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community, and would be held in like estimation by our brethren in Europe, had they equal opportunities of knowing its excellencies.

"Having to the best of my humble power answered your letter, I conclude with the prayer, that may God, in His infinite mercy, forgive us all our sins; and may He so enlighten the understanding of His children all over the earth, as to enable us to see the errors of our ways, to comprehend the heinousness of the crime of fratricide, i. e., of waging war against one another. May the Universal Father so purify our hearts, that we, living with each other in brotherly affection, mutually help in teaching, learning, and practising the dictates of true religion, and thereby glorify Him who exalted us above all living beings, by endowing us with a mind to reason and a heart to love.-I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, "DUKHINARUNJUN MOOKERJIA."

(Signed)

A BLESSING IN THE FEAST.

So far as I am capable of forming an opinion, it is my belief that the Lord's Supper has been a chief instrument of all the saving good that has been accomplished in my ministry. In this remark I include not merely the dispensation of the ordinance, but all the exercises connected with itthe discourses delivered in anticipation, the engagements at the time of celebration, and the services that have followed in reference to it. I have no doubt that, thus considered, it has been the means of more conversions to God, and of greater edification to believers, than any other labours in which I have been engaged. It becomes, then, an important inquiry, Why and how has it been so? And I proceed to notice some reasons which have been satisfactory to my own mind.

1. The supper greatly honours Jesus Christ, and, therefore, it is honoured by the Spirit. It celebrates the Saviour's death. The death of the cross was counted His highest disgrace and most complete overthrow. This ordinance proclaims that very death as His glory and triumph. The communicant says, as Jesus Christ is "evidently set forth crucified" before him, in its impressive symbols, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is most pleasing to the Holy Ghost. His office is to glorify Christ, and, therefore, we are not to wonder if He pours out His richest blessings on that ordinance which elevates the cross and glories in it.

2. Another reason of the efficacy of the Lord's Supper is, that it calls the hearers of the word to decision. Its language is, Who is for Christ? or who is against Him? Suppose there were no such ordinance in the church, many would sit under the sound of the Gospel, and perhaps never feel the obligation of determining whether or not they had ever embraced it. But this sacred observance directly inquires of the hearers of the word, whether they have received Christ. A spirit of self-inquiry is thus excited. Selfexamination ensues. This may issue in the discovery of the soul's still

remaining in sin, or in the perception of its entertaining a good hope through grace. In either case good is done. To see our danger is one step to deliverance from it; and to know we are delivered stirs us up to gratitude, and love, and zeal. Very many have thus been profitably exercised, and brought to decision for Christ, who, had they not been constrained to consider their ways by the appeal of the Lord's Supper, might have remained in indifference and sin.

3. Then, when after such exercises they come and publicly profess Christ, this is a service very acceptable to Him. He has said, "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven." There are many reasons why such importance should be attached to this confession. It is honourable to Christ. Sinners then say in penitence and in faith, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." At the same time, it is highly profitable to him by whom the profession is made. It commits him to the cause. He has taken a stand, and feels he is bound to act consistently. Nor is the advantage less, perhaps, to those who witness it. They are instructed, and admonished, and encouraged, and entreated by it. We are powerfully influenced by example; and, while we see others glorying in Christ, we may be led to do the same. It is therefore not unreasonable to find the confession of Christ so highly approved and blessed by Him.

4. At the same time, the exercises to which those who are about publicly to profess Christ are called, in the prospect of doing so, are calculated to have a mighty influence upon their minds. The command is—“Let a man examine himself; and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." This duty is required of all participants, at all times when they engage in the ordinance. If we approach it, in ordinary circumstances, without selfexamination, we cannot expect to profit by it. Not only so: we are warned that we may eat to our condemnation. Even the most godly may bring sin upon their souls, and provoke the righteous judgments of God. They are therefore put on their guard. They feel the necessity of dealing faithfully with themselves. Their love has been cold toward God, and they are humbled and awakened. They have been acting unkindly toward men, and they are brought to remember the words of the Lord Jesus,— "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." By means of such exercises, the Divine life has been greatly quickened in many or all the people of God.

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And to all that has been said, there may most properly be added the mighty influence of the communion services. The death of Jesus is the theme. The shedding of His blood is the great fact that absorbs attention. Nothing moves the soul as this does. It stirs it to the lowest depths. Repentance is kindled by it. Faith is strengthened. Love is inflamed.

Hope is excited. Zeal is promoted. Self-denial is encouraged. Benevolence is advanced. All the graces are stirred up to the liveliest exercises. And so it has been not unusual for the people of God to rise up from the communion-table as strong men refreshed with wine, and to go on their way rejoicing.

In accordance with these views, I am bound to say that the recurrence of the Lord's Supper has been to me and my flock a season of refreshing from the Lord's presence. We have then enjoyed a foretaste of heaven greater than at any other time. I look back upon it with the greatest satisfaction, and I cannot help looking forward to its repetition but with delight. I know its history has been, to a large extent, the history of conversions among us. It has indeed been proved to be an ordinance worthy of the wisdom and grace of its blessed Author.

