tihvary of t:he trheolo^icd ^tminavy PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER BV 826.5 .M67 1894 Moule, H. C. G. 1841-1920. The pledges of his love THE PLEDGES OF HIS LOVE 'ft.PR 13 1959 '''06!CALSe»^ THE PLEDG^S^F HIS LOVE THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY COMMUNION DEVOTIONAL AND EXPLANATORY BV ^ The Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, B.D. Principal oj Ridley Hall, and late Felloiu of Trinity College. Cambridge We did eat anddrink with Him.' — Acts x. 41 LONDON SEELEV AND CO. LIMITED Essex Street, Strand 1894 PREFA CE This little book touches an inexhaus- tible subject, and of course only touches it. The more the Holy Supper is pondered, the more won- derful it is to thought. The more it is rightly used, the more manifold and precious are its blessings to the believing Christian. The writer's motive has been two-fold. He cannot but think that the true use of the Holy Communion is often beset, and more or less obstructed, by one or vi Preface the other of two tendencies. The one is towards a mysticism which goes to obscure, though with a golden haze, some of the majestic primary truths of the Ordinance, and of the Spiritual Life at large. The other is towards a shallowness or almost carelessness of view, Avhich sees little, if anything, of the divine specialities of a Sacra- ment. He has sought, accordingly, to explain and to appeal, in view of Scriptural simplicity and Scriptural distinctiveness. And he has had all along in his mind the needs of the innumerable hearts which hunger and thirst to find full joy and power not only in the Lord's Ordinance, but in the Lord Himself, 'at all times and in all places.' Preface vii Here and there the reader will find passages where differing views of this or that aspect of the holy Rite are discussed. It seemed inevitable to make some reference, however brief, to such problems. Most of these passages have been placed apart, in an appendix ; but some appear in the midst of a generally devotional context. In all such discussions the writer has earnestly sought to 'set the Lord before him,' and to think and speak, not as for an opinion, but humbly and in love, as for what he reverently holds as divine truth. If it has been otherwise in any case, he desires only to know it and to repent. With earnest desires and prayers, this little book is offered, in all viii Preface humility, to the Church. Whatever in it is capable of blessing, may the Heavenly Master bless to the use of His people, to the strengthening of their faith, and the growth of their love of His Ordinance and of Him- self. Ridley Hall, Cambridge, March, 1894. *^* In a small manual (published 1892), At the Holy Conimtinion, many of the topics of this book are treated, sometimes on similar lines. But the purpose of that work more than of this is to assist the young Communi- cant in direct preparation, and in Communion itself. The present chapters aim rather at a simple examination of the sacred subject of the holy Ordinance in general. CONTENTS I. — THE SACRAMENT: WHAT IT SAYS TO US . . . . I II. — THE SACRAMENT: WHAT WE SAY IN IT (l) . . . 14 III. — THE SACRAMENT : WHAT WE SAY IN IT (2) . . . 22 IV. — PREPARATION .... V. — THE BODY AND THE BLOOD OF CHRIST .... VI. — FEEDING ON CHRIST . . 59 VII. — FEEDING ON CHRIST IN THE HOLY COMMUNION . . 68 VIII. — THE COVENANT AND THE CUP 79 IX. — OUR SACRIFICE OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING ... 97 HYMNS 108 a^ 44 Contents APPENDIX I'AGE {a) THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF ST JOHN . . . . 113 {b) ' OUR SACRIFICE OF PRAISK AND thanksgiving' . 124 (r) NOTES ON SOME WORDS AND PHRASES . . . 133 *TILL HE COME. By Christ redeem'd, in Christ restored, We keep the memory adored And shew the death of our dear Lord Until He come. His Body, broken in our stead, Is shewn in this memorial bread, And so our feeble love is fed Until He come. The drops of His dread agony, His life-blood shed for us, we see ; The wine shall tell the mystery Until He come. And thus that dark betrayal night With the last advent we unite, By one blest chain of loving rite Until He come ; Until the trump of God be heard, Until the ancient graves be stirr'd. And, with the great commanding word. The Lord shall come. xii ' Till He come ' Oh blessed hope ! with this elate, Let not our hearts be desolate, But, strong in faith, in patience wait, Until He come. G. Raw SON. THE PLEDGES OF HIS LOVE CHAPTER I THE SACRAMENT : WHAT IT SAYS TO US Let us come to the Table of the Lord in thought, that we may with more profit come to it in act. And let us first, and all along, draw very near to the ever-present Lord of the Taljle. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, Lamb of the Sacrifice, true Passover, Resurrection and Life, Bread of Heaven, Priest and King of Thy A 2 TJic Sacrament : people, we are at Thy feet. Teach us by Thy Spirit, through Thy Word, how to make all the use Thou wouldst have us make of this Thy holy Table, this Thy divine Sacrament of salvation ; for Thy Name's sake. Amen. 'The Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion,' as our Prayer Book calls it, is one of the only two religious Rites expressly ordained by our blessed Re- Matt, xxviii. deemer. He personally enjoined the 'washing of water,' in which we are ' baptized into the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' He iNiatt. XX vi. personally enjoined the breaking and eating of bread, and the drinking of wine, 'for a remembrance of Him,' and in connexion with 'the new Covenant in His Blood.' So these two sacred Things stand apart from all other Chris- tian rites. For they, these simple ac- What It says to Us 3 tions of the body, washing, eating, drink- ing, are distinctly commanded by our Master. He, the great Teacher of ab- solutely spiritual truth, ordained just these two bodily Observances. He, who entirely condemned all merely formal worship, ordained just these two simple but solemn Forms. May we ask, with deep reverence, why He did so ? We may ; for there is always an open heavenly daylight about the teaching and purposes of our Lord. In seeking the answer to our question zvhy, we are sure of two guiding truths. First, these two divine Institutions (which for ages the Christian Church has agreed to call Sacraments'^) must of * The word Sacranietitiiiii was lonj; used in Christian parlance in a sense much wider than that of a divinely-instituted external Rite. It denoted, for example, divine Truths, so that the 4 The Saci-aincnt : course be somehow in perfect harmony with the spiritual Gospel. Secondl}-, their work must of course be somehow distinct and special, a function and operation of their own. They stand apart ; so must their purpose and effect stand likewise. Thus the blessed Supper cannot possibly, on the one hand, be a bodily