“This do in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24). Mark the touching simplicity and grace of these words. The Lord does not say, “This do, and live for Me,” nor ‘This do and devote thy all to My service.” He asks nothing that could occupy us with ourselves and make us distressed and sorry at our inability to come up to what He desires. He only asks us to remember Him. This is touching in its simplicity! It is like going to a drawer and taking from it some simple object connected with one dearly loved in days gone by. Memory alone does all the work needed. Thus He puts into our hands bread and wine, His body thus in death for us, and if the memory alone is free all shall be well. Tender thoughts, joy, and praise shall all follow in due course.

FRAGMENT

Lord, we would ne’er forget Thy pain,

Thy bloody sweat, the shameful tree—

The curse Thy soul did once sustain,

From sin and death to set us free!                                                                              James G. Deck

Let us turn for a few moments to that solemn night in which our blessed Saviour bequeathed to His apostles and to us the precious legacy of His love. Oh, what tones of perfect love, grace, patience, goodness, and wisdom were heard that night, the atmosphere of which was saturated with the leaven of Satan’s and men’s wickedness! May that night  more constantly be present to our consciences and to the memory of our hearts! Then indeed, when sitting down at the table then prepared for us by our Good Shepherd, we shall better understand the meaning of His tender dying  injunction, “This do in remembrance of Me.”

It was the darkest of all nights—a night the like of which had never been on this earth, nor ever will be again. It was that night when Judas went out to betray his Master with a kiss for the price of thirty pieces of silver. The Holy Spirit Himself distinguished that night from all the dark and terrible nights that had been in this world before, by those words, “And it was night” (John 13:30). We are also reminded of this by the words of the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul: “The Lord Jesus, in the night in which He was delivered up, took bread” (1 Cor. 11:23 JND).

What a moment when Jesus sat down with His apostles to eat the last Passover with them before He died! Richer  blood had to be shed now—the blood of the Lamb of God—  to procure for them and for us the blessings founded upon it. Before Him was placed the roast lamb, of which He Himself was the blessed antitype. What was the train of His thoughts when the Holy Lamb of God looked at the type before Him? Was it His own sufferings? Yes, but in what way?

The one who sat at the table with the twelve was the same who made the world. Before the foundations of the earth were appointed, He was His Father’s daily delight, and His delights were with the sons of men (Prov. 8:30,31). That which now engrossed His mind and heart was, not the anticipation of His sufferings (the hour of Gethsemane had not yet come), but those for whom He was about to suffer and to die. It was not the travail of His soul, but those that were to be the fruit of it, all whom the Father had given Him out of this world, whom He was going to redeem by His blood. They and we, fellow believer, filled the foreground of His mind and heart before He suffered. And they—and we—are the first of whom He thought and spoke after He had been heard from the horns of the unicorns. “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee” (Psa. 22:21,22). “Go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God” (John 20:17).

And did not Jesus know what manner of men they were for whom He was going to suffer? As to that nation for whom He was to die, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). As to His disciples—His apostles—He knew that one of them, who was eating His bread at that very table, had lifted up his heel against Him. And He was aware that the chief of His apostles, with whom He had entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, would in that night deny Him three times. And He knew that all His disciples, the one “whom He loved” and who was then leaning on His bosom, along with the rest, would forsake Him in the hour of deadly peril. He knew it, and He told them. He knew and foreknew every thought and movement of their treacherous, proud, deceitful, and inconstant hearts—and of ours. He knew it all and He felt it too, as only He, perfect God and perfect Man, could know and feel it. But His hand, in the perfect knowledge of all this, did not hesitate even for a moment to take the bread and break it, and likewise also the cup after supper.

And what came next? “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest” (Luke 22:24). What wretched hearts we have that betray themselves even at such a table and at such a moment, in the very presence of Him who made Himself of no reputation, but humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!

