A correspondent desires to know how far he is right in absenting himself from the Lord’s Table when his soul is in a low condition. So far as the Lord has enabled us to form a judgment in this matter, we should say, the Christian ought never to be in such a condition of soul as would prevent his attendance at the Lord’s Supper. He should be there, and that in a worthy manner. My child should be at my table; but he should be there in a manner worthy of his place and relationship.
The Christian should not approach the table in a bad state of conscience, or in the indulgence of any wrong habit, or in any carnal or low condition of soul. To do so will assuredly lead to his becoming “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” or becoming blind, and forgetting that he was purged from his old sins. This should be most carefully guarded against.
There are two errors which persons fall into in reference to the Lord’s Supper. The one is, approaching it in order to get the heart set right. The other is, approaching it in utter carelessness, while the heart is all wrong. Both should be sedulously avoided. If the soul has slipped away from Christ, backslidden from God, and grieved the Holy Spirit, let there be full, free, deep, earnest confession, self-judgment, and immediate return to God. The Spirit testifies, through the Word, to the powerful advocacy of Christ, and the changeless love of the Father’s heart, so that the greatest backslider may return, in the assurance of being met with open arms, and blessed with a deeper sense than ever of divine compassion and tenderness.
But, for any one to go on, from day to day, and from week to week, living in sin, indulging unclean thoughts, light conversation, unholy, unrighteous, and ungracious actings—for such an one to daub his conscience with un-tempered mortar, to prop himself up with one-sided views of “grace,” to slur over the moral condition of his heart, with a vapid phraseology and vain profession—to talk of his high communion, heavenly standing, and elevated privileges—to take his place in hardness of heart, at the Holy Supper of the Lord—all this must be regarded as grievous wickedness; it is “turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the Lord that bought him.”