We can never be sufficiently thankful for the tangible and sensible forms and ordinances of religion. Constituted as we are, they are essential both to our just appreciation of the spiritual, and to our rational enjoyment of the great salvation.

      But, at the same time, how very liable they are to be abused; to be perverted from their original design. How prone we are to trust in these mere signs and symbols. Like the miser hoarding up his gold, and confiding in it as the end of life, so many--alas! how very many--rely upon the mere rites and ceremonies of religion as the end and object of all that God has revealed to man.

      This was the common error of the ancient Israelites. It was manifest in the days of Moses. It was seen at the altar; at the laver; and even before the veil of testimony. But it became worse and worse; more and more prevalent among all classes of the people; until finally the services of the Sanctuary were transformed into a system of cold, lifeless, and spiritless formalism, and God expressed his abhorrence of their most solemn acts of pretended devotion. "To what purpose," said he, "is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them."

      Similar expostulations were often repeated by all the prophets. But nothing could save the Jews from the besetting sin of formalism. Even while listening to the heart-searching appeals of Him who spoke as never man spoke, they were much more attentive to the mint, and the anise, and the cummin, than they were to the weightier matters of the law, such as judgment, mercy, and fidelity. [234]

      Under the administration of Christ, and the ministration of the Holy Spirit, a great reformation in this respect might reasonably be anticipated. Christianity is a spiritual system. It has comparatively little to do with the flesh; but it abounds in whatever relates to the spirit. It may, indeed, under one aspect, be regarded as a sublime development of the oracle that "God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This was certainly a principal theme with all the epistolary writers. Paul never seems to forget it, nor to grew weary in warning the churches against the sin of formalism. "He is not a Jew," says he, for example, "who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." And again, he adds, "We are the circumcision who worship God in spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

      But all the solemn instructions, warnings, and admonitions of the apostles could not save even the primitive church from the sin of formalism. The Jew had been educated in this vice; so had the Gentile. And habits once formed become a second nature. They are commonly as enduring as life; they are as tenacious as the vital current. And hence, says God, by the mouth of Jeremiah, "When the Ethiopian can change his skin, and the leopard his spots, then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil."

      It is true, indeed, that the transforming power of the gospel is almost omnipotent. In myriads of myriads of cases it has changed the vulture to the dove, the lion to the lamb. And hence, for a time, the primitive converts to Christianity, seemed to enjoy the truths of the gospel in all their native plainness and simplicity. But, in a short time, the old leaven began to work. Both Jewish and Gentile formalism was revived; and the simple ordinances of Christianity were perverted from their original design, just as had been the institutions of Moses.

      This perversion of Christian ordinances was first manifested in the abuse of the Lord's Supper. The true spiritual import of Baptism and the Lord's Day seems to have been maintained in the primitive church for some time after the death of the apostles. But in less than a quarter of a century after the coronation of the Messiah, Paul said to the Corinthians, "When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For, in eating, every one taketh before another his own supper; and one is hungry and another is drunken!"

      It is, indeed, evidently implied here, that one of the objects for which the Corinthians professed to come together, was to eat the [235] Lord's Supper. But they had so far perverted the original design of the institution, that their manner of eating it, was not virtually to eat it at all. They had converted it into a sort of idolatrous festival. After the example of the heathen, at their appointed festivities, each one seems to have contributed to the common stock of provisions, whatever he could afford or whatever he thought necessary. But in eating, the rich, members of the congregation, eagerly and greedily seized upon that portion of the food and of the wine which they had themselves provided. They ate and drank to satiety; while others were left destitute, and put to shame on account of their poverty.

      This was formalism in one of its rudest and most barbarous manifestations. It was monstrous to the eye of enlightened reason, and shocking to every sanctified susceptibility of the human heart. But it was not more so than was the common practice of the nominally Christian churches during the dark ages. And even in the middle of the nineteenth century, the very same sensual spirit is often manifested in the more polite but less vain and empty ceremonies of many who profess to take the Bible as the rule of their faith and practice. How many still profess to celebrate the Lord's death, who never taste of any thing more than the mere symbols; who never eat the flesh nor drink the blood of the Son of God; and to whom it might be said with just as much propriety as it was ever said to the church of Corinth, "When ye come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper."

      I need not enter into particulars. I need not go to Rome, nor to Oxford, for illustrations. A general reference to the past, and a special appeal to the personal experience of every child of God, is enough to convince all such, that formalism is one of the besetting sins of our entire race; that it grows out of the preternatural state of the human heart; and that every man while in the flesh, is more or less liable to be overcome by its seductive influence.

      What, then, is the specific remedy for this evil of universal tendency? If, in the gospel, God "has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness," what provision has he made against the prevalence of formalism in the communion of the saints?

      The answer to this question is very clearly and specifically given in Paul's admonition to the Corinthian converts, "Let a man," says he, "examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup."