But the purposes of the obedient Son could not be shaken by the treason and pride of men’s rebellious hearts. When He came into the world He said, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:9). When in service on earth, it was, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). And at the end, in Gethsemane, it was again, “Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

Such an obedience could not be turned from its path by the defection of His own all around. Nor could His purposes of divine love be shaken or modified by the wretched selfishness in the hearts of His disciples—or in ours, Christian reader. No, His obedience was as unswerving toward His Father as His love was unchanging toward those whom the Father had given Him. His love had its motive in Himself who is love, not in anything in us or in our hearts, which are the opposite of love—selfish. Not that we loved Him, but He loved us, and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20).

(From “The Gospel and the Church” in The Bible Treasury, Vol. 19.)

Our Lord well knew how prone we are to forget. The disciples had witnessed the feeding of the 5,000, yet the Lord had to reprove them for forgetting that miracle. How significant, then, that it was on the eve of His betrayal that Christ instituted His memorial service. Surely it was no mere circumstance that found the disciples together for this special hour (Luke 22:14). This points to the important truth that the nature of the Lord’s Supper is communal, while baptism, the other major ordinance of Christianity, is individual. Nor was it a mere accident that following the resurrection, the Lord’s day, the first day of the week, was soon chosen for its weekly observance.

The Lord’s deep concern for this holy ordinance is further demonstrated by the fact that each of the three synoptic gospels (that is, Matthew, Mark, and Luke) record almost the same words as used by Christ. Moreover, a special revelation from heaven was given to the apostle Paul, and again we note the same words as in the Gospels.

My thesis for this paper is that the failure of the Christian testimony, both personally and corporately, is due, at least in part, to an incomplete understanding of the meaning and purpose of the Lord’s Supper and to the common indifference toward the serious consequences to all who take of the emblems without “discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:26,34). The corollary inference follows: we cannot expect God’s full blessing in our worship and evangelistic efforts until we are right in our personal and corporate relationship with Him.

The first crisis developed in the early Church when news came to Paul that division was threatening at Corinth. The apostle immediately wrote his first letter to the Corinthians in order to instruct and reprove this assembly for disorders there: following human leaders, allowance of moral evil, and misuse of the Lord’s Supper, “not discerning the Lord’s body.”

Philip Melanchthon, one of the Reformation theologians, asked this question in 1544: “Is there anything more sorrowful, more deserving of tears, than that the Lord’s Supper should be used as a subject of strife and division?” He had good reason to be sorrowful. A few years before, Luther and Zwingli had met at Marburg Castle to continue the discussion of the question of the meaning of “this is My body… this is My blood.” The first Protestant conference failed, and tragically, Luther refused to take the proffered hand of fellowship from his fellow brother in Christ. There would never be another opportunity to heal the breach of the two great branches of Protestantism which they represented.

If Philip Melanchthon were alive today, he might well shed tears because of the indifference generally toward the purpose and meaning of the Lord’s Supper. I must confess that for years I partook of the supper in an unworthy manner, failing to make progress in the Christian life, a “roller coaster” style of experience, having “a wandering mind, chasing butterflies” (Spurgeon). In all this I was blind to the seriousness of the memorial ordinance (1 Cor. 11:27-30).

William Kelly in The Lord’s Supper asks, “How can a Christian partake in an unworthy manner? If the day comes and you merely go to it as a religious habit, it seems very like an unworthy partaking of it.” Familiarity breeds contempt where the soul is unexercised; where self-judgment is kept up, the spirit of worship is strengthened and enlarged.

The Lord’s Supper should not be a perfunctory religious exercise, nor is it a sacrifice with the bread and wine becoming the actual body and blood of Christ as some claim. What, then, is the true meaning of it?

Clearly, the preeminent purpose of the Lord’s Supper is to provide a focal point for the united worship of Christ by His redeemed saints. “As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Cor. 11:26). The bread and the wine are symbols of the body and blood of Christ: ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you. . . . This cup is the new testament in My blood” (11:24,25). Thus, the gathered saints are reminded afresh by the loaf of bread and the cup of wine of the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ for their sakes. Such a reminder and the meditations that flow from it lead in turn to the fresh outflow of worship from the hearts and mouths of the saints so gathered. It is not only the worship of individuals but it is communal worship—the saints united together in worshiping the Lord whose death they are showing forth. Thus are the hearts of the saints not only drawn out to the Lord in this act of worship, but drawn to one another as “one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom. 12:5).

