Dear brother,
The subject of worship has been long on my own heart too. I feel strongly about it, but do not know that I can rightly express what I feel. There are meetings which are among my most precious memories, when one could almost see or touch the One present with those gathered to His name. I remember one when the spirit of worship so filled us that hearts were too full to speak, and the emotion beyond physical control.
But how often we leave the room with a sense of disappointment! We have “enjoyed the meeting,” as we say, and it may have been we were edified —yet something was lacking, and that “something” was what we did not render. It is difficult to speak of it, but not to feel and recognize it. As in a bouquet or in fruit, a fragrance or aroma may be wanting, which the eye cannot see, yet all the beauty displayed to the eye cannot make good what is missing.
Now I will give you my thoughts about worship and about the remembrance meeting, which I trust are from His Word. I will leave you to bring to them the delicacy of fragrance — the savor of the four principal spices (Ex. 30:3434And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: (Exodus 30:34)) that were for God only. We cannot make this composition for ourselves — it is holy for the Lord — but we can make it for Him. The ever-blessed Lord Jesus it surely is, but the incense rises when the priest puts it upon the fire drawn from the brazen altar.
Before we are saved, it is all of self and none of God, but when we are worshippers, it is all of God and nothing of us. When “born again” we get a sense of need, and we ask for what we want, that is, we pray. Then as His mercies abound and we become conscious of His loving recognition and supply of our need, we thank Him for mercies received.
Learning more of our God through the Spirit, we recognize the glories of creation and redemption, of preservation too, and we praise. There is yet another elevation where we are consciously “in the holiest by the blood of Jesus” and before us is God. We bow before Him (the word worship means primarily a prostration, as Matthew 2:1111And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)) for what he is in Himself. Self is forgotten so that we do not pray or thank — we adore, we worship. It will be our glad employment in heaven, but here in our weakness we rather aspire to, than attain to it. Our worship here will be mingled with praise, its nearest companion, and often too with remembrances of self — what He has done for us, and so we thank Him also, and lower still with prayer. But, if our thoughts have moved together, we will distinguish one exercise from another.
We come to remember the Lord Jesus, and the symbols used are a reminder of Him. Eating the broken loaf and drinking of the cup show forth His death. Thus the Lord’s Supper is a reminder of our Saviour, of our Lord Jesus, in His death. This is the primary thought of the meeting, and nothing should interfere with or cloud it.
Surely we cannot think of His death without associating with it the purpose and results of it, and these in relation to God, and to us. Can we do better than follow our Lord Himself in Psalm 22 and Psalm 102? He suffers under the hand of God, but He glorifies Him, He praises, and as Leader in the great congregation; the final results are yet to be displayed in His Lordship on the earth and the blessing of its peoples.
We have no pattern given us for the meeting, except as taught generally by Acts 20 and 1 Corinthians 14, so that our spiritual senses must be aroused and alert to do whatever is suitable and orderly for us to do. If we have in mind the purpose of the meeting and are conscious of the unseen Presence and are subject to His Spirit, we will be together at the appointed hour, waiting upon the Lord. The assembly will praise or worship by voicing together in a hymn of praise or worship, or by one voice in audible expression.
The gospel of His grace, unspeakably precious as it is, will not come to mind. The trials of the way, our pilgrimage, will be forgotten. We have no needs, no wants. The heart is filled, is overfilled, as the assembly praises or worships. It may be in silence or in voice — it matters not. There is “one heart, one mind glorifying God.” Jesus is before us — His Person —His death, and our hands are filled with Him. Surely the understanding of one may be greater than another, but it is no question now of how much of Jesus I can hold. I am full, little as I can hold of Him. The older saint — the father who has walked with Him for years and knows Him intimately — is filled. The babe who has just started on his way is also filled. It is Jesus who fills every capacity, be it great or small. Oh, how my heart longs to be in that meeting now!
Can there be a rule, an order of exercise, for such a meeting? Perhaps a hymn, or a voice uttering the worship of the assembly, a portion of His Word that makes us enjoy more the consciousness of His presence — these may or may not precede the solemn performance of the one act that is enjoined. Now we “give thanks,” all of us, as one stands to speak for us. I do not know which one, but if any is gifted, let him hesitate the longest, lest he interfere with the Holy Spirit and His choice of spokesman.
If the Holy Spirit is left free to move the assembly, He will choose that aspect of Jesus that is meet, for we cannot see Him now in all His glories at once. Then all — the hymns, the Scripture, the expression of the assembly’s worship — will be in harmony with the theme He has chosen. No prearrangement is needed — only true waiting upon Him. Likewise, the after-meeting will be in harmony. The word, if any is spoken for edification or exhortation, will not jar upon any heart. It is ever a meeting toward God, and hence is no place either for the exercise of gift or for a long exhortation or sermon.
Likewise, we will not get into a rut of long-continued form or procedure, nor is there any rule in addressing the Father or the Son at the table. Let it be as the Spirit leads. There is but one rule, and that is to be subject to the Spirit. Then all things will be done decently and in order. He will use the one He chooses, God will be worshipped, our Lord Jesus remembered, and the saint will leave the spot as one who has had a foretaste of heaven.
But how rare is such a meeting, for if there be one in it who is not “in tune” to the theme of the Spirit, the harmony is marred, perhaps spoiled. This is especially true if that one takes audible part — gives out a hymn unsuited, or an unsuited portion of Scripture, or prays, since he cannot worship.
Then what will the worshipper do? He must possess His soul in patience, join when he can do so, and when he cannot, abide with God alone.
In the love of Christ to you,
C. H. H. (adapted from a letter
written in November, 1891)