory there; and both the salvation and the glory are the work of him who tells us to assemble together and remember him.

Surely all the associations of the Supper should be those of joy and gratitude. It is

20 The Supper a Festival, not a Fast.

a feast, not a fast ; and an anthem of praise, not a miserere, should rise from our hearts as we gather around the table of our Lord.

There is another thought, a thought too seldom considered. This holy feast is an occasion of joy not only to us, but also to our God. Is the thought too great? Is it impossible to think of the Infinite One rejoicing with us? Listen to the words addressed by the Spirit to every believing heart : " He will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest [take his ease and comfort] in his love; he will joy over thee with singing;" again, "As a bridegroom rejoiceth over a bride, even so will thy God rejoice over thee;" still again, "l will rejoice over them to do them good with my whole heart." Do not let us refuse to take to ourselves the comfort and the encouragement derived from knowing that God, our God, is to-day rejoicing with us over the blessed results of His wonderful love and grace.

V. The Supper A Love-feast

nr^HE Lord's Supper is a love-feast. In it we emphasize the great love of Jesus for us, we emphasize our love and gratitude to him, and we emphasize our love to one another as all being in Christ. We see him as our suffering substitute, and we recognize the brotherhood which exists between us and our fellow-believers — exists why? because we all belong to the race of Adam? No; that is what the world's philosophers say, who would have us love all men alike.

There has been no natural bond of brotherhood between men, ever since sin entered into the world and separated one from the other, placing each in a state of isolation. The only brotherhood now to be found is among Christians, and this because

22 The Supper a Love-Feast.

they are in Christ, who has brought them out of isolation, and as the Head of a new race, established among his seed a bond of union that shall exist, forever.

Our Lord's teaching makes a broad distinction between these and the world, and tells us that our feeling regarding our brethren in Christ is not what we are to have regarding the world. Listen to his words; he is speaking to his Father. " I pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for them that Thou hast given me out of the world. " That is emphatic, and draws a deep line between those who believe in Christ and those who do not believe. Again, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these," — not the " least of mankind," but "the least of these my brethren." Christ is identified with those who receive him, but he is not identified with those who reject him. Undoubtedly we are to love the world. God loves the world, and we are followers of God ; but this God-likeness of the soul, this broad

The Supper a Love-Feast. 23

affection for all the members of our race, is something very different from the love felt toward our fellow Christians, the family tie that binds us together because we are in Christ.

There are commandments in the Church of Christ. The Antinomian notion that the children of God have no law is arrant folly. We have no law to obtain salvation; but we have a law, the holy, just, and good law of our holy, just, and good God, and we love it and love to obey it. Our Lord tells us that obedience is the mark of love to him. " If ye love me, keep my commandments ; " and then he adds a little further on, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another. " If the Church would but obey its Lord all its troubles would be over in a single day. All the sad fruits of our natural isolation, all anger and malice, all jealousy and backbiting, all bitter words and unkind thoughts, would disappear in a moment, and in their stead would be the fraternal recognition, the

24 The Supper a Love-Feast.

brotherly kindness, which caused men to say of the early Church, " See how these Christians love one another!"

As we think to-day of the past, remembering all Christ has done for us, let us also think of the future, and plan what we can do for him. It is just as we obey him that we have a joyful experience and happy hearts and brighter views of our dear Lord.

VI. The Supper A Pledge Of Glory

V\ 7E naturally think of the Lord's Supper as a memorial feast, as telling what Jesus wrought for us, of his humiliation and death in our behalf. And we naturally think of it as showing our communion with him and with one another, our participation in the sufferings of Jesus, and our Christian fellowship. But we do not so often think of it as a pledge of our eternal glory, a foretaste of that heavenly banquet at which every believer shall sit down when we all gather together at the marriage-supper of the Lamb. This glory is ours to-day.

In his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul writes, "In whom [that is, in Christ] we have an inheritance," — not "will have"

26 The Supper a Pledge of Glory.

but "have," have at this very time. That we have not entered upon the possession of the inheritance does not affect the fact of our ownership. A man may become the heir to a large and rich estate in America and the man himself be in China. He has not entered into the full enjoyment of his inheritance; he cannot see it with his eyes; he does not know its details of hill and valley; he cannot tell all its resources of mine and field and river; but it is his, nevertheless. He is the rightful and acknowledged owner. So it is with our possessions in Christ. They are ours, though our ideas concerning them are undefined. We know about them in a general way. The apostle Peter tells us that they are incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, and reserved for us in that heaven toward which we are hastening ; and Paul says that man's mind is not now able to conceive the good which God has in store for us. It is this thought that robs death of all gloom to the Christian heart, that makes

The Supper a Pledge of Glory. 27

a Christian look forward to the time of his departure from this world with gladness and eagerness. Why should he not rejoice? He then enters upon the full glory of his inheritance in Christ.