But I believe there is even more to it—an aspect of our receiving something from the Lord at the same time as we give to Him our worship. Writing 940 years ago, Berenger of Tours expounded the view that “the body and blood of Christ were present not in essence but in power. The substance remained unchanged; faith on the part of the recipient was needed to make the power effectual” (quoted by E. Lutzer in All One Body, p. 104 ). Or as a brother stated at a recent Bible conference, “Christ ministers Himself to us through the bread and wine. “

As we think of Christ’s words, “This is My body given [given up, totally surrendered] for you,” we are led to realize what was achieved by that giving; for example, “And you . . . hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death” (Col. 1:21,22), “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10:10), “Christ… bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). And as we think of His words, “This is My blood . .. shed [poured out] for many,” we are led to realize what was achieved by that pouring out; for example, “Being now justified by His blood” (Rom. 5:9), “We have redemption through His blood” (Col. 1:14), “Having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20), “The blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Then, as we meditate on all that was achieved by the giving up of Himself and the pouring out of His blood, and on the horrible suffering involved in that giving and pouring out, do we not receive a fresh and powerful sense of Christ’s infinitely profound love for us, and a correspondingly fresh desire and motivation to obey and serve Him?

Much more could be written about the significance of the Lord’s Supper. For example, we read in 1 Cor. 10:17 that the one loaf also symbolizes the unity of all believers as Christ’s body: “We being many are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.” Also, in Matt. 18:20 we learn that by gathering together unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the believers are blessed with Christ’s real spiritual presence with them. There is enough meaning and food for our souls and spirits in the Lord’s Supper to prevent it from ever becoming a mere ritual or something we attend only because we think we should.

Through grace and a more complete knowledge, why should we not look forward with joy and anticipation to remembering Him on the Lord’s day morning with those whose hearts are united in love for Him and for one another. May we relive the experience of those disciples of whom Luke tells us, “He was known of them in the breaking of bread.” Here grace received through the power of realizing His spiritual presence, I believe, will flow through us each hour of each day of the coming week. More and more we shall find ourselves separated from those things that are not pleasing to Him.

Understanding and laying hold of these things will profoundly change our lives. In turn, continuing growth toward maturity and realizing the power of the Holy Spirit living out through us the life of Christ will help to demonstrate to the world the meaning of the one body.

Ed. note: In the preceding article the suggestion has been made that in addition to our giving worship to Christ at the Lord’s Supper, Christ at the same time ministers to us. Stanzas and lines of some hymns that are commonly sung in observance of the Lord’s Supper are now given to illustrate ways in which Christ may minister to us at such a meeting. These hymns are taken from Hymns for the Little Flock (denoted by “LF”) and Hymns of Grace and Truth (“GT”).

In “On That Same Night Lord Jesus,” we find some beautiful expressions concerning the Lord’s suffering: “The depth of all Thy suffering/ No heart could e’er conceive;/ The cup of wrath o’erflowing/ For us Thou didst receive;/ And oh! of God forsaken,/ On the accursed tree./ With grateful hearts, Lord Jesus,/ We now remember Thee.// We think of all the darkness/ Which round Thy spirit pressed,/ Of all those waves and billows/ Which rolled across Thy breast. …” The hymn concludes with the suggestion of a practical response in our hearts to such meditations: ‘Till Thou shalt come in glory,/ And call us hence away,/ To rest in all the brightness/ Of that unclouded day,/ We show Thy death, Lord Jesus,/ And here would seek to be/ More to Thy death conformed,/ While we remember Thee” (G. W. Frazer, LF #245).

“We Bless Our Saviour’s Name,” concludes with the stanza: “O let Thy love constrain/ Our souls to cleave to Thee!/ And ever in our hearts remain/ That word, ‘Remember Me'” (J. G. Deck, LF #146).

“Lord Jesus! We Remember” also concludes with the practical result in our lives: “From sin, the world, and Satan,/ We’re ransomed by Thy blood,/ And here would walk as strangers,/ Alive with Thee to God” (J. G. Deck, LF #149). In a similar vein, “O My Saviour Glorified” concludes with: “O my Saviour, glorified,/ Turn my eye from all beside,/ Let me but Thy beauty see—/ Other light is dark to me” (F. C. Jennings, GT #56).

