3 Compare 1 Cor. xvi. 2. with Rev. i. 10.
Lord himself on the night previous to his crucifixion. This ordinance constituted an essential part of the service on every Lord's-day : it called the attention of the Church to that great mystery which was the foundation of all their hopes, even to the body of Christ as broken for them, and the blood of Christ as shed for them. Moreover, it led them to apply to Christ by faith for a continued interest in his death, and a more abundant communication of his blessing to their souls.
Amongst us, the Lord's Supper is not administered so often ; but our employment on the Sabbath ought to be, in fact, the same : it should consist in these two things :
1. A personal intercourse with Christ as dying for us —
[In entering into the house of prayer, we come, it is true, to worship the Father ; but we must never forget that it is only in and through Christ that we can have access to him ; and that every prayer must be offered to the Father in the
name of Christ We assemble, too, to hear the word
of God ; but it is the Gospel, the glad tidings of salvation through a crucified Redeemer, that we must desire to hear : and the faithful minister will " determine to know nothing among his people, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified." If he preach the law, it will be as " a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ :" or if he insist upon any particular duty, it will be, not to lead his hearers to establish a righteousness of their own by their obedience to it, but to shew them how they are to manifest the sincerity of their faith, and how they are to
glorify their God and Saviour Both minister and
people must remember, that they meet, not as Mahometans, who acknowledge one God; not as Jews, who confess their obligation to obey his revealed will ; but as Christians, who have their hopes fixed entirely on Christ, and expect every thing as the purchase of his blood. Whether the Lord's Supper is administered or not, " Christ is to be evidently set forth crucified before us;" and " to know him," " to win him," " to be found in him ;" and " to receive out of his fulness," must be the great object of our assembling together ]
2. A personal surrender of ourselves to him, as his redeemed people —
[When the first Christians met thus constantly " to break bread," they confessed openly, that they were disciples of that
1797.] Paul's sermon at troas. 503
crucified Saviour ; and they engaged themselves, as it were by a solemn oath, to live and die in his service. Thus do we profess, in all our solemn acts of worship, that we have been " bought with a price," even with the inestimable price of the Redeemer's blood ; and that we are bound, by every possible tie, " to glorify him with our bodies and our spirits which are
his" We do not in general associate this idea with
any thing but the Lord's supper ; but we ought to associate it with all the services of the Sabbath ; and to consider our- selves as living thus upon Christ by the renewed exercises of faith, in order that we may live to Christ in the more enlarged exercise of holy obedience ]
Let us now proceed to notice,
II. The particular circumstances of that meeting —
The place where they were assembled was an upper chamber —
[It was a room three stories high, and so small and crowded, that the windows, even at night, were forced to be open for the admission of air, whilst some were constrained to sit in them for want of more convenient accommodation. Little do we think what a blessing it is to us that we have houses built on purpose for the service of our God. True it is that even in them the poor do not always find such commodious seats as one could wish : but, if there were no other places for our reception than such as they possessed at Troas, we fear that multitudes who now receive instruction from Sabbath to Sabbath, would never trouble themselves to seek it, where they must submit to so much inconvenience for the attainment of it.]