Preface For more than a century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermons have been consistently recognized, and their usefulness and impact have continued to the present day, even in the outdated English of the author's own day. Why then should expositions already so successful and of such stature and proven usefulness require adaptation, revision, rewrite or even editing? The answer is obvious. To increase its usefulness to today's reader, the language in which it was originally written needs updating. Though his sermons have served other generations well, just as they came from the pen of the author in the nineteenth century, they still could be lost to present and future generations, simply because, to them, the language is neither readily nor fully understandable. My goal, however, has not been to reduce the original writing to the vernacular of our day. It is designed primarily for you who desire to read and study comfortably and at ease in the language of our time. Only obviously archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not totally familiar in our day have been revised. However, neither Spurgeon's meaning nor intent have been tampered with. Tony Capoccia All Scripture references are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. COMMUNION MEDITATION BY C. H. SPURGEON 1834-1892 PREFATORY NOTE For many years, it was Mr. Spurgeon's constant custom to observe the ordinance of the Lord's supper every Sunday, unless illness prevented it. He believed this was in accordance with apostolic precedent; and it was his often repeated testimony that the more frequently he obeyed his Lord's command, "Do this in remembrance of me," the more precious did his Savior become to him, while the memorial celebration itself proved increasingly helpful and instructive as the years rolled by. Several of the discourses here published were delivered to thousands of communicants in the church he pastored at, while others were addressed to the little companies of Christians, who gathered around the communion table in Mr. Spurgeon's living room at his home. The messages cover a wide range of subjects; but all of them speak more or less fully of the great atoning sacrifice of which the broken bread and the filled cup are the simple yet significant symbols. #1 - MYSTERIOUS VISITS AN ADDRESS TO A LITTLE COMPANY AT THE COMMUNION TABLE AT HOME "You probe my heart and examine me at night . . . " [PSA 17:3] It is a subject of wonder that the glorious God should visit sinful man. "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" [PSA 8:4] A divine visit is a joy to be treasured whenever we are favored with it. David speaks of it with great seriousness. The Psalmist was not content just to speak of it; but he wrote it down in plain terms, that it might be known throughout all generations: "You probe my heart and examine me at night . . . " Beloved, if God has ever visited you, you also will marvel at it, will carry it in your memory, will speak of it to your friends, and will record it in your diary as one of the notable events of your life. Above all, you will speak of it to God Himself, and say with adoring gratitude, "You probed my heart and examined me at night." It should be a solemn part of worship to remember and make known the condescension of the Lord, and say, both in lowly prayer and in joyful song to God, "You probed my heart." To you, beloved friends, who gather with me around this communion table, I will speak of my own experience, not doubting that it is also yours. If our God has ever visited any of us, personally, by His Spirit, two details have accompanied the visit--it has been clearly searching, and it has been sweetly reassuring. When the Lord first draws near to the heart, the trembling soul perceives clearly the searching character of His visit. Remember how Job answered the Lord: "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" [JOB 42:5-6]. We can read about God, and hear of God, and be moved a little; but when we feel His presence, it is another matter. I thought my house was good enough for kings; but when the King of kings came to it, I saw that it was a shack quite unfit for His dwelling. I would have never known sin to be so "exceeding sinful" if I had not known God to be so perfectly holy. I would have never understood the depravity of my own nature if I had not known the holiness of God's nature. When we see Jesus, we fall at His feet as if dead; till then, we are alive with a conceited life. If letters traced by a mysterious hand on the wall caused the knees of Belshazzar to knock together and his legs to give way, what dread will overcome our spirits when we see the Lord Himself! In the presence of so much light our spots and wrinkles are revealed, and we are utterly ashamed. We are like Daniel, who said, "I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless." [DAN 10:8]. It is when the Lord visits us that we see our nothingness, and ask, "Lord, what is man?" I do remember well when God first visited me; and assuredly it was the night of nature, of ignorance, of sin. His visit had the same effect upon me that it had upon Saul of Tarsus when the Lord spoke to him out of heaven. He brought me down from the lofty thoughts about myself, and caused me to fall to the ground; by the brightness of the light of His Spirit He made me grope in conscious blindness; and in the brokenness of my heart I cried, "What shall I do, Lord?" I felt that I had been rebelling against the Lord, kicking against the goad, and doing as much evil as I could; and my soul was filled with anguish at the discovery. The glance of the eye of Jesus was deeply searching, for it revealed my sin, and caused me to go