substitute for true faith and love. It cannot possibly be a mechanical, auto- matic, means of grace and life. To think so would be to bring it danger- ously near the nature of magical rites, incantations, amulets, charms. It would be to wander far from that heavenly Lord's Prayer could be said to be ' as full of sacr'antcnta as of words.' But it is a great benefit to have a common term for the divinely- ordained external Rites of the Gospel, and the now immemorial use of Sacrai)ientuin as such a term is valuable and welcome. Jr//dt It says to Us 5 Gospel, which, as our Prayer Book says,"^ is 'a Rehgion to serve God in the freedom of the Spirit.' Any view of the holy Sacrament which tends to obscure that truth is a dangerous view. The Lord's Supper is an ordinance of that pure Religion which has no promise, no blessing, for worshippers who are not 'true,' and the true worshippers are those who ' worship in joh. iv. spirit and in truth.' ' If any man have Rom. v not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His;' no, not though he attends the Holy Communion itself with the utmost frequency and solemnity. Alas, such a case is very possible. It is possible to be an ardent adherent of the Church, and yet not to know the Lord. It is possible to be devout, and yet not devoted. But the (iospel is never con- tent without devotedness ; it asks al- * In tlie Preface, '■Couceruing Ceremonies.'' 6 The Sacraiuent : ways the loving surrender of a regener- ated will. Without that, the Word of God itself may be only an unmeaning sound, and the Sacrament of Christ it- self may be a positively deluding action. But meanwhile, this precious Rite 'given unto us,"^ ordained by Christ Himself,' has a work of its own to do, most special, most effectual, and truly divine. How shall we best illustrate and understand that work ? Let us first remember that, long be- fore the holy Supper was ordained, God had used His people's senses to convey blessing to their souls. He spoke to the soul of Noah a promise that there " The Latin Version of the Prayer Book of 1662 shews that in the Church Catechism the words ' given unto us' (in the second answer on the Sacraments) were understood to go with the words ' an outward and visil)le sign' — ' SigmiDi gratii? cptod nobis datiir. ' JV/i^rt It says to Us 7 should be no more flood. But with Gen. ix. 8-17. the Promise He gave him the Rainbow. At that glorious Token he was to look with the eyes of his body, in order that his soul might more firmly grasp the promise, might be more sure that God would keep it.* He called Abraham, and He gave Him the mighty promise that he should be ' the heir of the ^Yorld,' and He 'reckoned Gen. xv., his faith to him for righteousness.' Rom. iv. n. But He also, at Abraham's request, gave a physical, visible Seal on the promises, first in a solemnly appointed covenanting sacrifice, and then in the ordinance of Circumcision. He re- deemed Israel from Egypt, but he also * True, the passage in Genesis speaks of the Lord looking upon the token, and remember- ing. But what reader does not see that this in effect means that the Rainbow was to l)e for man a visible seal upon the Lord's word ? 8 Tlie Sacrament : ordained the meal of the Passover, which was both a monument of the great deHverance, and also, as it were, a signature and seal on all the promised blessings which should flow out of it. Then at last came ' the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God.' And wnth it came what we may call its shining Rainbow, its happy Passover. Under the Gospel the Lord still used His people's senses to convey blessing to their souls. Drawing near to His pre- cious atoning Death, he devised this grandly simple Seal upon its blessings. He was going, within a few hours, to be 'broken ' and ' poured out ' for their salvation. His holy Blood was to be drained from His wounded Body. And that Death was to be their life. Be- cause of it, because He ' died for the ungodly,' 'giving His life a ransom for many,' they were to ' live,' in the sense What It savs to Us g of being fully forgiven, justly and lov- ingly accepted, before the Holiness of Rom. iii. (iod. And also, because of that Death, they were to ' live ' in a living sense in- deed ; to live with spiritual and eternal life, to live in a real living Union with their living Lord, 'joined unto Him, i Cor. vi. one spirit.' His own glorious Life was to be theirs, by the Holy Ghost who dw^elt in Him their Head, and who, be- SeeGai. cause of the merits of His Death, was now to be poured fully into them, the limbs. Then also, in and through this their wonderful union with Him, they were to be livingly united to one another. Each limb joined to Christ was, in Him, to be joined to every other. Thus out of the Lord's blessed Death were to flow their full Pardon, their divine Life-power, in union with Him, and also their happy Society in union with one another. I O The Sacrament : Now of all this He gave His people His sacred Seal in His holy Supper. He gave it to strengthen their faith in Him, and thereby to deepen their life in Him and their union with Him and with one another. Its form was simple, but all-significant. His Death was their salvation ; therefore the Sign and Seal of their salvation was engraved with the device of Death. What He gave was not bread only, but bread and wine ; bread by itself, and wine by itself; the parable and symbol (as we shall see more fully later) of the death-state of the blessed Sacrifice. And the bread was bread broken ; and the wine was wine poured out. Moreover, the salvation won by His death was to become theirs only as they received Him, by faith. Therefore the bread was to be eaten as well as broken, and they were to drink the [ [ liat It says to Us i i wine. And they were to do this as a company together ; because their union with Him united them to one another. Thus upon this precious Ordinance, personally devised by the almost dying Lord, there was as it were engraved Christ crucified for His people, the Crucified Christ received by His people, the Crucified Christ the Bond and One- ness of His people. Such was the ' image and superscription ' of the holy Sign and Seal. Age after age that Ordinance has been observed. And because He gave it to us, it, like Him, is ' the same, yesterday Heb. xin. 8. and to-day and for ever,' — 'till He i Cor. xi 26, come.' To-day, as much as on the night in w^hich He was betrayed, it speaks direct from the Lord Jesus Christy through the believer's senses, to his soul. It is the always effectual, al- ways divine, Ciuarantee to the believer of 12 Tlic Sacrament : the reality of his redemption, and of tlie fuhiess of it. It is the Seal upon the great Parchment of the New and Eternal Covenant. It is the equivalent Token of the riches of salvation ; we may with reverence compare it to the