And may we not ask, in the face of this solemn fact, Is it nothing now—is it a matter of no moment for Christians to neglect, from week to week and month to month, the supper of their Lord? Are we to suppose that the One who, in Numbers ix, declared that the neglecter of the passover should be cut off, takes no account of the neglecter of the Lord’s table? We cannot believe it for a moment. For albeit it is not a question of being cut off from the Church of God—the body of Christ, are we, on that account to be negligent? Far be the thought. Yea, rather should it have the blessed effect of stirring us up to greater diligence in the celebration of that most precious feast wherein we “do show the Lord’s death till He come.”
To a pious Israelite, there was nothing like the passover, because it was the memorial of his redemption; and to a pious Christian, there is nothing like the Lord’s supper, because it is the memorial of his redemption and of the death of his Lord. Of all the exercises in which the Christian can engage, there is nothing more precious, nothing more expressive, nothing that brings Christ more touchingly or solemnly before his heart, than the Lord’s supper. He may sing about the Lord’s death, he may pray about it, he may read about it, he may hear about it; but it is only in the supper that he “_shows_” it forth. “And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, ‘This is My body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.’” (Luke xxii. 19, 20.)
Here we have the feast _instituted_; and when we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, we read that, “upon the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread.” (Acts xx. 7.)
Here we have the feast _celebrated_; and lastly, when we turn to the epistles, we read, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one loaf, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf.” (1 Cor. x. 16, 17.) And again, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, ‘Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me.’ After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” (1 Cor. xi. 23-26.)
Here we have the feast _expounded_. And may we not say that in the institution, the celebration, and the exposition, we have a threefold cord, not easily broken, to bind our souls to this most precious feast?
How is it, then, that, in the face of all this holy authority, any of God’s people should be found neglecting the Lord’s table? or, looking at it in another aspect, how is it that any of Christ’s members can be satisfied to go on for weeks, and months, and some all their days, without ever remembering their Lord in the way of His own direct and positive appointment? We are aware that some professing Christians regard this subject in the light of a return to Jewish ordinances, and as a coming down from the high ground of the Church. They look upon the Lord’s supper and baptism as inward spiritual mysteries, and they consider that we are departing from true spirituality in insisting upon the literal observance of these ordinances.
To all this we very simply reply that God is wiser than we are. If the Lord Christ instituted the supper; if God the Holy Ghost led the early Church to celebrate it; and if He has also expounded it unto us, who are we that we should set up our ideas in opposition to God? No doubt, the Lord’s supper should be an inward spiritual mystery to all who partake of it; but it is also an outward, literal, tangible thing. There is literal bread, and literal wine—literal eating, and literal drinking. If any deny this, they may, with equal force, deny that there are literal people gathered together. We have no right to explain away Scripture after such a fashion. It is our happy and holy duty to submit to Scripture—to bow down, absolutely and implicitly, to its divine authority.