It was a reproach to Zion that none came any more to her solemn feasts. In other days the true Israelites had gone up joyfully to Jerusalem at the set feasts. The Psalmist speaks of these occasions in the 122nd Psalm:—
“I joy’d when to the house of God,
Go up, they said to me,
Jerusalem, within thy gates
our feet shall standing be.”
And again in the 42nd Psalm:—
“With them into God’s house I went
with voice of joy and praise;
Yea, with the multitude that kept
the solemn holy days.”
But those times were now passed. Zion was now desolate. Therefore the ways of Zion do mourn. The cause of this great alteration in Zion’s affairs was not far to seek. There had been a great forsaking of true religion in the land and a turning to the false worship of the heathen. The calves set up in Bethel and Dan had turned the hearts of the people of the Northern Kingdom from their God; while Judah, though faithful for a time with her God, soon lapsed into idolatry, too. God in judgement gave both nations into the hand of their enemies. As a consequence Zion is left with this complaint that “none come to her solemn feasts.” But surely it would be another thing altogether that this lamentation would have to be taken up as a result of people despising the means of grace and ceasing to attend communion seasons.
In New Testament times the people of God are no longer called to go up to Jerusalem three times in the year to worship the Lord God of Israel. God has in every place those that call upon His Name and who worship Him and are accepted of Him. Yet the Lord has not left His people without special times of communion and fellowship with Himself and with one another. In our own land Communion Seasons have been in the experience of the children of God times of nearness to God; when, in the preaching of the Word and in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, they have enjoyed fellowship with God and with one another. Those seasons have proved, hitherto, times of awakening for sinners and times of reviving for the tried people of God. If they were so useful in the past, and proved such a blessing to the Church of God, how much more needful today. If there is to be a real deepening of interest in the things of God; if there is to be growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; surely Communion seasons afford a suitable opportunity for this through God’s blessing upon them.
In other Churches there has been an evident slackening of interest in communion seasons over a long period of years. Can it be that now even in our own denomination there is discernible a cooling of interest in these assemblies, not only among adherents, but among professing Christians as well? There certainly appears to be less effort made to attend than was once the case. If absence from communion seasons is the result of less desire for communion with God and with His people, then is it not indicative of spiritual declension? What difficulties Christians in former days surmounted in order to be present at such seasons! In those days they did not have the means of travel which we possess, yet how many miles they walked over mountain and dale, only for the joy of meeting with the Lord and with His people on the mount of ordinances.
Oh, you will say, those were days of Gospel blessing, and days of power in the pulpit ministrations in the land. True; there were notable times in days past, and notable servants of the Lord were raised up to declare His Word. But we are to remember that even in our day of small things the Lord is the same. He has not changed. His promise still stands: “Where two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them.” If the Lord is there, will that not make up for all else?
The time may come when the Church of God in our land will not be permitted to meet together at communion seasons through a persecuting power obtaining control of our land. Then it would have to be said, as in the case of Israel and Judah of old, “The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to her solemn feasts.”
We would urge younger Christians especially not to let themselves be robbed of the privilege of attending communion seasons, nor to substitute in their place lighter forms of Christian fellowship. Communion seasons, bringing us so near to Christ, and bringing Christ so near to us in all His saving benefits, and in His sufferings and death on Calvary’s accursed tree, are well suited to bring us low and to keep us low. If we are ever to be delivered from our sinful pride and lightness it is by being brought near to Christ in the awful transactions of Calvary. There is far more to true Christianity than a superficial profession of Christ’s Name. We must come to feed by faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ who says: “My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed.” What is more fitted to humble us in the dust in wonder and adoration than a faith’s view of the crucified and now risen and exalted Redeemer.
Let us then use to the full the opportunities which communion seasons afford us. If we do this, it will not be long till we are singing with David:
“How lovely is thy dwelling place
O Lord of Hosts, to me!
The tabernacles of thy grace
how pleasant, Lord, they be.”
And again:
“For in thy courts one day excels
a thousand; rather in
My God’s house will I keep a door,
than dwell in tents of sin.”
(Psalm 84: 1 and 10)