stamped and signed ' note ' with which the bank guarantees to the lawful holder the pro- perty and use of the golden coins he does not see. Or again, it is like the legal deed which ' is ' such and such an estate, as regards right and ownership, when the deed is in possession of the rightful claimant. Going to-day to the sacred Table, in calm and humble faith, , we in effect go to that ' large upper Room,' and take our place beside Peter and John, and receive from The Lord the just-hallowed Bread and Cup, and say each to himself, — ' As surely as these lips have received the Ki/i^^s own Sign and Seal, at His own gi7ing\ so ly/c'dl It S(xys to Us 13 surely do /, fa kin i^; Him at His Word^ possess in Hi/n ail the blessings of Bis death. So surely am I accepted in Him the Beloved. So surely does He, ny eternal Life, live in me, and I in Him. So surely will He raise me up iti glory. So surely am I one 7vith the whole Church, which is His mystical Body, even the blessed Company of all faith- ful people' Thus we ' go in the strength of that i Ki meat.' And He graciously bids us come "' for it again and again, and every time renew that personal interview and trans- action with our King who died for us, as He seals all our blessings to us witli His own hands anew. CHAPTER II THE SACRAMENT : WHAT WE SAY IN IT (i) AVe have thought of that aspect of the sacred Supper in which it speaks to us from God. I press on my reader the im- portance of that aspect. By many worshippers it is, I fear, much for- gotten ; they think of the Communion almost only as an occasion when we specially remind ourselves of our Lord's Death, and of our fellowship together in Him. But plainly such an ordinance as that would be might have been invented, and quite lawfully, by man, by the TJic Sacrament, etc. i 5 Church. ^Ve may as lawfully devise for ourselves a commemorative act as make and sing a commemorative hymn. But the holy Supper was given us by THE Lord ; it was not in the least degree instituted by the Church. And thus its very first and greatest work is to speak to us from Him. It is His Sign and Seal ; it is His own Ratification on His own Word of Gift. It ' conveys ' grace to us, it is ' a means of grace ' to us, in this respect above all others, that it is His personal Guarantee appended to His promises. As I said a few pages above, it is the royal Seal on the great parchment of the New Covenant. Now, subjects cannot invent a Great Seal for themselves. It is the King's Seal, and therefore it speaks to them from the King. It ratifies to them his will ; it assures them of his good faith. From our blessed King comes the 1 6 The Sacrament : huly Supper, and its first voice to us is His, ' conveying ' to us, as title deeds ' convey,' our heavenly property in Him for our present use, and being also His 'pledge to assure us,' in the future, of 'all the grace we have not tasted yet.' Moreover, it is His, not our, chosen reminder, and, as it were, picture to us, of tJie zvay in which He won for us all our wealth. The Seal is engraven with the precious Death ; it is inscribed with the mighty Merits of the atoning Cross. But then, the Table of the Lord is also a place where we speak of Him, and to Him. '\^*e speak of Him there, in His Or- dinance, in His hour of feast with us. To one another we speak. This is the true import of i Cor. xi. 26; 'Ye an- nounce* the Lord's death, till he come.' * Authorised Version, ^ S/iczv.'' Greek, JJ7mt ]Ve saj' in It ij Some expounders take the ' announce ' to mean, 'Ye announce it fo God ; ye solemnly fcU the Father ih^t His Son has died for you, and thus plead His Merits at the Father's throne.' Most surely there is nothing unscriptural in making the Communion-hour a special occa- sion of the plea and claim of faith, in the Name of the Lamb that was slain. In fact we do this, through the voice of the Minister, in the Consecration Prayer, which is spoken in the name of the congergation. But I cannot think that i Cor. xi. 26 refers to such an act of faith, The word there ren- dered ' shew ' {■A.arayysXT'.zrj) every- where else in the New Testament signi- fies the simplest message-bearing from man to man. And surely this import is quite in point in i Cor. xi. 26. Chris- tian with Christian, at the holy Table, is 'each a prophet to the rest.' Each B 1 8 The Sacrament : says to each, ^ Jesus the Lord died : I believe in Him as my Redemptio7i^ and so dost thou, and so do we all. And Jesus the Lord is comi?ig : J look for LLijn, and so dost thou, and so do we all. We pass that ivatchword round : LLe died ; Lie comes. So ive strengthen one another's hands here before LLim, in his own Ordinance of peace and of promise.'' Then, indeed, we also speak to Liim and of LLim when, in the Holy Com- munion, our ' remembering hearts ' are quickened by the Act He appointed and by the recorded Utterances of His very lips. It is not 07ily ' Sign and Seal ' to us, when we hear and see the Christian Minister enacting symbolically the Last Supper before us, and calling U5 to partake of its blessed provision. It is an appeal to our soul's inmost love. The Ordinance is, as it has been called, ' the coal in the flame ' of remembering, ]V/i(if Wc say in It 19 and adoring gratitude, as the believing Communicant draws near, ' with a true penitent heart and living faith.' 'The Phil. iii. 10. fellowship of His sufferings ' is indeed tasted at such an hour, and we give ourselves anew to Him who was cruci- fied for us. We take up our cross, ' to i-u^e xxiii. 26. bear it after Jesus.' We 'stretch forth joh. xxi. is, our hands,' a living and willing sacrifice to Him our Sacrifice. Moreover, we take a most solemn and perfectly definite Oath of Allegiance to Hi/n, at His Table. One familiar meaning of the word sacramentuni, in the Latin classics, is the oath of the soldier to his Imperator^ his military chief. And we, at the Table, 'submit ourselves wholly to ' our Commander's 'holy will and pleasure, studying to serve Him in true holiness all our days.' We 'offer and present unto Him our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a 20 TJie Sacrament : reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to Him.' Reader and friend, do not forget that aspect of the Ordinance. Is it sufficiently remembered, by Communi- cants who come to the holy Table, and by Pastors who invite their people to it ? Too often, surely, in that Covenant Rite we receive the Elements — and for- get to give ourselves ! Remember well this matter as you draw near. Shall we come to ' this heavenly feast,' and then go out from the King's guest-chamber to dishonour Him in an unconsecrated life? Shall we go out to forget Him and His will in the company we keep, in the pleasures we frequent, in the habits we indulge, in the books we read, in the things we say of others and to others, in the way we spend our