My dear brother:
Thank you for your recent letter. Once again this past Lord’s day, ____________ and I were the only men present for the remembrance meeting. I have given some thought this past week to the importance of the Lord’s Supper and the privilege that we have to be able to show forth our Lord’s death as He has asked us to do. How important it is, indeed, to be gathered together for the express purpose of remembering the Lord in His death. For it is in this manner that we collectively worship Him. "The cup of blessing which we bless" and "the bread which we break" (1 Cor. 10:16) speak of that collective worship. How blessed it is for the Lord to see His "body" respond to His request of remembrance.
When we consider the privilege of partaking of the emblems, I think we are drawn to consider the responsibility also. Our Lord requires and deserves our worship. He has requested that we remember His death_how small a request from One who has done so much for us_so we should, with grateful hearts, honor that request. When one is absent from the Lord’s supper, both that person and the rest of the assembly suffer. We lose out on that close communion and fellowship with our blessed Saviour that comes from worshiping Him. Also, our Saviour has been denied that which He has requested.
This is why I am somewhat discouraged. More so, I think, I am amazed. It would seem that those who have taken a stand for the correct principles of gathering would desire to enter into a closeness to their Saviour that many believers will never encounter while in this scene. Should not their hearts desire greatly to worship our precious Saviour?
J. N. Darby defines worship this way:"It is the honor and adoration which are rendered to God by reason of what He is in Himself, and what He is for those who render it" (Collected Writings, Vol. 7, p. 88). What, then, is He to those who can skip the remembrance meetings often and seem to have no regrets. It would seem natural (to the Christian) that after a week of studying the Word and serving the Lord our hearts would be filled with praise and adoration for Him who is our joy and strength.
I agree, dear brother, that at times our brethren fail us. But more importantly, when they repeatedly miss the meetings, they fail their blessed Lord and Saviour. Also, we must ask whether we ourselves are above such behavior? Certainly not! I think it is very important, even necessary, to keep before us the Person of the Christ, His glory, His love, so that we might not lose track of the fact that He deserves our simple praise and worship. Surely, we have often been discouraged. Let us be very careful that we are not a discouragement to others.
What to do then? I could not agree with you more. We must strive to maintain the ground of gathering that our blessed Lord has shown us through His Word. We must seek to encourage our dear brothers and sisters, even those who may be older than we, to "consider [their] ways" (Hag. 1:5). We must each seek to learn, and to grow, that we may be an asset to the assembly. We must seek to show forth the preciousness of Christ to our brethren (1 Peter 2:7). If we succeed in thus encouraging one another, our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be glorified.
If it is true that "TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE" (1 Sam. 15:22)_and indeed it is_let us then be obedient to the Lord. We are accountable to Him alone. I am encouraged to know that you share my concerns and problems and I thank you for your words of comfort, encouragement, and cheer. Believe me, dear brother, they have not fallen on deaf ears. May we be before the Lord about these things, casting our cares upon Him.
Love in Christ,__________