Isaac Watts pointedly shows the incompatibility of the contemplation of the wondrous cross of Christ and His transcendent love with our lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life: “When we survey the wondrous cross/ On which the Lord of glory died,/ Our richest gain we count but loss,/ And pour contempt on all our pride.// Forbid it, Lord, that we should boast,/ Save in the death of Christ, our God;/ All the vain things that charm us most,/ We’d sacrifice them to His blood.// Were the whole realm of nature ours,/ That were an offering far too small;/ Love that transcends our highest powers,/ Demands our soul, our life, our all” (LF #283).

“And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him…. And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them…. Likewise also the cup after supper…. And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest” (Luke 22:14-30).

The disciples were around the table and Jesus at the head. Looking upon them there as, indeed, He is now looking upon us here, He saw all that was within them as well as what they actually did and said. Scripture records that during that memorable night they showed that they were men of like passions with ourselves—changeable, unreliable, sometimes impulsive in love and earnest zeal, and at other times carried away by foolish and wicked thoughts.

The disciples should have known what was before their Master. Only a few days previous, Jesus had said to the twelve, “We go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify” (Matt. 20:17-19). Jews and Gentiles would unite in His crucifixion and death. He had told them on three separate occasions of His death (Matt. 16:21; 17:22,23; 20:17-19). You would have thought that their interest in and expectation of this startling event would have been quickened on that night—the Passover night. What did the blood of the lamb typify? Did it not recall the hour of judgment and death passed long ago in Egypt? Did not the Lord say when He sat down with them, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15)?

Had the apostles considered seriously what the Lord had said to them about His rejection and death, would they not have entered that room with solemn hearts and chastened spirits? Would they not have been filled with a foreboding sense of the sorrow and pain before their beloved Master? We find, however, that they were engaged in petty quarrels, struggling among themselves as to who should be greatest among them (Luke 22:24). Observing, I suppose, the disciple whom Jesus loved taking the place nearest to Him, their jealousy was aroused. Why should John be there? Why not another of them?

What a grief this painful altercation must have been to our Lord! He was contemplating the morrow when He would bear their sins in His own body on the tree—just such selfish sins as these. They could not understand His loving purpose. They were unable to enter into the grief before Him. Such lack of spiritual feeling and sympathy was the sorrowful result after His three years’ service with them. There was for Him no comforter, no sympathizer, none that cared, even among His own. Do not let us judge them too harshly; let us rather judge ourselves. Are we never guilty of the indulgence of unworthy thoughts at the table of the Lord? In the most solemn moments, when the Spirit of God is making to live again before us the hour of suffering at Calvary, thoughts may even then arise in our hearts, altogether out of harmony with the subject of the Spirit of God. We must know that often we ought to bow our heads in shame when our Lord looks round upon us as we are eating His Supper, because thoughts intrude into our hearts which ought never to be there at such a holy season.

(From The Institution of the Lord’s Supper as Recorded in the Gospels.)

“If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matt. 5:23,24). “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup” (1 Cor. 11:28).

When is it that we are to examine ourselves with respect to partaking of the Lord’s Supper? I fear that all too often—if we bother to engage in such self-examination at all—we don’t think of doing so until we are in our chairs, one minute before the meeting is scheduled to begin. If such examination yields nothing in our hearts or lives needing to be poured before the Lord in confession, all well and good. But if otherwise, what then? All too often, that which we find in our lives needing to be confessed before the Lord also needs to be confessed to one or more other persons.

The verse quoted above from the Sermon on the Mount has a distinctly Jewish setting; nevertheless the principle is most applicable to ourselves at the present. What if I remember, either during or just prior to the beginning of the remembrance meeting, that another brother or sister in Christ in that same room may still be angry with me because of the way I spoke to or acted toward him/her during the past week? How can I enjoy that remembrance feast in fellowship with the other saints gathered there, well knowing that one is not on speaking terms with me because of my bad behavior? And how is the other person going to enjoy the time, knowing that I am there in the room?