money and our time? Why, ^^'e are fresh come from our Sacra- IV/iat IVe say in It 2 1 inentuin ! ^Vt; are supposed to have left our self at our Master's Table, under our Master's feet ! CHAPTER III THE SACRAMENT: WHAT WE SAY IN IT (ii) The 'announcing' to one anotlicr of the Lord's Death, and the taking our oath of allegiance at the Lord's feet, these things we have just remembered as things which ' we say ' in the use of the Sacrament of the Supper. But these are not all our announce- ments and assertions there. Let us remember certain others. I. We distinctly re-affirm to our own and our brethren's hearts that founda- tion fact, the Reality of the Lord Jesus What \Vc say in It 23 Christ Himself. Strong and deep is the witness of the Communion, not only for the heart but also for the mind, to that foundation-fact. Did the reader ever reflect on the holy Supper as a historical evidence of Christianity, or, more precisely, a his- torical evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ? Such it is, in a wonderful way. We may put it somewhat thus : Everything assures us that our Lord's disciples did not ex- pect His death ; it took them, when it came, as a vast surprise and disappoint- ment ; it looked to them like the ruin of all their hopes. They mourned over it, and wept. They were in a state of extreme alarm after it, ' for fear of the Jews.' They were not in the least de- gree prepared to connect with the Cross any thoughts but thoughts of sorrow and despair. Yet when they did begin, soon 24 The Sacrament : after the dark crisis, to proclaim their Master to the world, we find them, from the very first, joyfully keeping, as their sacred Feast, the Supper which com- memorated His Deaths and which He instituted when about to die. Some- hov.', that once dreadful and dreaded Death had become, suddenly, and al- ways, and for all of them, the centre of their hope and happiness. This they shewed not only by what they said, but, in this remarkable way — so sober, so solid, so ' matter of fact ' — by what they did. They always said that this extra- ordinary change of feeling was due to the directest but deepest of all possible reasons, the Resurrection of their buried Lord. They shewed the power of their conviction, or rather of the mysterious force from without which they knew had come upon them, by a totally new tone and spirit of joy and strength, which What We say in It 25 soon literally shook the world. And they evidenced the clearness and calm- ness of their faith and certainty by this quiet but joyful use of the blessed Supper ; which we are abundantly cer- tain was used from the very first in the Christian Church. Thus the existence and observance of the holy Supper is in itself a straight and strong line of Christian Evidence. Even those who doubt or deny the divine inspiration of the Gospels will admit, if acquainted with history and its proofs, that it is mere matter of fact that the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth were in despair at His death, and yet did very soon indeed begin to celebrate that same death with joy, as their central blessing. And thus the Supper is, and ever has been, a solid, persistent witness to that glorious Resurrection which itself is the only sufficient explanation 26 77/6' Sacraiiicut : of the whole wonderful change, and which carries, shut up in it, all our faith in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus. Very precious is the holy Supper, viewed in this aspect, to the mind of the tried believer. If I may illustrate it from experience, I would thankfully record the help it afforded me, not very long ago, at a time of peculiar and acute consciousness of the awful mass of sin and sorrow in the world, and of the ter- rible mystery of it. At such a moment the Enemy is ready enough to whisper. Can God indeed be Love ? Yea, is Ciod at all ? And at such a moment nothing so surely and instantly helps the soul in its great trouble as the simplest pos- sible view of Jesus Christ, slain and risen, ^isfact. ' Never let what you know be disturbed by what you do not know.' And you know Him; Him as Fact, Him ]V/iat IVc sav in It 27 as Truth. And He is guarantee for the love and justice of God. Around Him, the Rock, the waves of the mysteries of Providence may break, but they do not break the Rock ; and on that Rock we rest, and also work. With such thoughts in my soul, that quiet Lord's Day morn- ing, sweet and welcome to me was the Communion which assured my mind, altogether from outside, that Jesus rose, that Jesus is. 2. But we make yet other ' announce- ments ' to one another in the use of the Table of the Lord, ^^'e look around as well as up ; we look forward as well as back. We look around^ and say each to each, ' We are all one in Christ Jesus.' Taking each other for granted there as true Communicants, that is to say, as repenting and believing Chris- tians, we repeat this all round the circle, all along the line. ' ^Ve being many i Cor. x. 17. 28 TJie Sacrament : are one bread, and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.' Never let the social aspect of the holy Supper be forgotten. In Scrip- ture, the ' breaking of bread ' is invari- ably social, never solitary. In the order of our own Church, the utmost care is taken that it should be always social. Read the Rubrics which follow the Communion Office, and see how the Pastor is 7iot allowed^ however small his parish, to administer at all where there are not at least three communicants present with him. And read the in- teresting and moving third Rubric after the Communion of the Sick, where, even at the bed of death (so it is dis- tinctly implied), the Communion is not to be administered if there is ' lack of company to receive with ' the sick per- son ; while the Church gives him, through the Pastor, a special mes- What We say in It 29 sage in that case, a message full of Christ, full of peace and of the life eternal. All this reminds us of that often for- gotten aspect of the Lord's Supper — its social aspect. ' One body in Christ, Rom. xii. 5. and members one of another ; ' such is the watchword of the Table, from the Master, through the brethren, to the brethren. Let it sink deep into heart and will, and spring up into life. Christ is no revolutionist, violently dislocating social order to realize on a sudden His bright ideal. But He is the divine Reformer of society. He lays it upon the soul of each one of His servants to re- member that before Him all men are equal, and that all men are related in life and duty, and that all men are in- vited to come to Him and find in Him a fellowship with one another which 30 TJic Sacraiucut : allows indeed for endless varieties of function and operation, but which does mean a mysterious, but practical, mutual union and cohesion. Let us take this truth to the Lord's Table, and