out and weep bitterly. Just like when the Lord visited Adam, and called him to stand naked before Him, so I was stripped of all my righteousness before the face of the Most High. Yet the visit did not end there; for as the Lord God clothed our first parents in coats of skins, so He also covered me with the righteousness of a great sacrifice, and He gave me songs in the night. It was night, but the visit was no dream: in fact, I there and then ceased to dream, and began to deal with the reality of things. I think you will remember that, when the Lord first visited you in the night, it was the same with you as it was with Peter when Jesus came to him. He had been toiling with his net all the night, and nothing had come of it; but when the Lord Jesus came into his boat, and asked to him launch out into the deep, and to let down his net, he caught such a great multitude of fishes that the boat began to sink. See! the boat goes down, down, till the water threatens to engulf it, and Peter, and the fish, and all. Then Peter fell down at Jesus' knees, and cried, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" The presence of Jesus was too much for him: his sense of unworthiness made him sink like his boat, and shrink away from the Divine Lord. I remember that sensation well; for I was half inclined to cry with the demoniac of the Gadarenes, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" That first discovery of His wounded love was overpowering; its very hopefulness increased my anguish; for then I saw that I had slain the Lord who had come to save me. I saw that it was my hand which made the hammer fall, and drove the nails that fastened the Redeemer's hands and feet to the cross. "My conscience felt and owned the guilt, And plunged me in despair; I saw my sins His blood had spilt, And helped to nail Him there." This is the sight which breeds repentance: "They will look on [Him], the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him." When the Holy Spirit visits us, He humbles us, removes all hardness from our hearts, and leads us to the Savior's feet. When the Lord first visited us in the night it was very much with us as with John, when the Lord visited Him in the isle that is called Patmos. He tells us, "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead." Yes, even when we begin to see that He has put away our sin, and removed our guilt by His death, we feel as if we could never look up again, because we have been so cruel to our best Friend. It is no wonder if we then say, "It is true that He has forgiven me; but I never can forgive myself. He makes me live, and I live in Him; but at the thought of His goodness I fall at His feet as dead. Boasting is dead, self is dead, and all desire for anything beyond my Lord is dead also." The song says it well: "That dear hour, that brought me to His foot, And cut up all my follies by the root." The process of destroying foolish notions is better performed at Jesus' feet than anywhere else. Oh, that the Lord would come again to us as at the first, and like a consuming fire discover and burn up the trash which now litters our life! The word "probe" brings to us who travel the remembrance of the government officer who searches our baggage; thus the Lord does seek out our secret things. But it also reminds us of the probes of the physician, who not only finds out our disorders, but also removes them. Thus the Lord Jesus probed us when we were first saved. Since those early days, I hope that you and I have had many visits from our Lord. Those first visits were, as I said, sharply searching; but the later ones have been sweetly comforting. Some of us have had them, especially in the night, when we have been compelled to count the sleepless hours. "Heaven's gate opens when this world's is shut." The night is still; everybody is asleep; work is done; care is forgotten, and then the Lord Himself draws near. Possibly there may be pain to be endured, the head may be aching, and the heart may be throbbing; but if Jesus comes to visit us, our bed of illness becomes a throne of glory. Though it is true "He grants sleep to those He loves," yet at such times He gives them something better than sleep, namely; His own presence, and the fullness of joy which comes with it. By night on our bed we have seen the unseen. I have tried sometimes not to sleep under an excess of joy, when the company of Christ has been sweetly mine. "You probe my heart and examine me at night." Believe me, there are such things as personal probing visits from Jesus to His people. He has not completely left us. Though He is not seen with the eyes of the body by a bush or by a brook, nor on the mountain, nor by the sea, yet He does come and go, observed only by the spirit, felt only by the heart. Still He stands behind the walls of our life, He Himself looks through the windows of our heart. "Jesus, these eyes have never seen That radiant form of Yours! The veil of understanding hangs dark between Your blessed face and mine! "I do not see You, I do not hear You, Yet You are often with me, And on earth there is never so dear a spot As where I meet with You. "Like some bright dream that comes unsought, When sleep rolls over me, Your image always fills my thought, And charms my ravished soul. "Yet though I have not seen, and still Must rest in faith alone; I love You, dearest Lord! and will, Unseen, but not unknown." Do you ask me to describe these manifestations of the Lord? It is hard to tell you in words: you must know them for yourselves. If you had never tasted sweetness, no man living could give you an idea of honey. Yet if the honey is there, you can "taste and see." To a man born blind, sight is a thing beyond