It would be difficult and awkward to try to make confession and bring about reconciliation at that time. Therefore, how much better it would be to begin the examination process the evening before, if not earlier. Thus there would be opportunity for reconciliation with the offended brother or sister via a telephone call or visit. Even better would it be to engage in such self-examination on a daily basis. We should keep short accounts not only with God but with our fellow saints and indeed with all persons, as regards our sins and offenses.

What if the offense occurs just before the meeting, such as during the drive there? I know from personal experience the wretchedness of sitting in a meeting for the remembrance of the Lord after having had a spat with my wife or children during the drive to the meeting. More than once have my wife and I exchanged notes of confession and contrition and of forgiveness during such meetings.

Finally, suppose that, for whatever reason, you have hard and negative feelings toward another person with whom you are in fellowship. Perhaps that person has never confessed an offense to you (maybe he/she isn’t even aware of having offended you). Instead of going on, week after week, harboring bitter feelings toward the other, you have a responsibility according to Matt. 18:15-17 to go to that other person arid “tell him his fault.” Or it may be that no specific offense has been committed; you just don’t like the person. In either case, it is incumbent upon you to judge your bitter feelings, confess them to the Lord, freely forgive your fellow saint if there is a specific offense requiring forgiveness, and be reconciled to your brother or sister in Christ. The One who said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” while He hung on the cross would surely like to find that same attitude among those who are gathered together to remember Him in His death.

“And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses” (Exod. 12:25-27).

The Lord’s thoughtful care for the dawning intelligence of the children in the families of His people of old is strikingly brought out in these verses. The Passover was the yearly reminder of His divine interference when their fathers were slaves in Egypt, and brought before them, year after year, the great truth of redemption by blood. It was to be expected that the younger generation, growing up, would look on with wonder, and sometimes amazement, as the various parts of the Passover ritual were carefully carried out by their elders. The question would naturally spring to young lips again and again, “What mean ye by this service?” And the parents were to answer in accordance with the testimony of the Lord. The last Passover feast that God ever recognized was that celebrated by Jesus Himself, with His disciples, in the guest-chamber at Jerusalem. The typical Passover came to an end that night, but on the same evening He instituted the great central ordinance of Christianity, the Lord’s Supper, the memorial of His mighty love and infinite sacrifice. Directions for the keeping of this feast are given clearly in the New Testament, and older believers, who have gone on in the ways that be in Christ, should always be able to give a scriptural reason for everything connected with the observance of the breaking of bread in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. For now, as of old, the younger generation is still likely to ask, “What mean ye by this service?”

Children growing up in the families of believers, accustomed from early childhood to the simplicity of scriptural order, will nevertheless, when definitely converted themselves, soon begin to question either inwardly, or with the lips, the why and the wherefore for each detail which their eyes behold or their ears hear; and as babes in Christ (though older in years) are born into the family of God and brought out of the world into association with His separated people, they, just as naturally, ask the same question as the children of old, “What do you mean by these things?”

It is my desire, as simply as possible, to attempt to answer some of these questions, having in mind not well-instructed and mature saints, but the youngest of God’s children who desire to walk in obedience to His Word.

Perhaps one of the first questions that will be asked is, “Why observe this feast so frequently when, in many places in Christendom, it is but at rare intervals that what is commonly called ‘the communion’ is celebrated?” For answer we reply that Scripture gives us no distinct commandment, as in the case of the Passover, regarding the particular times the Lord’s Supper is to be observed. The Passover was to be celebrated once a year, but when the Lord instituted the Supper, He implied much more frequent observance when He said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25). It is the Lord’s desire that His people should often show His death in this way, calling to mind frequently His love and sacrifice for them. In the earliest days of the Church’s history, the Christians broke bread daily, but when the first days of transition passed and the new dispensation was fully established, we get the Scriptural example in Acts 20:7, “Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread….”

In the apostolic days, it is well-known that this was the recognized custom. Now this is not a commandment, but it is a word from the Lord, and He has said, “If a man love Me he will keep My words” John 14:23). A devoted heart does not ask, “How seldom can I do this and yet have the Lord’s approval,” but “What does His Word show to have been the established order in early days?” The Book answers, “On the first day of the week” and also states, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Cor. 11:26). Therefore, we delight to come together on the first day of the week to remember Him.