carry it away reinforced in our souls. Are we tempted to social pride and cxclusiveness ? Let all this be laid there under the Lord's impar- tial feet. Are we depressed by social neglect? Let us learn there to think of this with cheerful patience, and to do our part to others, in a life of un- pretending unselfishness towards all. 3. Lastly, we not only look back as we meet at the Table ; we look for- ward ; we tell one another what we see in the radiant future. ' Till He COME.' I could wish to see those words, large and legible, inscribed over every Communion Table. Li the light of I Cor. xi. 26, the Supper is one long 117/ a/ ]]^c say in It 31 prediction of the Second Advent, and every true communicant is a seer and a prophet accordingly, for his brethren. As httle is that Promise a mirage of the desert as the hallowed Bread and Wine are phantoms ; as little as our eating and drinking of them is a dream. We have seen already how the Supper says ' He IS.' It says also, quite as articulately, ' He comes ; ' and we pass the watchword round. And, after all, these our messages to one another at the Table are all really utterances of the Lord, because the Ordinance is His command. Not only 2ve say, ' He is,' ' H'e are one in Him,' ' He comes again.'' The unseen Head of the Table really speaks: ^ I am,' ' Ve are one in Me, and in the Father,' *• Sui-ely I come quickly' Even so come. Lord Jesus ! CHAPTER IV PREPARATION The Church enjoins on us very grave and earnest Preparation for Communion. Let me offer now, in order, a few words upon this subject. If I am not much mistaken, many Communicants seriously neglect the ap- pointed duty of preparation. Multi- tudes now receive the Communion very often ; say, at least, every week. Fre- quency of reception I believe to be quite after the Lord's mind, if it is ac- companied with holy care. But it may, of course, easily degenerate into mere 32 Preparation 33 routine. And perhaps it leads some who practise it to be content with only a slight preparation. If it be so, ' let job xxxiv. us do iniquity no more.' Preparation ^^' is plainly enjoined by the Church ; and, when we thoughtfully read the Service over, must we not feel that it could not be otherwise ? To come without genu- ine spiritual preparation to take our part in such deeds and words, such prayers and praises and promises, and acts of faith, is it not a positively reck- less thing? Well do I know that the whole life of the true Christian should be a continual preparation for Communion. We ^vho believe are called to live ahvays ' in the Lord,' 'in the secret of the Presence '; Psai. xxxi, ' always ' to ' watch and pray.' The man Luke xxi. 36. who w\ilks with God is not meant to make any occasional excursion from His side. Alas for us when we do so ! c 34 Preparation ' By-path Meadow ' is dangerous walk- ing, even for an hour. And, if we walk at the Lord's side, we shall assuredly find there always our supply of what the Church lays down as requisites for a blessed Communion. You recall those requisites, if you recall your Catechism : Repentance^ that is to say, a penitent repudiation of all further will- ing sinning; Faith, that is to say, a humble, trustful acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His promises, as our all for peace and life ; and Charity with all men, that is to say, a loving, self- forgetting w^alk, in the service of not self but others, in the Lord. The saintly Madame Guyon, Roman- ist as she was, held that the soul, truly surrendered to God, is always ready for Communion. Yet what Christian, however bright his inward experience may be through Preparation 3 5 the mercy of God, and however true his consistency may seem to kindly eyes around, does not know in practice that he must have his special pauses, to ask himself before the Lord how it is with his soul. Let us make, at least, every intended Communion an occasion be- forehand for a simple but real Self-ex- amination. Let us ' examine ourselves, 2 Cor. xiH. 5, whether we be in the faith,' and whether we are Hving the life of faith ; whether there are tokens that indeed 'Jesus Christ is in us ' ; whether we are really resting all on Him ; whether we are really 'presenting ourselves to God, asRom. vi. 13. those that are alive from the dead ; and our members as instruments of righte- ousness unto God.' Let us do this as our Prayer Book bids us do it, not in the partial light of our own self-love and self-indulgence, but 'by the rule of God's commandments.' Keep your Bible open 36 Preparation as your standard, fellow-communicant, if you would keep your self-examination true. No lower standard will avail you. One word may be said here on a special subject : Confession and Abso- lution before Communion. As we are aware, the Prayer Book recommends us, in certain cases, to ' come to ' the Pastor of the Parish, ' or some other discreet and learned Minis- ter of God's Word,' before we approach the Table ; ' that, by the ministry of God's Word,' we ' may receive the bene- fit of Absolution, together with ghostly, spiritual, counsel and advice.' The Roman Church, for many centuries, has ruled that no member of hers shall ever communicate without secret confession to a priest, and without the definite utterance of absolution by him, as by the representative of God. Such prac- Preparation 37 tice is being brought back into our own Church by not a few of her Ministers. Let me remind my reader here of a certain fact. Such a Confession and Absolution, individual and secret, was quite unknown as a rule in the Chris- tian Church for the first two or three centuries at least. And 7iot till the year 12 15 was it enjoined by even the Popes as a necessary avenue to Com- munion. Need I say that the New Testament gives not the least distinct suggestion of such a practice ? ' Holy Scripture calls our confessor by the name of One Another,^ said Martin Luther, referring to St James v. 16. I cannot but say to my reader, gravely and deliberately, beware of the Confessional System. Many a good man uses it, no doubt ; but the system is not good. It tends to put man in the place of God. It tends to place some- 38 Preparation thing between the soul and the Saviour. And history largely shews that it tends to have unhappy practical effects on social, civil, and, above all, on family life. It tends to put the priest where God has put the parent, or the married partner. It gives one mortal man a knowledge of another, and a power over him, which is bad for both parties. It is an unscriptural, unprimitive, and un- healthy system. And most certainly it is not the system of the English Church. You recall the special circumstances under w^hich the Church invites you to seek the Pastor for ' the benefit of Ab- solution.' It is when some hard ques- tion of the conscience specially besets you ; when some load of