But, while the glory is in heaven, and while we must wait for it until we pass into the other world, God, who gives us the glory, also gives us earnests and pledges of its ownership, bidding us look upon these and handle them, and thus have our faith made strong. In this same epistle to the Ephesians, Paul tells us that the sealing of the Spirit is an earnest of the promised possession, and the Spirit uses the holy Supper, as he uses prayer, to perfect his work in the soul. It is not the mere observance of the rite, not the eating the bread and drinking the wine, that is to do us good. We may eat and drink, and be thoughtless and careless and formal, and then the exercise will be profitless to us. It is the spiritual grace contained in the outward rite that will make us grow in

28 The Supper a Pledge of Glory.

the Christian life. The Holy Spirit is given to every believer, and furnishes discerning power to every believer; but the fruits of the Spirit will be enjoyed only when the heart welcomes Him and the will submits to His control.

As we partake of the supper of our Lord to-day, let us keep this joyful thought before our minds, — not only does it memorialize our Lord's death, but it also conveys to us a pledge from God — from God, who cannot lie — of the glory awaiting us. Let us eat and drink, using the God-given tokens whose full significance we shall never know until we enter our country above.

VII. "communion."

TI 7E speak, and rightly speak, of Communion seasons, but it is not always clear in our minds what the term means. It is not, as is often supposed, communion with the saints; that is a precious privilege, but it is not that which is enjoyed around the table of our Lord. The Holy Spirit explains the word " communion of the body and blood of Christ," that is, communion with Christ himself through the symbols of bread and wine. The same Greek word translated " communion " in the first epistle to the Corinthians is in the first epistle of John translated "fellowship," — "We have fellowship one with another," where the fellowship is not with other Christians but with God. One can enjoy the communion of saints only when

30 " Communion. 3 '

in the company with other believers; but were a man cast away upon a desert island, or were he the only saint upon earth, he could with perfect propriety break the bread and drink the wine, and through the symbols enjoy communion with his God and Saviour.

VIII. "fellowship."

A LL the unspeakable glories, present and future, promised us by our God, can be gathered into one word, — " fellowship," "fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Do you ask what this means? I cannot tell you. Is it a partnership in business? Yes, and more. Is it the sweet intercourse of friends met to converse upon subjects dear to the hearts of all ? Yes, and more. Is it the sacred harmony of the family circle? Yes, it is this and more than this. Is it the mutual confidence and affection between husband and wife ? Yes, and more than this. All these are types and tokens, given, it is true, in God's word; but types and tokens, though divinely appointed,

32 "Fellowship."

fail to depict the intimate communion established between your soul, my fellow Christian, and the God of eternal life, manifested in Christ Jesus our Lord.

IX. Misusing The Supper

TT is possible to misuse this holy ordinance of the Supper. There is no mystery about it, no more than there is about prayer or any other means by which we hold communion with God. There is always a certain amount of mystery whenever the human and finite approaches the spiritual and infinite; but there is nothing specially mysterious about the Supper. Any misuse of the ordinance is not, therefore, caused by a failure to grasp its hidden meaning.

Nor is it because of any special grace given us through the Supper, — I mean more grace than can be given through other channels. When we pray, God gives us grace through our petitions to Him; when we engage in Christian service, God gives 3

34 Misusing the Supper.

us grace through our obedience to Him; when we read His word, God gives us grace through the printed page. God has never said that He would give more grace through one channel than through another channel. It is not, therefore, because of its peculiar sanctity that we may misuse the Lord's Supper.

Our misuse of it is when we fail to use it spiritually, when we come to it as a habit, when we treat it as a customary part of the religious service, as a mere external rite of the church. We misuse it when we fail to " discern the Lord's body." Paul uses this phrase in writing to the Christians of Corinth, who had fallen into the habit of coming to the Lord's table as they would to a social festivity or to an ordinary meal at the house of a friend, forgetting Him in whose commemoration it was instituted. They did not come together to remember the Lord's death; they came together to eat and to drink. The apostle tells them this was all wrong, and bids

Misusing the Supper. 35

them examine themselves and see how far they had departed from the true observance of the ordinance.

" As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death," It is this human relation of Christ Jesus, and this human relation to us, that we are to discern ; our union with Christ and with his death, and therefore with his eternal life. "Discerning the Lord's body " is recognizing the fact that Christ died for me, and making my own all the benefits that flow from his broken body and shed blood. When we come to the table with a simplicity of faith appropriate to the simplicity of the ordinance, we perceive our oneness with Christ, and we gain from the feast much strength and great joy. We misuse it when neither the strength nor the joy is obtained.