“But when so coming together,” the children ask, “why is there no officiating clergyman to dispense the elements and take charge of the service as generally in the denominations around us?” Our answer is that we cannot find anything like this in the Bible. There is no intimation anywhere, either in the Acts or in any of the Epistles, of any such officer in the early Church. Believers came together as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord Himself has said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Faith lays hold of that and recognizes His presence. He, the Head of the assembly, is today as true to His Word as in the early days. Wherever two or three are found scripturally gathered He is in the midst to take charge by the Holy Spirit, and to lead out the hearts of His people in their remembrance of Himself. Of old, in that upper room, when the time came to break the loaf and pass the cup, His own lips pronounced the blessing and His own hands gave to His disciples. Just as He used the members of His literal body of old to bless and give the emblems, so now He uses the members of His mystical body—the Church—as it may please Him. Any brother going to the table to give thanks and to break the loaf or pass the cup, simply becomes, for the moment, as hands and lips for the blessed Lord Himself. There is no human officialism required; the simpler the better. It is Christ with whom we desire to be occupied, and He who goes to the table does so as acting under Him. If anything more were necessary, any ordination or official position, the Word of God would somewhere indicate it; but in regard to this we search its pages in vain. “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren” (Matt. 23:8).

“Why do you have one unbroken loaf upon the table as the feast begins, and why is it afterwards broken?” Because the one loaf pictures the precious body of our Lord Jesus Christ in its entirety, and the breaking signifies His death. Also we are told, “We being many are one bread [or literally, one loaf], and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). To cut the bread into small pieces, as is done sometimes, is to lose sight altogether of this striking symbolism. As it is passed from one to the other, after having been blessed and broken, each again breaks for himself, thus indicating his communion with the body of Christ.

“What is in the cup, and why do all drink of it?” The cup contains the fruit of the vine. It speaks of the precious blood of Christ, the price of our redemption. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16). Just as the rich clusters of grapes are cast into the winepress and crushed to give forth what Scripture calls the blood of the grape (Gen. 49:11; Deut. 32:14), so Christ endured the judgment of God for our sins, and, when crushed in death, His precious atoning blood flowed forth for our salvation. As we drink in solemn silence we recall, with grateful hearts, the mighty cost of our redemption.

“Why is not so sacred and precious a feast open for everyone? Why such care to see that only those who know what it is to be saved, and who are seeking to walk with God and to confess His truth, gather together about His table?” It is because He will be sanctified in them that draw nigh to Him (Lev. 10:3). This sacred observance is for those who have a common interest in the death of Christ and have been saved by His blood. In 1 Cor. 5:9-11 we are distinctly directed to walk in a path of separation from evildoers, and regarding certain ones we are told, “With such a one, no, not to eat.” This clearly includes the Lord’s Supper, and shows us the importance of care as to those received. Again in 1 Cor. 6:1-20 and 2 Cor. 6:11-18 we have impressed upon us the importance of walking apart from the world if we are to have fellowship in the things of God. And while it is true that each individual is responsible to examine himself, in the fear of the Lord, before sitting down to eat of that loaf and drink of that cup, there is also grave responsibility resting upon the assemblies of Christians to maintain a fellowship that is holy and consistent.