memory, or some difficult problem of duty, seems as if it would not yield to your self- examination and your prayers. In such a case you want a counsellor ; Preparation 39 and you want one who is an expert in the Bible, and in the soul. You want one whose commission it is to expound the Gospel message, and with the au- thority of his commission to apply it to your case ; and, in view of Communion, you want one who is the appointed guardian of the holy Table. All this means the ordained Christian Pas- tor. The Church does not say that you must go to him. It does not even say that you had better go to him what- ever and whoever he is. He is assumed to be ' discreet and learned,' a wise and a taught Pastor. But, supposing him to be what he should be, it recommends you, in a very special case, to use him both as a father-friend in Christ, and as an officer of the order of the Church. Go to him ; ' open to him your grief.' Say how you dare not, without further light upon that 'grief,' come to the 40 Preparation Table ; ask him if he, with the Bible open before him and you, and speak- ing to you as the Lord's Minister, will or will not bid you come, and bid you be of good cheer. In the primeval Church, the absolu- tion consisted not in any formula but simply in the re-admission of the peni- tent to Communion. May we Pastors so live, so walk with God, so ponder His Word, so know our own souls, as to be indeed guides to whom, in real ?ieed, our people shall care thus to come for real help and blessing. But let it never be forgotten that such consultation, such absolution, is altogether the exception, not the rule, in the plan of the Church of England. Even in the Visitation of the Sick, on what may be a dying bed, the invalid is never commanded to confess and Preparation 4 1 ask absolution. He is only reminded that in case other means seem to him to fail he may entrust (not necessarily in secret) any exceptional and obstinate burthen of his soul to his Pastor's knowledge. And then the Pastor, if the man 'humbly and heartily desire it,' is commissioned to pronounce a definite absolution, on the assumption, of course, that the confession has been that of a truly penitent soul. And history shews us that even that pecu- liarly solemn '/ absolve thee^ has immediate reference to the man's ad- mission to Communion, rather than to a mysterious conveyance of God's par- don. That pardon is still to be received by simple faith from Him. The Pastor conveys, as it were, ' the peace of the Church ' to one who may have feared that by the special sin in question he had cut himself off from the comfort of 42 Preparation Communion. He bids the man in effect come in peace to the Lord's Ordinance, as one whom the Lord wel- comes as a repenting and beheving sinner.* But once again, these few words about Absolution are words on the exception, not on the rule. The rule for our pre- paration for Communion is, ' Let a man Cor. xi. 26. examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.' Let such self-examination be not morbid but honest. Let it be done with the Bible open, and with prayer for the Holy Spirit's light on conscience and on the Word. And by way of other helps, I know nothing better than to take two * See a learned sermon, The Histo7'y and Claims of the Confessiotial, by C. P. Reichel, D.D., Bishop of Meath (Hodges: Dublin, 1884). Preparation 43 passages of the Communion Service, and test our hearts prayerfully by their language. One is the ' Long Exhorta- tion,' ^Dearly beloved in the Lord' The other is the first alternative Prayer after reception of the Elements, ^Almighty and most merciful Father.^ CHAPTER V THE BODY AND THE BLOOD OF CHRIST The Lord Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, spoke memorable words about His Body and His Blood. Taking the passover loaf, and uttering a blessing over it, (whose words we do not find Matt. xxvi. recorded,) He said, 'Take, eat; this xivf^e, 27T is My Body.' Taking the passover cup, i9%o;Tcor. and giving thanks to His Father over x^i6.,xi. 24, j^^ again in unrecorded words. He said, ' Drink ye all out of it; for this is My Blood,' or again, as the Holy Spirit elsewhere records Christ's meaning, 44 The Body and Blood of Christ 45 'This Cup is the new Covenant in My Blood.' St Paul says to the Corinthian Christians that 'the Cup of blessing which we bless is the partaking of Christ's Blood, and the Bread which we break is the partaking of Christ's Body.' Our Church says, in the Catechism, that ' the inward part or thing signified, in the Lord's Supper, is the Body and Blood of Christ.' Again, that these ' are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper.' Again, that 'the benefits whereof we are partakers,' by coming to the Holy Supper, are 'the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ.' In Article XXVIIL the Church quotes I Cor. x. 16 word for word, about 'the partaking of the Body of Christ ' and ' of His Blood.' 46 The Body and Meanwhile, in the same place, the same voice says that ' the Body of Christ is given, taken and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner,' and that ' the means whereby it is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith.' Lastly, in Article XXIX., we read that ' such as be void of a lively (a living) faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, yet are they in no wise partakers of Christ.' With these Scriptures before us, and these utterances of the Church of England, we are bound to ponder care- fully those holy words, the Body and the Blood. Otherwise we may greatly mistake their true meaning, and so greatly obscure our thought, and hin- der the happy exercise of our faith, at the Table of the Lord. TJic Blood of Christ 47 We will take care then to remember that when our Master, on that night of His betrayal, on the verge of His death, spoke of His Body and His Blood, saying that the bread w^as His Body, and the cup was His Blood, He had a very distinct and special aspect of the Body and the Blood in view-. RecaUing, as we are bound to do, the whole of what He said, we find that it was not merely, ' This is My Body,' but, ' this is My Body which is given for you ^ or, ^ broken for you, ^"^ And it was not merely, 'This is My Blood,' but, 'This is My Blood of the new Covenant^ which is shed for many for the remission of sins ' ; ' This cup is the neiv Covenant in My Blood.' 'My Body,' then, was not the Body in miy aspect, but as * The word rendered ^broken,' in i Cor. xi. 24, is not found in many ancient copies. But in any case it is implied in the context. 