THE MEMORIAL OF THE LORD'S DEATH.
2.—THE LORD'S TABLE.
I would not omit here a remark, which appears to be of importance. There are not a few Christians who “receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,” as they say, with blessing for their own souls. They maintain, that in commemorating the Lord's death they are not called upon to be occupied with their neighbor to the right or to the left, but with the Lord Himself. Upright and devoted souls of believers, ignorant of the double character and aspect of the memorial of the Lord's death, may receive individual blessing from God, Who is gracious and patient with such, provided they do not take it as a “Sacrament” or means of grace for the forgiveness of sins, for God cannot own with real blessing that which is in itself untrue. It is contrary to His own word, entrenching upon Christ's accomplished work of an eternal redemption. Mere religious sentiments are no blessings. I need scarcely add, that a believer, who, contrary to his conviction in the light of God's word, continues to partake of the memorial of the Lord's death together with known unbelievers or mere professors, cannot expect the Lord to countenance in blessing such an act of willful disobedience.
The next character of the Lord's table is
2.—Discipline. God is holy, holy, holy. The memorial of the death of His Son, the pure Lamb of God, “without blemish and without spot,” must be celebrated without the “leaven of malice and wickedness.” And if in every respect holiness becometh the house of God forever, this truth avails in an especial way for the table of His Son. No leaven was permitted in the house of an Israelite during the time of Passover. How much more does this hold good for us! “For even Christ, our pass-over, is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
The Corinthians, to whom these words were addressed by the apostle, furnished a solemn instance of Christ's exercising discipline as “Son over His own house” where His holy presence is disregarded. Besides the solemn exclusion of that “wicked person” from the assembly, many among them had been visited with sickness, some having been even cut off by death, because they had not “discerned the Lord's body,” and thus “eaten and drunk judgment to themselves.”
But where the memorial of our precious Savior's death is thus being celebrated by His redeemed people, the following characteristic of the Lord's table, viz.
3.—The “showing the Lord's death, till He come,” will take place in the power and demonstration of the Spirit as a testimony to outsiders.
But at this blessed table we “show the Lord's death, till he come,” thus at once connecting tile solemn remembrance of Him in His death with the bright hope of His coming again in the air, when all that are Christ's, will be caught up to Him “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” to enter with Him into His and our Father's house. This blissful hope of the coming again of our Lord thus constitutes
4.—An essential ingredient of our divinely prepared repast at the Lord's table, its concluding refreshing portion after the “bitter herbs,” so to speak. Without this element of refreshment even the Lord's table would he not complete in blessing.
The Israelites celebrated the passover, after their deliverance from Egypt, as a memorial, that the Lord in that never-to-be-forgotten night had “passed over,” sparing their houses, not slaying their firstborn. When they had passed through the Red Sea dry shod, they sang: “All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till thy people pass over, which thou hast purchased.” (They anticipate their passing through Jordan into their earthly Canaan).
Likewise we at the memorial of our Savior's love, remember that “Christ, our passover was slain for us,” that God's sword of judgment might pass us over. But we “show His death,” as a public testimony, “till He come,” when we shall pass over with Him into our heavenly Canaan, to be forever with the Lord. Blessed hope, which might become for us a still more blessed reality the next Lord's day, when showing His death.
May we not only at the memorial of His love, which was strong as death, but daily and hourly abide in His presence, for it is only in His presence, that the hope of His coming again can be to us a joyful and living hope. J. A. von P.
The certainty of a fact by sight is not belief; as far as it is worth anything, it is certainty, not belief—nothing to accredit it but perception.
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