Mr. Alexander was an eminent minister of the Gospel. His preaching at times was very searching. He died in 1890.
FELLOW-COMMUNICANTS—The solemn work of sitting down at a communion table, in obedience to our blessed and beloved Lord’s dying command, and of there eating the bread, and drinking the wine, in commemoration of His wonderful love—this solemn work being now over, I would crave your indulgence a little longer, while I briefly exhort you in a few words:—
Fellow-communicants, I know not whether you have now made a warrantable approach at the table of the Lord. God knoweth. This, however, I do know, that you have been engaged this day in most serious, most solemn work. You have been transacting business for eternity—business which must affect your weal, or your woe for ever—business which, ere long, must be brought forward and reviewed at the court of final judgment. It would be wise in you, therefore, to examine carefully and thoroughly into the business you have presently transacted, to see whether it will be profitable or unprofitable to you—whether or not it will stand the searching scrutiny of the holy and righteous Judge—the scrutiny of Him who scanneth the motives, and trieth the reins, and knoweth the hearts of the children of men. What
have you been doing, then, this day, at the table of the Lord? I will tell you what you were doing, and what you did do. You made a covenant—a covenant with Christ, or a covenant with your sins—a covenant of life, or a covenant of death—a covenant of salvation, or a covenant of condemnation. Yes, either of these two covenants, this day in this church, and at that table, you did make; and, moreover, you made it most solemnly—you called heaven and earth to witness—you summoned angels and men to bear you testimony—you appealed to the God of truth Himself for your sincerity—yea, you ratified and confirmed your covenant with blood, even with the blood of the Cross. Now, communicants, which of these two covenants did you make? Do not evade the question. You cannot evade it. Evade it now, and it will meet you like a thunder-clap at judgment. Was it with Christ, or with your sins, you covenanted? Conscience! thou vicegerent of heaven in the human heart—conscience! in the name of thy Maker, I call upon thee; in the name of the Omniscient God, I summon thee at this time to speak out and tell the truth. Was it with your sins, then, communicant—was it with your sins you covenanted this day at the communion table? With your sins—was it? And so you were not contented simply with standing aloof and rejecting Christ, but you must come to His banqueting-house to insult Him?—were not satisfied merely with keeping fast hold of your sins, but must step forward to this holy ordinance to strengthen your hold, and if possible to render the union and friendship between you and them more close, more endearing, and more imperishable?—not satisfied merely with trampling the blood of Christ under your feet, and thereby counting it an unholy thing, but must even come to His table to have that blood poured upon your head to curse you—yea, to have it poured upon your sins, not indeed to wash them out, but to brighten them—not to wipe them away, but to make them like scarlet, to render them red like crimson? This, unworthy communicant, this was your covenant, was it? Ashamed of your sins before men, you made a show of renouncing them; and honouring Christ before men, you made a show of embracing Him; while before God you were not ashamed to hug your sins to your bosom, and to spurn and spit upon
the Son of His love—were not ashamed to cry out, Crucify Him, crucify Him, away with Him, away with Him—not this man, but my lusts and my sins—not this man, but Barabbas the robber. This, unworthy communicant, this is your covenant—the covenant you have this day solemnly ratified and confirmed. And what think you of it, now that its terms and its import have been explained and rehearsed in your hearing? Is your mind made up—is your resolution taken—and are you prepared to abide by its consequences? Down, unworthy communicant, down upon your knees, lest the God of vengeance hurl a thunderbolt at your head, and strike you down in your sins. Down upon your knees, and dissolve your covenant with death, and break asunder your agreement with hell, and turn your back upon your sins. Down upon your knees, and lift up your eyes to heaven, and look up unto Him whom you have this day wounded and pierced, and cry out before Him the helpless yet hopeful and mighty cry of faith, “Lord save me, or I perish.” You are fast sinking amid the depths of your sins, like waves they are rolling over you, like floods of water they are encompassing you, like the boundless ocean they are about to swallow you up—the ark of the covenant is receding further and further away from you—the Spirit of God is ceasing to strive with you—the day of grace is well-nigh done with you—your case is dark and dreadful—it is all but desperate—all but hopeless. But there is hope. Down upon your knees, therefore, oh! down this night, this moment upon your knees, and cry out for mercy. “O Lord, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me.” Care not who hears you, so be that God hears you. Cry out as if judgment were come, and the books were opened; cry out as if you already felt the devouring flames beginning to feed upon you; cry out as if already the echo of the weepings and the wailings of lost souls were falling upon your ear; cry out thus in faith; cry out thus believing, and yet there is mercy for thee, yet there is pardon for thee, yet there is salvation for thee; yea, though thou wert the very chiefest sinner that ever lived, still there is efficacy enough and virtue enough in the blood of the Lamb slain, to cleanse and save you from all your sins, for Christ Himself doth say, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” And coming
unto Him, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” And may God give you grace to come by faith unto this Almighty Saviour, that your sins may be washed away in His precious blood.