48 The Body and given and broken. ' My Blood ' was not the Blood in any aspect, but as shed, and in connexion with a Cove- nant, and for the remission of sins. Such, we reverently gather, was the thought of the Lord Jesus Christ when He instituted the holy Supper. Again, we note not only His words but His action. How did He handle and manage that bread, and that cup ? Did He give His disciples only the bread? Did He mingle the bread and the wine together? Did He dip, or steep, the bread in the wine ? No ; He gave them the two. And He kept the two apart. He uttered His bless- ing, and then His command, ^ Eat ye,' ^Drhik ye,' separately for each. Now, this separation was of course significant, and it agrees exactly with His words. When, in human experi- ence, are body and blood parted ? In The Blood of Christ 49 death, in such death as follows on mortal wounds. So the bread of the holy Supper ' is/ the Lord's Body not under a?iy aspect, but as that Body was given to death, crucified and slain. And the holy wine ' is ' the Lord's Blood not under any aspect, but as that Blood was shed, poured out, drained from the Body in death. The bread 'is' the Body, not as the B ody breathed and lived on earth, not as it is now eternally alive above, but as it lay dead that awful, blessed eventide in Joseph's tomb. The wine ' is ' the Blood, not as running in 'Emmanuel's veins,' but as ' drawn from them,' when it stained the wood of the Cross, and the soil of ' the green hill far away,' after that great hour of Sacrifice. So, believer, as you kneel at the Table, and receive that hallowed Bread and Wine, your Master's words and His D 50 The Body and acts alike take you 'without the gate,' to the place where He died, and to the state in which, after death, His sacred Body and Blood were there. By faith, in your reception of the Sacrament, you see the day of His death, and the condition of His death. You look by faith, through the Ordinance, on ' Him whom you have pierced,' and as He was when you pierced Him. You solemnly recollect, and believe, under His own renewed assurance, that His Death is your life, that ' His meritorious Cross and Passion ' is your peace, and that it has won for you the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. Thus viewed, the sacramental ' Body and Blood of Christ ' are not a sort of equivalent expression for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. They cannot be the equivalent ; they are not enough to be so. 'Christ Himself includes not TJie Blood of Christ 5 1 only the Body and the Blood, but the Human Soul and Spirit as He is Son of Man and the Godhead as He is Son of God. The Roman Church boldly says that the Elements in the Eucharist do contain this 'whole Christ ' j Body, Blood, Soul, Godhead."^ But this is indeed to be wise above what is written, wise above what He spoke. All He said was, 'This is my Body which is given,' ' This is my Blood which is shed.' The sacramental Elements which 'are that Body and Blood, are thus to you the Lord's own divine picture, monu- ment and seal, of His precious Death for you. And because they are His picture, monument and seal, they speak to you direct from Him. As we saw above, it is not your device, nor the Church's device ; it is His Ordinance. * See Catechism of Trent ^ ii., iv., 31, 32. 52 The Body and Therefore your reception is just as if He stood visibly at that Table (at it, not on it), even as He sate visibly at that other Table long ago. It is as if He, not His Minister, stepped to your side, and said to you, ' Eat,' ' Drink.' It is as if He said to you, ''As surely as your senses feel, as surely as your body takes, these material things, so surely do you, believing, share all the blessings of My Cross a?id Passion. Peace be to thee ; Go in peace ; Thy sins be forgiven thee ; Receive thou the Holy Ghost: If this is so, we can now more dis- tinctly understand what it is to eat the Body and dri7ik the Blood in the holy Supper, and to have ' our souls strengthened and refreshed' there 'by the Body and the Blood.' It is, that ' our souls are strengthened and re- freshed ' by the Death of our Redeemer The Blood of Christ 5 3 for us ; yea, by Himself so viewed ; by the dying Lamb of Calvary. The Body and the Blood, as presented to our faith in the Lord's Supper, are things which, literally, exist no longer ; for i7i the Cal- vary state that most sacred Body is now no more. They are not existing things to be infused into our being ; they are an infinitely precious Fact to be ap- propriated by our faith. Thus 'faith,' faith in Christ, in His work and word, is, as the Article says, ' the means whereby the Body of Christ is re ceived and eaten in the Supper.' And is this a poor and meagre account of our sacramental feasting? Surely it is not. ' As living souls are fed, So feed me, or I die.' Is it not a life-giving feeding when ' the living soul,' in the very presence 54 The Body and of Christ, in His Ordinance, grasps anew 'the innumerable benefits of His Passion ' ? Is it not a genuine 'strengthening and refreshing' when the happy, penitent Christian knows, under the Lord's hand and seal, that pardon and acceptance are full and present, and that the gift of the blessed Spirit is full and present too, and that Pet. i. II. 'the glories that should follow on the sufferings of Christ' are also the be- liever's covenanted possession in his Lord? Yes, this is a real, and also a special and distinctive, sacramental feeding. ' The Body and the Blood of Christ are' thus 'verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper.' It will be well occasionally to go over the Communion Service and to see how, everywhere, the Church The Blood of Christ 5 5 keeps ' the Lord's Death ' before us thus. The Sacrament is 'to be received in invitation. remembrance of His meritorious Cross and Passion.' 'Above all things we must give most Long Exhor- humble and hearty thanks for the re- demption of the world by the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and Man ; who did humble Himself, even to the Death upon the Cross, for us miserable sinners.' ' And to the end that we should alway re- member the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the in- numerable benefits which by His precious blood-shedding He hath ob- tained to us, He hath instituted and ordained holy Mysteries, as pledges of His love, and for a continual remem- brance of His Death,' 56 The Body and Consecration ' Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Prayer. o j > .7 who of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer Death upon the Cross for our redemp- tion ; who made there by His one ob- lation of Himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, obla- tion, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world, and did institute ... a perpetual memory of that His precious Death, until His coming again ; hear us, O merciful Father, and grant that we, receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of His Death and Passion, may be par- takers of His most blessed Body and Blood.' At theDe- ' The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ livery. whicJi wus giveu for thee, preserve thy body and soul. . . Take and eat this The Blood of Christ 57 in remembrance that Christ died for thee.' 