Thoughts on the Lord's Supper: Designed for the Help of Christians in the Day of Difficulty
Overview
For all the division, schism, controversy it has caused, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper has been observed by the entire Church since its beginning—consequently one of its most unifying features. Still, the historicity of the sacrament does not diminish the questions and concerns which surround it. Mackintosh addresses the superstition and fears that have been historically associated with the sacrament and argues that the bread and the cup have become the objects of misdirected worship. Thoughts on the Lord’s Supper redirects our attention from the bread and cup to the host of the meal, whose instructions to eat and drink in remembrance of him are made clearer by Mackintosh’s thoughtful reflections.
Top Highlights
“Praise, and not prayer, is the suited utterance of those who sit at the table of the Lord.” (Page 9)
“Many imagine that they are putting honor upon the Lord’s table when they approach it with their souls bowed down into the very dust, under a sense of the intolerable burden of their sins. This thought can only flow from the legalism of the human heart, that ever-fruitful source of thoughts at once dishonoring to God, dishonoring to the Cross of Christ, grievous to the Holy Ghost, and completely subversive of our own peace. We may feel quite satisfied that the honor and purity of the Lord’s table are more fully maintained when the blood of Christ is made the only title than if human sorrow and human penitence were superadded.” (Pages 11–12)
“The Supper, then, is purely and distinctly a feast of thanksgiving—thanksgiving for grace already received. The Lord Himself, at the institution of it, marks its character by giving thanks.” (Pages 8–9)
“But it is not unfrequently said, and that, too, by those who profess spirituality and intelligence, ‘I derive no spiritual benefit by going to the assembly: I am as happy in my own room, reading my Bible.’ I would affectionately ask such, Are we to have no higher object before us in our actings than our own happiness?” (Pages 36–37)
“Surely not—we need to be right in our souls, and the first step toward this is peace with God—that sweet assurance of our eternal salvation which most certainly is not the result of human sighs or penitential tears, but the simple result of the finished work of the Lamb of God, attested by the Spirit of God.” (Page 11)
Man’s complete ruin in sin, and God’s perfect remedy in Christ, are fully, clearly, and often strikingly presented [in Mackintosh’s writings].
—Andrew Miller, a leader of the Plymouth Brethren movement
- Title: Thoughts on the Lord's Supper: Designed for the Help of Christians in the Day of Difficulty
- Author: C. H. Mackintosh
- Series: C. H. Mackintosh Collection
- Publisher: Loizeaux Brothers Publications
- Pages: 46