But, again, there are some among you, I would hope, who, instead of covenanting this day with your sins, have covenanted with Christ. Fellow-communicants! ye did well thus to renounce sin, and thus to renew and establish your covenant with your Lord. Ye did well to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan—get thee behind me, sin—get thee behind me, world—what have I any more to do with idols?” Ye did well to say, “Whom have I, O Lord, in the heavens but thee, and there is none upon all the earth that I can desire besides thee; my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” Ye did well, communicants, in saying thus, and in covenanting thus. Ye have this day chosen the better part. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost—the three-one God—the Redeemer of Jacob—the Holy One of Israel—He, even He is the portion of your souls. And having such a portion, you shall lack no good thing; for the Lord God is a sun and shield, He will give grace and glory—grace here, and glory hereafter; yea, no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. You are poor indeed in yourselves; but having God the Father for your portion, He will enrich you with that favour which is life, and that loving-kindness which is better than life. You are indeed guilty sinners by nature; but having God the Son for your portion, He will bestow upon you all the unspeakable blessings of that salvation which He hath purchased with His blood.
You are surrounded, indeed, with many dangers, and encompassed about with great infirmities; but having God the Holy Ghost for your portion, He will lead you and guide you—lead you by the still waters, and guide you to the green pastures of Zion; yea, He will conduct you in the paths of righteousness and peace. If Jehovah Jesus, therefore, be your portion, there is nothing you shall want. Whatsoever ye shall ask, believing, even that you shall receive. If He hath loved you, and given
Himself for you; what else is there He can withhold? If He hath loved you, and given Himself to you; what greater blessing could He bestow? If He hath loved you, and given His Spirit to dwell in you; what richer gift could ye receive? Be satisfied, then, communicants, with your portion; for, ye have indeed got a goodly heritage. Ye have the Spirit testifying with your spirit that ye are the sons of God; and, if sons, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ!—Astonishing! What! is the creature the heir of the Creator—the heir of the universe! Yes, dear fellow-communicants, ye are the heirs of all things; heaven is yours, the earth is yours, and the fulness thereof; things present and things to come are yours, life is yours, and death itself is yours; for all things are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Oh! what a rich, what a royal, what a noble inheritance. Enough, surely, to make a poor man rich; enough to make a sick man well; enough, one would even think, to make a sinner a saint. Communicants, it doth not now appear what you shall be; the men of the world know it not, they believe it not, they see it not; and, therefore, they may look down upon you and despise you, as they despised your Master of old; but, when your Elder Brother cometh the second time, then the mystery will be revealed, for He will tell of all the riches, and speak of all the dignity, and proclaim abroad all the glory, which He hath prepared and reserved for you at His Father’s right hand—yea, He shall present you with a throne, with a crown, with a kingdom, and, clothed in the robes of blessedness and beauty, you shall sit down with Him in the new Jerusalem, and reign with Him for ever and ever. But, communicants, though all things be yours, yet there is one exception—there is one thing not yours, and that is yourself; ye are not your own, ye are Christ’s. “The Lord’s portion is His people, and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.” Ye are Christ’s, therefore, His property, His portion, His inheritance. He bought you with His blood, He hath redeemed you to Himself. Take care, then, of Christ’s property. Devote yourselves to His service. Give not yourselves up to the world, nor to sin, nor to the devil; but give yourselves up wholly to Christ, in thought, in word, and in deed. And ever remember, that they
that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts—that they are a peculiar people, zealous of good works—that they run on in the way of His commandments with alacrity and delight, and live at all times to the praise and the glory of His grace.