'The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ ivhich was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul. . . Drink this in re- membrance that Christ's Blood was shed for thee.' ' We beseech Thee to grant that by First Prayer the merits and Death of thy Son Jesus mun'^ion!"^' Christ, and through faith in His Blood, we, and all Thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of His Passion.' 'Thou dost assure us thereby . . . Second that we are heirs through hope of Thy communion. everlasting kingdom, by the merits of the most precious Death and Passion of Thy dear Son.' ' O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son Gloria. of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us,' 58 The Body and Blood of Christ So with solemn joy at the Holy Table, we 'announce the Lord's Death, till He come.' All is concentrated on that Death. For in that Death is in- cluded, and out of that Death flows, all we believers have of peace with God, and power in God, and good hope through His eternal grace. CHAPTER VI FEEDING ON CHRIST ' Feed on Him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.' So says the Enghsh Minister, as he delivers to each Christian the holy Bread which ' is ' the Lord's Body.* In the first Invitation to the Communion we read that our Heavenly Father ' hath given His Son our Saviour * I grieve to think that in some English churches the second part of each formula of Delivery is now habitually omitted, quite with- out authority, and that thus by many Communi- cants the words here quoted are never heard. 59 6o Feeding on Christ Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but also to be our spiritual Food and Sus- tenance in this holy Sacrament.' In the Longer Exhortation, now often omitted, but to my mind one of the most precious passages in our Liturgy, we are reminded that, ' if with a true penitent heart and lively, living, faith we receive this holy Sacrament, then we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink His Blood.' And in the second of the two Prayers which follow the Reception, ' we most heartily thank the ever-living God that He vouchsafes to feed us, who have duly received these holy Mysteries, with the spiritual Food of the most precious Body and Blood of His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.' This feeding, this eating and drink- ing, is one of the most central and vital things in the blessed Communion. In Feedincr on Christ 6 1 %b our day it is not an unknown thing to see ' non-communicating attendants,' worshippers who only witness the con- secration of the Elements, without par- taking. Let it be distinctly remembered that such a practice can nowhere be traced in what we know of the worship of the primitive Church. It is man's device, not the Lord's Ordinance. I do not say that there is, i7i itself, any sin in witnessing the holy Supper without communicating. But I do say that our Church does not intend us to do so, and, what is far more important still, that there is not a hint that our blessed Master intended us to do so. When He said ' Do this,' He had just said, ' Take, eat ; drink ye all of this.' To omit the feeding is to use His Ordinance not as He designed it. To those who do so it may be a solemn and interesting occa- 62 Feeding on Christ sion, but one of their own devising. It has no message to them, no gift for them, direct from Him. But let us put that matter aside, and think now in peace on the blessedness, on the holy significance, of this act of feeding, taken in the light of what it seals and signifies. When we eat and drink at our own tables, what a simple action it is to us, and what a vital matter it is for our bodily health and strength ! You eat that bread, or meat, or fruit ; you drink that water ; it is an almost unconscious action of hands, lips, teeth and throat. Your part, as regards your will and act, is done ; the food has entered your system. But now it begins to do its work, and that without your will and act, at least in the same sense as that in which you willed and acted in eating and drinking. By God's mysterious con- Feeding on Oirist 63 stitution of your body and its surround- ings the stores of ' strength and refresh- ment ' in that food are now digested, distributed, through your bodily being, and (whether you think of it or not) are making themselves felt in blood, in nerve, in brain, in every organ of faculty and sense. You take the food ; the food, if I may say so, maintains you. It supplies your need out of its own stores of energy, which your eating and drinking sets free within you. Weary soul, your eyes are dim with spiritual toil and care ; your knees are feeble as you plod on under the day's duties and trials ; your hands hang down. Have you taken time to feed 1 Have you sought ' leisure to eat ' .? You are to work, but first to feed. You are to live, not on your work, but on your food. And the Lord Jesus 64 Feeding on Christ Col. iii. 4. Christ is your food. ' Christ is your life ' j Christ in what He is, Christ in what He has done, Christ in what He is doing, for and in His people. Have you lately fed on Him, taking an ample Song V. I. meal ? ' Eat, O friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved ; ' so says the Lord of the Bridal Feast. Have you obeyed? If not, do not wonder at your exhaustion, and do not delay joh. vi. 57. to ' eat Him.' Bodily feeding offers us a perfect parable in this matter. Bodily feeding needs a mouth, and the voluntary use of that mouth. Then the food, as we have remembered, in a sense, 'takes care of itself,' and of you. The soul too has its mouth, and must Joh. vi. 35. use it. ' He that believeth on Me shall Gal. ii. 20. never thirst,' says the Lord. ' I live by believing in the Son of God,' says St Paul. And if we want to translate Feeding on Christ 65 such words into the dialect of our daily life, what do they mean ? They mean that we feed on the Lord when we take Him at His word, in all He offers Himself to be, and when we use Him so. Is He ' made unto us Righteous- 1 Cor. ness ' ? Take Him at the word, and be at peace, O sinner, in His Merits, as you ' nestle into Him.' * Is He ' made unto you Sanctification ' ? Take Him at the word, and so put His power between the Tempter and your weak heart. Let Him ' fight for you while Exod. you hold your peace,' and 'stand still, and see.' Is He 'made unto you Re- demption ' from death and the grave ? Take Him at the word, and in His name quietly dismiss those fears which He has already dealt with for you. Are * The phrase is (nearly) the martyr Tyn- dale's : Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. E XIV. 66 Feedino; on Christ