A Catechism for the Instruction of Communicants

By Andrew Thomson, DD (1779-1831)
Concluded from page 340 in the last issue

Questions Nos. 138 to 165 (some of which have been edited)

THE last instalment dealt with the duty of preparing to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and the communicant’s exercise while partaking. This concluding instalment deals with the communicant’s duties after communicating.

SEE the May issue, page 140, for a biographical footnote about Dr. Andrew Thomson.

1. Question. What should you do after partaking of the Lord’s Supper?

Answer. I should express my thankfulness to God for the opportunity He has given me of celebrating this ordinance, and pray that He would enable me to improve it to wise and useful purposes.

1. Q. Should you not again employ some time in serious self-examination?

A. Yes: the heart is so very deceitful; we are so apt to mistake outward solemnity for internal devotion, and the ordinance of the Supper is such a solemn transaction between God and the soul, that self-examination seems to be as necessary after as before communicating.

1. Q. What is it with respect to which you should examine yourself?

A. I should examine myself with respect to the manner in which I have acted, and the experience that I have had, at the Lord’s Table.

1. Q. What may be the result of this examination with respect to the manner in which you have acted at the Lord’s Table?

A. It may be that I have been careless, inattentive, and irreverent, indulging myself in vain thoughts, and eating and drinking without spiritual views and devout feelings; or it may be that I have had my mind suitably affected and employed, and, in other respects, partaken worthily of the ordinance.

1. Q. What is your duty if the latter has been your conduct at the Lord’s Table?

A. It is my duty to thank God, who is the author of all gifts and graces that I enjoy, for having enabled me to communicate in a becoming and acceptable manner.

1. Q. What is your duty if the former has been your conduct?

A. I should be humble before God, entreat Him to pardon the unworthiness I have been guilty of, and determine, through His grace helping me, to avoid it carefully on every future occasion.

1. Q. Is not your most worthy communicating accompanied with imperfection?

A. Yes: sin and imperfection cleave to the purest of my religious services, and therefore I have always great reason to abase myself; but I should be particularly careful to do so when my shortcomings are wilful and deliberate, or proceed from any kind of indifference to sacred duties.

1. Q. What may be the result of your self-examination with regard to the experience you have had at the Lord’s Table?

A. It may be that I have been comforted, and gladdened, and improved: or it may be that none of these effects have been produced, but that I have felt weariness and disappointment, and the absence of those blessings which this ordinance promises and is intended to bestow.

1. Q. What is your duty if the former has been the case?

A. It is my duty to be grateful to Him by whose grace the Sacrament has been made effective, in giving me peace, and joy, and improvement, and to be careful to express my gratitude, by devoting myself still more zealously to the observance of all His ordinances and commandments.

1. Q. What is your duty if your experience has been comfortless and unfruitful?

A. It is my first duty to inquire seriously and candidly into the causes of this, and my next duty is to endeavour, by every proper mean, to remove these causes, that I may hereafter be able to partake of the Lord’s Supper with greater benefit and success.

1. Q. May not such an experience be ascribed to some fault on the part of the communicant?

A. Yes: the general truth is, that if we “draw nigh unto God, He will draw nigh unto us” (James 4: 8), and, therefore, if we are disappointed and sent empty away, we have reason to suspect that our preparation has not been sufficient, that our expectations have been unreasonable, or that our conduct at the Lord’s Table has not been altogether suitable.

1. Q. What does this suggest?

A. It suggests that in every case of such experience, whilst we bewail, in the spirit of perfect submission to the divine will, the absence of that peace and gladness we had hoped to enjoy, we should also search ourselves diligently, to see what has on this occasion, “separated between God and us,” and prevented our “hungry souls” from being satisfied “with good things,” and “our strength from being renewed as the eagle’s.”

1. Q. Is there not a kind of experience which some ignorant people look for, but which you have no reason expect at the Lord’s Table?

A. Yes: I have no reason to expect any sudden impulse on my understanding, or any violent affection of my heart and feelings; for though there is nothing to hinder the Spirit of God from operating in that remarkable way, yet His ordinary method is calm and secret, and the Sacrament of the Supper is one of those means, by which in a rational manner, He works upon our minds and dispositions.

1. Q. What is that kind of experience which the nature of religion in general, and of the Lord’s Supper in particular, gives you ground for expecting?

A. I have ground for expecting that I shall feel that comfort and pleasure which the contemplation, by faith, of the memorials of Christ’s sacrifice is naturally fitted to inspire: that I shall experience a more heartfelt sorrow for sin, when I see all that Jesus suffered on account of it: that my love to Him shall grow more warm and ardent, when I behold the great price that He generously paid for my redemption: that all my resentments towards others shall die away in my breast, when I have such a striking proof of the great mercy of God towards me; and, in short, that I shall receive more lively and lasting impressions of those infinitely important truths which are built upon the death of Christ, and essentially connected with the salvation of my soul.

1. Q. Whatever your conduct and experience at the Lord’s Table may have been, are not you bound to fulfill the obligations which the act of communicating implies?

A. Certainly: since I have vowed unto the Lord, and since my vow is not only lawful, but highly proper and useful, I am bound by every consideration of duty and of interest to perform it with the utmost care.

1. Q. What conduct does this vow bind you to maintain?

A. Such conduct as is prescribed by the word of God: to do no iniquity (Job 34: 32); to attend to the care of my soul as “the one thing needful”; to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Christ (Luke 9: 23); and to study to love Him more, and to serve Him better than I have ever yet done. In short, it must now be my great object and business, to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge [saving and practical] of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3: 18).