      The means then ordained by God to prevent the growth and prevalence of formalism in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, is the practice of SELF-EXAMINATION. "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." If this were properly attended to by all who profess to be the followers of Jesus Christ, [236] what an interesting occasion every Communion season would be. The Lord's Supper would then be to every communicant,

      But how few--alas! how very few--have ever learned the art and mystery of self-examination! To see ourselves just as God sees us; to explore the deepest, darkest, and vilest recesses of our own hearts, with an honest purpose, through Divine grace, to forsake every false and wicked way; to cut off every right hand and to pluck out every right eye that causes us to offend; and to remove every obstacle, however near and however dear it may be, that intervenes between us and our blessed Redeemer, so that we may at once with an humble boldness approach him in the institution designed to commemorate his own death, and partake of that flesh which is meat, indeed; and of that blood which is drink indeed,--this, it is to be feared, is an attainment but seldom made in the Christian profession. To succeed in this, means are indispensable. It is necessary

      1. That the examination shall be conducted honestly and faithfully in the light of God's word. In no other way can we comprehend how far we come short of the true standard of Christian excellence. If the carpenter must have his rule, and the surveyor his chain and compass; how much more necessary it is, that the Christian should have that word which "is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and which is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," if he would examine himself as he will be examined, when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, and every man will be judged according to the deeds done in his body, whether they be good or whether they be evil. Job thought that he was very righteous while conversing with his three friends. He attempted to justify himself from all their accusations. But when Jehovah spoke to him, he was silent. When the heart-searching words of the Almighty penetrated the depths of his soul, he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and in ashes.² Peter, too, was very; bold in his own defence even in the palace of the high-priest. But when he remembered the words of Jesus, "he went out and wept bitterly."³ Just so it would now be with myriads who carelessly approach the Lord's table, and eat and drink their own condemnation, not discerning the Lord's body, if they would only lay aside the false standards of their own creation, and honestly try themselves by those words by which they shall be judged at the last day. But it is still true, that many perish through lack of knowledge. [237]

      2. It is also essential that self-examination should be conducted with prayer--prayer that God himself would search our hearts; that he would help us to search them honestly, faithfully, and thoroughly; that he would purify them, and enable us to forsake and to avoid every false and wicked way. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting," was the prayer of the sweet psalmist of Israel. And it should also be the earnest supplication of every Christian before he presumes to approach the table of the Lord for the purpose of partaking of the memorials of his broken body and of his shed blood.

      3. Fasting, too, and even becoming apparel, is another very important aid in the work of self-examination. While the body is covered with jewels, it is very difficult to clothe the soul with humility. While our appetite is more than satisfied with the luxuries and pleasures of this life, it is almost impossible for the spirit to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Under such circumstances, we are greatly prone to imagine that we are rich and increased with goods, and that we have need of nothing: not knowing that at the same time we may be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. O there is a state of body as well as a state of mind, that fits the soul for the work of self-examination; that helps to prepare the heart for the communion of the saints, and that serves to make the Lord's Supper to every communicant, a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

      4. Another indispensable means of self-examination, in order to the profitable participation of the Lord's Supper, is the proper sanctification of the Lord's Day. The work of self-examination is, indeed, a matter of constant obligation. It should never be wholly omitted even for a single day. But while the mind is busily occupied, as it usually is during the last six days of the week, with the ordinary cares and secular avocations of life, it is very difficult to examine the heart, to try the reins, and to weigh the motives, with that extreme care and accuracy that the case requires. And hence, God has most wisely and benevolently connected the commemoration of our Saviour's death with the commemoration of his resurrection. He has so arranged the ordinances commemorative of these two events, that due attention to the one serves also to qualify and prepare us for the other. While with joy and wonder we behold the opening sepulchre, we are naturally led to the cross. We are reminded that our blessed Redeemer hung upon it; that he was wounded for our transgressions; and that he was bruised for our iniquities. We are instructed in the awful nature and malignity of sin, and the necessity of holiness. And thus we are led almost unconsciously to the work of self-examination, and [238] to that preparation of heart which makes the Lord's Supper a feast to the soul.

      But how can that young sister expect to find any enjoyment at the Lord's table, who has spent the morning of the Lord's Day in the vanities of the toilet! How can that young brother expect to see in Jesus the "one altogether lovely, and the chief among ten thousand," who has just laid aside the fashionable novel or the political newspaper to hasten to the Lord's table! If men and women will first desecrate the Lord's Day, no wonder if they also profane the Lord's Supper. If they find no pleasure in going with Mary to the tomb of Joseph, it is no marvel, that the cross should appear to them as a root out of dry ground. The disciple who will rob the Lord of his own hallowed time in the morning, is not to be trusted with the rich viands of his table in the evening.

      I might refer to many other particulars under this category. But my sheet is full. And I will, therefore, close this article, with the earnest hope that our brethren will everywhere labor in word and in deed to restore to their primitive purity and simplicity the ordinances of the Lord's Day and of the Lord's Supper.

	As ever, yours in Christian love,
R. M.

Source:

Robert Milligan. "The Lord's Supper.--No. II. Preparation of the Heart Necessary." The Millennial Harbinger 30 (November 1859): 679-684.

[MHA2 234-239]