THE LORD'S SUPPER by Albert Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 23, 1876

THE LORD'S SUPPER.

By Albert Stone

In the Scriptures the sacred institution of the communion, or Lord's supper, is well attested and sacredly enjoined. Its object is to memorialize the death of Christ.

It is a church ordinance spanning the gospel dispensation, and designed for the encouragement and edification of the people of God. It should be intelligently and piously observed by Christians. Its prerequisites should be carefully ascertained, and none should approach the table of the Lord but by the path pointed out in the Scriptures.

The ordinance is simple in its original organization, yet nothing has been more darkened by superstition, or corrupted by the fancies of men. It passed through a terrible ordeal in the Dark Ages, and has been made the instrument of sin and blasphemy against God. Our limits will not permit us to give its history in this place.

Suffice it to say, it has been paganized and papalized, and the efforts to reform its abuses have been successful only in part. Christians and churches of the nineteenth century are divided, they do not see alike in this matter. True, the ordinance itself is relieved from most of its abuses, but its prerequisites are not rightly understood by all.

The apostolic platform has not been reached by all since the rise of the man of sin. Demoralization will inevitably continue till that platform is reached, and all stand upon it. To attain such a position the New Testament is the only safe guide. If we go back to primitive times, we may behold a model church, called into being under the immediate supervision of our Lord and his inspired apostles.

To ascertain the characteristics of the apostolic church would be to ascertain the prerequisites to a participation of the Lord's supper. Evidently the apostolic church consisted of a body of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, and governed by his laws.

But the uniform faith and external fellowship that characterized the churches in the days of the apostles, and gave validity and blessing to the ordinance in question, is wanting in the churches of our time. Primitive unity needs to be restored. Then the external fellowship will follow as a matter of course. The exhortation of the apostle to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,” if heeded as it should be, would accomplish this desirable end.

St. Paul, in the 4th chapter of Ephesians, has laid open the subject of church unity, and points directly to the only means by which it can be secured. It is there shown that it is the office of the Spirit, through its special gifts, to unify the church, not in the apostolic age only, but to the end of the world. Verse 8 states the fact that gifts have been bestowed on the church. Verse 11 enumerates and names them as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Verse 12 tells what they are given for: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Verse 13 tells how long they were to continue: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Some of these gifts are appreciated and acknowledged by the Christian world, others are denied and neglected. The spirit of prophecy is not allowed by the sentiment of Protestants to come this side of the apostles. By what authority are these gifts divided? They must all have ceased with the apostles, or they must all have been continued. See Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15, 18.

To whatever imputations a strict adherence to the teachings of Christ may subject us, it is better to suffer them than to sin. A deviation in deference to modern error, however conscientiously maintained, is neither charity nor Christian wisdom. ALBERT STONE.