1. Q. What are we to think of those who, after partaking of the Lord’s Supper, give themselves up to the ways of the world and sin?

A. We should not judge rashly or severely of any man; but these persons unquestionably show that at the Lord’s Table they have not really “been with Christ,” and “learned of Him.” Either their profession has not been sincere, or they are backslidden and acting in gross contradiction to their profession; in both which cases their conduct is highly culpable.

1. Q. Is not this conduct of theirs extremely injurious?

A. Yes: it is extremely injurious to themselves, because it is a great aggravation of their guilt; and it is extremely injurious to religion, because it sets a pernicious example before others, and gives a handle to wicked and unbelieving men to blaspheme, to vilify the gospel, and ridicule its ordinances.

1. Q. Is not this treatment of the gospel, however, by unbelieving men, very uncandid and unjust?

A. Yes: for the gospel, like every other system, must stand or fall by its own merits and evidences; and cannot be accountable for the lives of its professors. If it is to be judged by the conduct of professing Christians, it must only be when these sincerely believe its doctrines, and faithfully obey its precepts.

1. Q. But since the enemies of religion do frequently judge and speak of religion according to the conduct of its professors, should not you be particularly cautious on that account?

A. Surely: having partaken of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and made the solemn profession which that implies, I should be especially careful to, “walk in wisdom towards them that are without” (Col. 4: 5); to “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thes. 5: 22), and to let my light so shine before men, that others, seeing my good works, may glorify my Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5: 16).

1. Q. Is the fact that our sacramental vows are apt to be forgotten or disregarded, any good reason for not partaking of the Lord’s Supper?

A. No: it is not a good reason; for we may as well say that no promise should be given, because it may not be fulfilled, or that no bargains should be made, because bargains are often broken. Besides, partaking of the Lord’s Supper is a commanded duty, which must be performed, if we would submit ourselves to the authority of Christ. And having observed this ordinance, we should strive to walk worthy of it, which we may certainly do with the help of Christ, as the apostle could do all things by Christ strengthening him, (Phil. 4: 13).

1. Q. Should not the practical effects of communicating appear in all the various relations and circumstances in which you may be placed?

A. Yes: Communicants come under engagements at the Lord’s Table, which reach to every relation and condition of life. They engage to, “adorn the doctrine of god their Saviour in all things” (Titus 2: 10), and therefore, if they have been sincere in their profession, they will study to be more humble in prosperity, and more patient in tribulation; more resolute in withstanding temptation, more diligent in their improvement of the means and ordinances of grace, and more dutiful as husbands and as wives, as parents and as children, as masters and as servants, as neighbours and as friends.

1. Q. Is not the life which, at the Lord’s Table, you undertake to lead, a life of difficulty and danger?

A. Yes: I am so much surrounded with temptations to sin, I have so many powerful enemies to struggle with, and my heart is so corrupted and perverse, that it cannot but be hard and difficult to lead that life of faith and holiness which my Saviour requires; and hence the Christian life is called in Scripture, a burden, a yoke, and a cross.

1. Q. Do these expressions mean that the Christian life is destitute of comfort?

A. No: they cannot mean this: the Christian life, though a burden, is light; though a yoke, it is easy; though a cross, it has, to those who bear it, its joys as well as its sorrows. Such is the account of it given in Scripture, and such is the experience of every real disciple of Christ.

1. Q. Is not the Christian life perfectly consistent with the true enjoyment of this world?

A. Yes: that is to say, the true Christian can enjoy all the innocent, lawful pleasures of the world, and these, to a mind like his, are numerous; he avoids the misery which is the appointed and certain attendant upon vice; he escapes the cares and disappointments which often harass ungodly men, because he “uses the world as not abusing it, knowing that the fashion of all things passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7: 31), and the good things, nay the very evils of life, afford him a ground of satisfaction peculiar to him, because his principles teach him to regard and treat them as means by which he is enabled to “lay up a good foundation for the time to come, and lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6: 19).

1. Q. At the same time, are those not greatly mistaken who enter on the Christian life, or continue in it with the idea that it has little or nothing but what is easy and agreeable?

A. Yes: for though godliness has “the promise of the life that now is” (1 Timothy 4: 8), and all “who love the law of the Lord have great peace” (Psalm 119: 165), yet Scripture declares every true Christian can bear witness to the truth of the declaration, that there are many severe trials, many painful struggles, many discouragements, and many sorrows, necessarily connected with the belief and practice of the Gospel.

1. Q. Has not God provided you with support and consolation fully adequate to these hardships and difficulties?

A. Yes: every support and consolation that my situation needs and that I could reasonably expect or possibly desire.

1. Q. What is that support and consolation?

A. An assurance that God will make His grace, sufficient for me, and perfect His strength in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12: 9); a divine intimation that Christ has already subdued my spiritual enemies, and that through Him every true believer shall be more than a conqueror; a promise that the Holy Ghost shall be given to them that ask Him, to abide with them continually, and to lead them in the way everlasting; and there is set before me the certain prospect of a most happy and glorious immortality in heaven, if I be faithful even unto death. With such encouragements, and such motives, I have every reason not only to be “stedfast and immovable,” but even to go on my Christian way “rejoicing with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”

Concluded