The institution of the Lord’s Supper must be regarded, by every spiritual man, as a peculiarly touching proof of the Lord’s gracious care and considerate love for His Church. From the time of its appointment until the present hour, it has been a steady, though silent, witness to a truth which the enemy has sought to corrupt and set aside: that redemption is an accomplished fact to be enjoyed by the weakest believer in Jesus. Centuries have rolled away since the Lord Jesus appointed “the bread and the cup.” Notwithstanding all the heresy, all the schism, all the controversy and strife, this most expressive institution has been observed by the saints of God in every age.

True, the enemy has succeeded, throughout a vast section of the professing Church, in wrapping it up in a shroud of dark superstition. Yet it still speaks to every spiritual mind, the same deep and precious truth, it shows the Lord’s death till He come. The body has been broken, the blood has been shed once, no more to be repeated; and the breaking of bread is but the memorial of this emancipating truth.

With what profound interest and thankfulness should the believer contemplate “the bread and the cup.” There is the setting forth of truths most precious and glorious: grace reigning; redemption finished; sin put away; everlasting righteousness brought in; the sting of death gone; eternal glory secured; “grace and glory” revealed as the free gift of God; and the unity of the “one body.” What a feast! It carries the soul back and shows us the Master Himself, in the same night in which He was betrayed, sitting at the supper table, and there instituting a feast which from that memorable night, until the dawn of the morning, should lead every believing heart, at once, backward to the cross, and forward to the glory.