imagination; and to one who has never known the Lord, His probing visits are quite as much beyond conception. For our Lord to probe us is something beyond the assurance of our salvation, though that is very delightful, and none of us should rest satisfied unless we possess it. To know that Jesus loves me, is one thing; but to be visited by Him in love, is more. Nor is it simply a close contemplation of Christ; for we can picture Him as exceedingly fair and majestic, and yet not have Him consciously near us. Delightful and enlightening as it is to behold the likeness of Christ by meditation, yet the enjoyment of His actual presence is something more. I may carry my friend's picture with me, and yet am not able to say, "You have visited me and examined me." It is the actual, though spiritual, coming of Christ which we desire so much. The Roman Catholic Church falsely says a lot about the "real presence" thereby meaning, the physical presence of the Lord Jesus. The priest who celebrates mass tells us that he believes in the "literal presence," but we reply, "No, you believe you know Christ in His flesh, but the only real presence of Christ in the flesh is in heaven; but we firmly believe in the real presence of Christ which is spiritual, and yet very real." By spiritual we do not mean unreal; in fact, the spiritual becomes real to spiritual men. I believe in the true and real presence of Jesus with His people: such presence has been real to my spirit. Lord Jesus, You Yourself have probed my heart and examined me at night. As surely as the Lord Jesus came in His flesh to Bethlehem and Calvary, so surely does He really come by His Spirit to His people in the hours of their communion with Him. We are as conscious of that presence just as much as we are conscious our own existence. When the Lord visits us in the night, what is the effect on us? When heart meets heart in fellowship of love, communion first brings peace, then rest, and then joy of soul. I am not speaking of emotional excitement rising into a fanatical rapture; but I speak of a sober fact, when I say that the Lord's great heart touches ours, and our heart rises into understanding with Him. First, we experience peace. All war is over, and a blessed peace is proclaimed; the peace of God settles our heart and mind through Christ Jesus. "Peace! perfect peace! in this dark world of sin? The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. "Peace! perfect peace! with sorrows surging around? On Jesus' chest nothing but calm is found." At such a time there is a delightful sense of rest; we have no ambitions, no desires. A divine serenity and security surrounds us. We have no thought of foes, or fears, or afflictions, or doubts. There is a joyous laying aside of our own will. We are nothing, Christ is everything, and His will is the pulse of our soul. We are perfectly content either to be sick or well, to be rich or poor, to be slandered or honored, only that we may live in the love of Christ. Jesus fills our whole being. At such a time a flood of great joy will fill our minds. We will half wish that the morning may never appear again, for fear its light should banish the superior light of Christ's presence. We will wish that we could glide away with our Beloved to the place where He walks among the lilies. We long to hear the voices of the white-robed armies, that we may follow their glorious Leader wherever He goes. I am persuaded that there is no great actual distance between earth and heaven: the distance lies in our dull minds. When the Beloved visits us in the night, He makes our bedrooms to be the foyer of His palace. Earth rises to heaven when heaven comes down to earth. Now, beloved friends, you may be saying to yourselves, "We have not enjoyed such probing visits as these." You may feel free to do so. If the Father loves you even as He loves His Son, then you are on visiting terms with Him. If, then, He has not called upon you, you will be wise to call on Him. Breathe a sigh to Him, and say,-- "When will You come to me, Lord? Oh come, my Lord most dear! Come near, come nearer, nearer still, I'm blest when You are near. "When will You come to me, Lord? I long for the sight; Ten thousand suns when You are hid, Are shades instead of light. "When will You come to me, Lord? Until You do appear, I count each moment for a day, Each minute for a year." "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God!" If you long for Him, He much more longs for you. Never was there a sinner that was half so eager for Christ as Christ is eager for the sinner; nor a saint one-tenth so anxious to behold his Lord as his Lord is to behold him. If you are running to Christ, He is already near you. If you cry out for His presence, that cry is the evidence that He is with you. He is with you now: therefore calmly be glad. Go forth, beloved, and talk with Jesus on the beach, for He often resorted to the seashore. Commune with Him amid the olive groves so dear to Him in many a night of wrestling prayer. I often dream that I am looking out upon the Lake of Gennesaret, or walking at the foot of the Mount of Olives, or peering into the mysterious gloom of the Garden of Gethsemane. The narrow streets which Jesus traversed, the villages that He inhabited. Have your hearts right with Him, and He will visit and examine you often, until it happens everyday and you walk daily with God, as Enoch did, and so turn the mundane weekdays into Worshipful Sundays, meals into the Lord's Table, homes into temples, and earth into heaven. So be it with us! Amen. Updated by Tony Capoccia of: Bible Bulletin Board (BBB) internet: www.biblebb.com BBS: (609)-324-9187 Box 314 Columbus, New Jersey 08022 BBB established July 1986