HOW highly favoured, intending communicants, are you in being invited to be the guests of the Heavenly King! Let faith be in proper exercise, bringing near the objects that are not seen as yet, and you will discover a feast prepared worthy of Him who gives it, and suitable to those who receive it. The bread which is here offered to you to eat is sweeter far than the manna by which, for forty years, the tribes of Israel were supported, for it gratified the appetite of the body; this satisfies the desires of the soul. It is more substantial than the manna, for it left the Israelites open to cravings after other things, but this leaves no want of the soul without a supply. “He that believeth on me shall never hunger.” It is more abiding than the manna. “Your fathers did eat manna and are dead; he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” The water which is here given you to drink is pure, refreshing, and invigorating. “I beheld a pure river of water of life clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb.” “Whosoever drinketh of this water,” said our Lord to the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well, “shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” The wine that is here presented to the guests is rich, exhilarating, and strengthening. “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” The banquet, communicants, of which you are now invited to partake, is prepared by no meaner hand than that of King Messiah Himself. He had too much regard for His poor people, He knows too well their varied and complicated cases to entrust the task to any other. “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh with my spice: I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey: I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” But it is very possible there may be some of you who complain that you have no appetite, yea, that your souls are so blind and insensible that you cannot realise the presence of the King, or the richness of the banquet. Be not over much disquieted even by this sad and painful experience, for there are cordials at this table to afford you relief. The two disciples who journeyed towards Emmaus were filled with sadness, and were unable to pierce the thick darkness that had encompassed them. But when the Saviour Himself drew nigh, and spread before them the riches of His grace, and revived their faith, and quickened their hearts, they regaled themselves abundantly with His dainties, and exclaimed, on the review of their meal, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and opened to us the Scriptures?” Who can tell, then, O drooping soul, whether the Lord may be pleased to draw nigh unto thee at this communion feast, and lead thee into green pastures, and cause thee to lie down by still waters. “Be not faithless but believing.” To your apprehension your case may be almost desperate, so cold, so dead, so carnal, but though it be utterly beyond the reach of creatures to deliver you, it is easy to Him who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. The present is a most favourable moment for applying to Jesus—His table is one of His meeting places with His people. His feast of communion is designed to replenish the empty, to satisfy the hungry, and to satiate the sorrowful. But beware of narrow views of the Saviour’s liberality—guard against the workings of unbelief, for the rule of His house is, “According to your faith so shall it be unto you.” “Open your mouths, therefore, wide, and He will fill them.” Let the devices of your souls be towards His name, and the remembrance of Him. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of His house, and He shall make them drink of the river of His pleasures, for with Him is the fountain of life.”
The feast, communicants, which hath now been observed is spiritual—fitted to impart spiritual strength, and designed to prepare for spiritual service. If you have in any degree entered into its nature and shared in its provisions, then will you be inclined to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, and to abound in every good work. But do not imagine that in the strength of your present impressions you will be able to pursue this high and holy career—these may prove short-lived, and at best, like a bruised reed—it is possible that ere you rise from the table at which you are now seated they may be gone. Do not flatter yourselves that, by the force of your present resolutions, you shall be impelled on the way to life everlasting, for though they may seem like the locks of Samson, and able to bear the heaviest weight of opposition, yet in one fatal hour they may be shorn, and you be left weak as others. The shades of the evening may not close over you till your resolutions are shaken and you have fallen before the blast of temptation. But, communicants, it is your comfort and support that the strength of Israel is your rock, the Mighty One of Jacob your defence. “I,” saith the God of Israel, “will send mine angel before thee to lead thee in the way; beware of him; provoke him not, for my name is in him.” In this Angel-Jehovah have you righteousness and strength, and therefore the grand aim of your souls must be to live on Him and to abide in Him. When thus exercised your place of defence is as the munition of rocks; the enemy may assail, but it will be only that he may be repulsed; he may contrive to injure, but it will only be that he may be covered with confusion. “No weapon formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth in judgment against thee thou shalt condemn; this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord.” The troubles of life, if they meet you cleaving closely to Christ, and actively maintaining the fellowship of the Spirit, will try your strength, but not enervate it. With the Apostle and first Christians you will be able to say, “We glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, the love of God being shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to us.” When called to arduous duty, Christ will be your strength; when exposed to imminent danger, Christ will be your shield; when plunged in deepest distress, Christ will be your consolation; when assailed by violent temptation, Christ will be your deliverer; when required to pass through the dark valley and the shadow of death, Christ will be with you, His rod and staff will comfort you. Let nothing then separate between Him and your souls. Note, communicants, what it is in your condition, your connections, and your pursuits, that tends to interrupt your communion with Him, and to weaken your attachment to Him, and set it down as your enemy. Spare it not, however dear it be to your hearts, however conducive to your worldly advantage; it is like Achan in the camp, and must therefore be cast out and destroyed if you would enjoy the presence, and protection, and consolations of the Angel of the covenant. For why, O why, should you suffer anything to come between Christ and you, who profess to have set your hearts on being for ever with the Lord? And how is it that you are to come to the full enjoyment of this object but by being removed from all that is corrupt and earthly? The nearer, therefore, you approach to this entire separation from carnal things, the further must be your advancement towards the full enjoyment of Christ. Go then from strength to strength, till you appear before God in Zion, and may the God of all grace and comfort go with you and bless you.—Amen.