“Why is there no previously arranged program as to the order of this service, the hymns to be sung, the prayers to be offered, and ministry to be given out? Is not time wasted in silence which might be occupied in teaching or expounding the Scriptures?” It is important, first of all, to understand that we do not come together to pray, nor yet to minister, nor to listen to teaching or exhortation, and certainly not simply for singing hymns and enjoying one another’s fellowship. We come together to meet the Lord Himself, and to be occupied with Him, to offer Him the worship of our hearts, and to remember what He passed through for us. Let me put it this way: suppose that on a given Lord’s day morning it were known definitely that our Saviour, in Person, would be present in the meeting-room, and that all who were there from, say, 11:00 to 12:30 would have the great privilege of looking upon His face; how do you think real Christians would act on such an occasion? Would we not enter the room with a deep sense of awe pervading our spirits? Surely there would be no lightness of behavior, no frivolity, no worldly joviality manifested as we came together. Nor would we be coming to listen to someone preaching or expounding. Our one desire would be to see Him, to fix our adoring eyes upon His blessed Face, and, if we spoke at all, it would be to rehearse something of His sufferings for us, and the gratitude and worship that would fill our hearts as we recalled the agony endured on the cross, and now beheld His glorious countenance. At such a time one can well understand how all might join in a burst of melody, singing together some hymn of praise in which His wondrous Person, His past sufferings, and His present glory, were celebrated! But surely anything like mere fleshly formalism would be altogether out of place. If one ministered audibly, it would be simply to praise His name or to bring to the mind of saints some portion of the Word that would give a better understanding and apprehension of His Person or work. No one would have the effrontery to set Christ, as it were, to one side, by taking the place of a teacher of others at such a time, unless indeed directly requested by the Lord to minister.

Now, if it be borne in mind that, when we thus come together as gathered to His name, Christ is just as truly present as though our human eyes beheld Him, we will realize how we ought to behave in the house of God on such occasions. There will be room for praise and for reading a portion or portions of the Word of God that will bring more vividly before our souls the object for which we gather. But any brother would be decidedly out of place who sought to occupy us with lengthy expositions of Scripture, or exhortations as to conduct that have no bearing on the object for which we came together. The sense of awe which comes over the soul consciously in the Lord’s presence will put a check upon the flesh, and any participating, either in the giving out of a hymn or in leading the assembly in vocal thanksgiving, or reading a portion of the Word, will be very sure that it is the Holy Spirit Himself who thus guides. If there be periods of silence there will be no wasted time as we all sit gazing with rapt, adoring eyes upon Himself whom we have come to meet.

It will be readily seen also that prayer of a general character, as for the salvation of sinners, individual blessing, and temporal matters, however proper in a prayer meeting, is quite out of place while we are gathered simply to remember Him. After the partaking of the loaf and cup, the meeting may possibly take a more general character, but certainly not before.

If this one thought be clearly fixed in heart and mind, that we gather to remember Him in subjection to the Holy Spirit, all else will soon be regulated.

In closing, let me press upon all who thus come together the importance of being present on time, that there may be no distraction as the meeting goes on. A little care as to this will often go a long way towards a precious and happy meeting. On the other hand, individuals coming in late and distracting the attention of others may greatly hinder the worship of the heart. It is a pitiful commentary on the state of many believers that they can be punctual every weekday morning at their places of business or employment, and yet be among the stragglers on the first day of the week when the hour set is much later than that at which they frequently go to work. Heart for Christ is what is needed to put all right.

“This do in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). Sometimes we hear well-meaning believers saying, “Why isn’t so-and-so in fellowship and remembering the Lord? The Lord asked us to remember Him and that’s a command.” I have often wondered if the Lord’s words really should be thought of as a commandment to be obeyed in a legal fashion. I rather believe that it was an expression of the deep desire of His heart, intended to evoke a loving response from our hearts. The deeper our realization of our precious Lord’s infinite love toward us, expressed in giving Himself for us, the greater will be our desire to unite with our fellow saints in the remembrance of Him in His death, and the greater will be the outflow of praise and worship from our hearts and lips. If we are attending the meeting simply as a matter of obedience and routine, it will not bring much satisfaction to our Lord nor blessing to ourselves.

While it is a wonderful privilege to be in fellowship with our fellow believers, and to participate in that wonderful expression both of fellowship with one another and of worship and thanksgiving to our Lord in remembering Him in His death, a great responsibility is involved as well. Each one thus in fellowship is accountable to the entire assembly as well as to the Lord, and his or her behavior and manner of life will reflect upon the entire assembly. If there are those who do not feel ready to accept such a responsibility and public accountability for their behavior, I believe it unwise to urge and cajole them to take their place at the Lord’s table. Let them rather be drawn to that place by the sense of the wonderful love of their Lord who gave Himself for them.