But once more, I would yet speak a word with another class of persons, and what I shall say, though I may say it strongly, still, you may rest assured, it shall not on that account be the less kind and affectionate. The class of persons to whom I allude are those who are not communicants—those who never have obeyed—who are stoutly determined, in spite of every warning, and in spite of every remonstrance, not to obey our Lord’s last dying command—”do this in remembrance of me.” Fellow-sinners, for fellow-communicants I cannot call you, and fellow-Christians, I will not—yea, dare not call you; for, by your own deliberate and voluntary act this day, you have declared yourselves to have not even the shadow of a title to the name: Fellow-sinners, then—since that alone appropriately designates you—why is it that you will not obey Christ’s command, to show forth His death? You allow that it is a command of Christ, you allow that it is a command which was given under peculiar and solemn circumstances—given on the night on which He was betrayed—the night before He suffered and hung on the cross; you allow all this: Why, then, will you not obey it? why is it that five communion seasons have now passed over your heads since we first came amongst you, and still you are daring and hard-hearted rebels to the King of Zion’s dying command? I say daring rebels; for the King of Zion keepeth the key of hell, and can unlock the door of that flaming prison, and cast you into it at His pleasure. I say hard-hearted rebels; for you would not thus treat your minister. Were he to be summoned away into the land of spirits, and his body buried in some corner of our little kirkyard; and were he to make it his dying request to any of you, that you would annually pay a visit to his grave, and there drop a tear in remembrance of him, because he had often preached to you the Word of Life; we doubt not but you would kindly and cheerfully comply with his request. And why is it, then, that you treat Christ worse than you would treat even your minister? Why is it that you
trample and tread upon His dying request? Has He no title, think you, no right, no business to issue His commands, and to exact your implicit and willing obedience? He made you, He upholds you, He preserves you, He gives you every breath you draw, and every comfort you enjoy. That you are not upon a bed of sickness at this moment; that you are not deaf, or dumb, or blind, or lame, or palsied, is simply because He is kind to you, and making goodness and mercy to follow you. Has He, therefore, no right to command you, and no claims upon your obedience? Why, then, will you not obey Him, why do you disown His authority? He says expressly: “Do this in remembrance of me;” and you say as expressly: “No, we will not do it in remembrance of you. You may entreat us, you may beseech us, you may command us; you may send your messengers, your ambassadors, your ministers to us, and they may tell us what they please about your power and authority, and about your having the key of hell, and about your claims upon us, and our obligations to thee; still, we do not care about any or all of these things, we will not obey your command, we will not comply with your request, we will not eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of you; others around us may do it, but we will not. Our mind is made up, our resolution is taken, we shall not encompass the communion table.” Fellow-sinners, this may not be the language of your mouths, but it is assuredly the language of your actions; and, think you that Christ will not take vengeance upon you for thus basely insulting His divine majesty? Yea, I tell you, when He cometh a second time in flaming fire to take vengeance upon His enemies, He will undoubtedly first take vengeance upon you. But again, I ask you, why will you not eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Christ? It is a very easy—it is a very simple task, to eat bread and drink wine. Nothing more easy than to sit down at that table, and partake of what is set before you. Why, then, will you not sit down? Ah! brethren, the reason is obvious; though the duty be easy—though the task be simple, still, you do not love the Master of the feast—you hate Him. Yes, you hate Christ, and therefore you do not commemorate Him, but wish the very memory of Him blotted out from the face of the earth; yea, and are doing
what lieth in your power to blot it out; and, if every one were to act as you do, soon, very soon, the knowledge of the fact, that such a personage as Jesus Christ, was crucified in the land of Judea, would disappear, and vanish away, and be altogether forgotten. But, perhaps you say, you do not hate Christ, but love Him. Why, then, will not you obey His command and commemorate His death? I will tell you why. You have a burden upon your back—a weight upon your head; a weight so heavy—a burden so vast, that you cannot come under it for a token of admission—that you cannot rise up under it from your pew to enter the communion table. It has crushed you to your pew, it has pressed and borne you down to your seat during the whole of this solemn service, so that you could not move a foot in the direction of the blessed symbols of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. And this accursed burden you love, and love so heartily and so dearly, that nothing—that not even the love of Christ, whom you say you love (though verily you love Him not, else your burden would drop off your back, and fall away into everlasting forgetfulness), that not even the love of Christ, nor the terrors of His law, nor the fear of His wrath, nor the dread of His hell, can induce you to part with it. And, my dear brethren, that vile, that filthy, that heavy burden, is the load of your sins and iniquities—a load which, if you will not part with it now, will cling to you and cleave to you throughout eternity, and will sink you down and down for ever and for ever into the bottomless deep of the wrath of the Lamb. O brethren! dear brethren, be wise for your souls, and part with your sins and come to Christ. Dying in your present state, better far you had never been born; for dying in your present state, unfit, by your own confession, for sitting down at the table of the Lord upon earth, you must necessarily be unfit for sitting down at the table which is in heaven; and, therefore, dying in your present state, your final and fearful doom must be: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Be wise, therefore—Oh, be wise for eternity. This may be the last communion season you shall ever see. Before the next one comes round, you may have gone to give in your account. Oh, have mercy, therefore, upon yourselves—have mercy upon your souls, and begin now—this
very day, to establish your peace with God through the blood of the Cross. So that, when death doth come to summon you away, he may not find you unprepared; but may find you washed and cleansed in the blood of Christ, and sanctified and made meet by the Spirit of Christ, for sitting down at that blessed and glorious table, which is in the temple above—a table, that is ever full, and that shall never be withdrawn, and where you shall eat the bread of life, and drink the wine of everlasting gladness and joy. And now, brethren, in conclusion, I commend you all to God, and to the word of His grace. The Lord bless us, and keep us; the Lord make His face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us; the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace—even that peace of God which passeth all understanding. Amen.