Let me recommend to all my brethren to give a large share of their attention to this ordinance. It ought to be observed with such frequency as would keep it always within sight. Especially let the attention of the young be kept directed to it. This may well be done during many months, or even a year. There should be no haste in urging them to it. But their thoughts should be turned towards the supper, till they are constrained to long for the observing of this gracious memorial of the Saviour's love.*

THE HOME-MISSIONARY VOCATION OF METHODISM:

ITS PRIMARY AND ITS PRESENT ASPECTS.

In the ways of Providence, how frequently have remarkable individuals been raised up for the preservation of the truth, and the service of the church! Far back in the history of the world the light is all but extinct, when Abram is raised up, that with him and his seed the Divine oracles may be deposited. Most perilous are the circumstances of the church of the patriarchs, when Joseph is raised up, and sent into Egypt "to save life by a great deliverance." At length "another King" arises, who "knew not Joseph;" and God's people are in danger of extermination: but Moses is raised up. The church of a later age is idolatrous, the temple a desolation, the book of the law of the Lord buried out of sight: and now Josiah is raised up. Again, the chosen people, with their Priests and King, are worshipping in the high places of Baal: Elijah is raised up, who singly asserts the claims of the Most High; and on Carmel fire from heaven witnesses to God's supremacy. Modern instances are numerous. The church was apostate, "fallen by iniquity," when Luther was raised up; and again, when Wesley was raised up. True, that the nation, regarded in another view, was at this latter time rising to unprecedented glory. Marlborough, in war,-Newton, in science,-Locke, in the subtilties of philosophy and metaphysics,-Halley and Flamsteed, in mathematics,—

* Correspondent of the (Belfast) Monthly Messenger.

with a galaxy of poets,-had exalted their country to an Augustan grandeur. But all the while Christianity languished and decayed. Scepticism, licentiousness, brutality, Sabbath-breaking, were all but universally prevalent. To the flood of ungodliness which overswept the country, neither the national Church nor any other communion raised any effectual barrier. As Mr. Jay tersely put it, "The Church of England was asleep in the dark, the Dissenters were asleep in the light."

Methodism was, most emphatically, a Home-Missionary aggression,-an assault on the desperate wickedness of the country. We look to the conversion of the Wesleys as the great event on which it turned. So, an earlier revival, which we designate the Reformation in Germany, turned on the conversion of Luther, by which he was schooled and Divinely instructed for his great work. It is stated, that Charles Wesley, when converted, If you had a shrunk from publishing what God had done for his soul. thousand tongues," said Peter Böhler, “you should publish it with them all.” Tradition has it, that the first hymn in our Collection was written in allusion to this urgent counsel. It is instinct with the genuine Missionary spirit :

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There is reason to believe it was in the order of a wonder-working Providence, that Mr. Wesley resolutely declined the living at Epworth, though it was urged upon him with all the weight and influence of a father's last request, and though this seemed the only way of providing for the family, and keeping it together. Southey thinks the reasons for declining it weak It does sound strange, and insufficient. Others have thought so too. certainly, to hear such a man contend that the cure of a parish of two thousand souls was altogether beyond his capabilities; yea, that he durst not take the care of a hundred. But an invisible Hand was, at this early date, shaping the course of one who should go through the length and Had that young breadth of the land as "England's greatest apostle.” * Clergyman settled down as a country parish Priest, we might never have heard of his open-air preaching to ten thousand people at Kennington Common, Bristol, Gwennap, or Wednesbury; and the work of home

Dr. Guthrie's "Gospel in Ezekiel."

evangelization, which has come to bear his name, might never have existed. Let us say at once, that, from the very day when Mr. Wesley went abroad everywhere preaching the word, Methodism became, without design, (save that of God's marvellous providence,) a Home-Missionary system. Its entire apparatus, and its ceaseless working, developed this leading character. The single, primary purpose was, to spread scriptural holiness throughout the land; to go, not only to those who needed the Gospel, but to those who needed it most. Mr. Wesley's life-long labour was an example of simplicity and changelessness of object. Churches being closed against him, and against the truth, he went forth as one of the most renowned HomeMissionaries the world ever knew. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor," was his first open-air text. The sermon was preached in 1739, on a sloping ground near the city of Bristol, to about three thousand people. The next openair text was, "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money," &c. Here was evidence of a real Home-Missionary anointing; and henceforth, among the colliers at Kingswood, Wednesbury, Newcastle, who were but a single remove from savagism,—in the highways and hedges, in the streets and lanes of the city, on mountains and hills, in valleys and plains, in cold and heat, rain and snow,-to the most violent, dissolute, abandoned, both in town and country, he preached the Gospel of salvation, never counting his life dear unto him.

Methodist theology is Home-Missionary.-To the whole race that creed glowingly expands, turning with most merciful aspect to the chief of sinners. The hymns we sing may be cited as a spirit-stirring exponent of our ancient, apostolic faith.

"Come, all the world-come, sinner, thou!"

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The ministry of Methodism is Home-Missionary.-Its early Preachers acquired a sort of ubiquity. Quickly they were found in cities, towns, villages, hamlets, not only on Sunday, but on week-days, and all the year round. In chapels and houses, in streets and market-places, hills and

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