X. Christ's Divinity In The Supper

A S we approach the table of our Lord, we love to think of the human side of the feast, of the human side of our Lord, of his human love and sympathy, of his full and complete humanity, in which he was tried in all points as we are. But there is also another line of thought which we must not forget, and this is the divine side of the Supper, the divine side of our Jesus. Were the invitation he extends to every one of us, to-day, merely an invitation of love and sympathy, it would make the feast a very tender one but never a satisfying one. No one who has felt the heavy weight of sin, the painful accusations of a wounded conscience, the oppressive anticipations of coming retribution, does not

Christ 's Divinity in the Supper. 37

know that something more than love and sympathy, precious as these are, is needed before the soul can be at peace. And just here we turn to the divine side of the Supper and see that it symbolizes atonement, and that the atonement was God's atonement. Jesus never relinquished his Godhood. He relinquished its active use for a time to resume it again when his humiliation was over, but he never relinquished his Godhood ; and because he was God as well as man, his atonement for sin has an infinite depth of value which eternity itself cannot exhaust.

When we read in the Scriptures that God sent His Son into the world to obtain eternal life for men, we know that there was a movement of God, an activity of God toward this end. It was this movement and activity that made the work a divine one, and so made the taking away of man's sin possible. If Jesus had been only man, and not the Eternal Word become flesh, no sin would ever have been taken

38 Christ's Divinity in the Supper.

away. It is as we see our degraded condition, as we see that God must interfere for our rescue, see that God did interfere, that the Son of God became the Son of Man, that God stood in man's place, that a Godman satisfied God's justice; it is as we allow this divine side of our Saviour to be recognized by us, as we see that this table is Christ's table and God's table, that the work of salvation is Christ's work and God's work, — it is as we see this, that our souls are satisfied and our consciences are at rest. We do not for a moment hide from ourselves our sinfulness and guilt; but we look upon our sins without fear, knowing that God has cast them into the depths of the sea. Let us come to the table of our Master to derive strength from the contemplation of the divine character of our Redeemer.

You remember that the prophet Elijah once sat down under a juniper-tree, faint and discouraged; and then the Lord sent an angel and showed him bread baked on

Christ's Divinity in the Supper, 39

the coals and a cruse of water. Elijah ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights. So will it be with us. We can obtain strength to-day that will not fail us to-morrow, or next week, or next year. There was nothing in the bread and water that made them suffice for Elijah. There is nothing in this ordinance, there is nothing in the fundamental doctrine upon which the ordinance rests, there is nothing in the natural mind as we receive the doctrine and think over it; but there is a power of God behind all these which will give a divine efficacy to them all, and make the holy Supper a means of strengthening us for the remainder of our lives on earth.

XL

CHRIST'S HUMANITY IN THE SUPPER.

r I ^HE holy Supper with its emblems brings before our minds, and so before our hearts, the fact that our divine Redeemer is also man. He is the Infinite God brought into limitations like our own. Instead of presenting himself to us as the great, strong, absolute, and eternal God, he comes to us as flesh of our flesh, as moved by the same sympathies, as rejoicing and sorrowing, and yet as divine. He loves as we love; he pities as we pity; he comforts as we comfort, with the love and the pity and the comfort raised to a divine height. We are not to explain away these facts of our Lord's life by any metaphysical subtlety. He is one with us. We see him and hear him, not afar off, but close at hand.

Christ's Humanity in the Supper. 41

Let us apply this line of thought to the holy ordinance we this day celebrate. We find that God has put into it nothing that would tend to keep us at a distance from Him and everything that would tend to bring us into close proximity, into familiar intimacy, with Him. We have here a table spread with the simplest of tokens, with something to eat and something to drink, the ordinary food of daily life. We are here at a supper; and a supper at once suggests the dear home-circle with the father's care and the fraternal greetings. We have come not to listen to threatenings but to hear love-whispers, not to be punished but to be made glad. We have no long list of duties to perform, no magical incantations to pursue. We are here to remember what our Lord has done for us. Everything about us tells of the free family life, the sweet tie of kinship with its readiness to share and to sympathize.

This closeness of intercourse is just what God would see in each of us. From

42 Christ's Humanity in the Supper.

it will spring joy and gratitude, strength and happiness; from it will come the symmetrical development of the Christ-life in us, in its active influence upon others and in its subjective enjoyment within our own souls.

XII. The Domestic Element In The Supper

TN Psalm LXXXIV. we read these words, "Blessed are they that dwell in thy courts ; they will still [that is, always] be praising thee," — in other words, a permanent dwelling in God's house is the position of permanent joy.

What is dwelling in God's house? It cannot mean dwelling in the literal temple any more than the similar phrase in Psalm XXIII. , "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever," means dwelling in the literal temple. The literal temple could not be entered by David or any of his tribe. The expression must have a spiritual import, and it had this from the beginning. It was never intended to be taken literally. Dwelling in God's house is

44 The Domestic Element in the Supper.

consciously dwelling in the presence of God and His work of redemption; it is dwelling so near Christ that the facts of his grace and love are always impressing themselves on the heart and on the mind. The Lord's house is not a locality but a condition. It is the condition or frame of mind and heart constructed by the Holy Spirit in which the believer may dwell. Alas ! we all do not dwell there. We sometimes leave the company of our Lord and run off to dwell with the world ; but each one of us has the power and the privilege of dwelling in the house of the Lord all the time.