p. 39 | Remembering Christ by Cuyler

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Jul 4, 1865

Remembering Christ.

By Cuyler

If any skeptic or any stranger to the Gospel were to look in upon a company of Christians at the Lord's Table, and were to inquire, "What is the use of this service, and what does it mean? I never could see anything in it,"—we might answer him by asking him, "Did you ever see anything in the miniature of a departed wife? Did you never find any beauty in the golden lock clipped from the temples of your dead boy? Are there no teachings, no reproofs, no blessed suggestions in the very sight of your mother's Bible? If you cannot understand and feel such influences, you cannot appreciate one of the highest and holiest uses of the sacrament of the Holy Supper."

For among other benefits linked with this simple ordinance, one of the very chiefest is that it is a memorial of the suffering Saviour. It is a keepsake of the best of friends. Not only do true believers come to the sacramental table in order to remember Jesus, but because they remember Jesus. In many characters and offices, beautiful and glorious, does the Redeemer there appear. In two characters does he shine pre-eminent and incomparable.

1. First, we remember Jesus at his table as a sufferer. All suffering touches us; but what sorrow is like unto Christ's sorrow? When Stephen was slain, he was slain for his religion; when Paul bled, he bled for his best Benefactor; when Hampden fell, he fell for his nation's liberty; but when Jesus of Nazareth died, it was an incarnate Son of God dying to bring salvation to the most malignant of his foes. A world's enmities he bore. The chastisement of a world's iniquities was laid upon him. By his stripes is the worst of lepers healed. His blood cleanses even a persecuting Saul of Tarsus from his guilt. But if this general statement does not touch my heart, I can think of the atoning Lamb as my own personal deliver, bearing on his divine heart a distinct and individual thought of me in the hour of his bitter agonies. For the sins of the whole world he died; but this does not so move me as the recollection that for me, poor, guilty, wayward, ungodly me, he gave himself to the tormentors. What the broken law of God demanded of me, my Saviour bore. What I deserved to suffer, Jesus suffered for me. That wounded side was cleft, and those mangled hands were pierced, that I might go with clean hands and a forgiven heart into Heaven. Putting forth his grateful hand to the sacred emblems, the believer exclaims:

"This body broken for my sake, My bread from Heaven shall be; This testamental cup I take, And thus remember thee; Remember thee and all thy pains, And all thy love to me; Yea, while I breathe, or pulse remains, Will I remember thee."

2. For Jesus the sufferer, is at the same time Jesus the lover of my soul. Not that I at the first loved him, but he, when I was all unlovely, loved me. This is the sublimest teaching of the sacramental hour, this is its holiest, tenderest inspiration. On the emblems which Jesus offers me at his table—on the folds of the banner which he lifts above me—on every morsel of the bread, and on every drop in the flagons, his sacred hand writes, "Herein is Love." Free, unsought love was Christ's, for he gave himself for us. Sovereign love was Christ's, for it passed by fallen angels weltering in woe, and lighted upon fallen me, weltering in my guilt. Condescending love was Christ's, for although he were quite as rich without me, yet he became poor that I might be everlastingly rich with a celestial inheritance. Mighty was this love of Christ's, for it subdues the most obstinate opposition, and transforms the most malignant depravity of the sinner's soul. It was a love stronger than death. It saw me ruined by the fall; yet loved me notwithstanding all! Bless the Saviour, O my soul! let all that is within me bless his holy name! Draw nigh to him now. Reach hither thy finger and behold his hands. Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into his side; and cry out, "My Lord and my God!" Thou art my Shepherd; thou art my Husband; thou art my King. Woe be upon all spiritual love but the love of Christ! Shame be upon all glory but glorying in the cross of Christ; death be upon all life but upon the life for Christ! "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so doth my soul rejoice over thee!"

To remember Jesus thus at his table, and to rejoice in him, is comparatively easy for the believer, when the very air is loaded with the fragrance of his presence. With everything to remind us of Christ, it is not so hard to keep the heart upon him. But when we get out again into the pestilential atmosphere of an unfriendly world—when we come among the jinglings of the money-changers, and the wranglings of the seekers after gain, and the clamorings of the seekers after pleasure—when there is nothing around us that looks or acts or speaks like Christ, can we remember him then? Can we order our lives in remembrance of his law of purity? Do we carry Christ's keepsake with us into daily life? Do we labor for dying souls in remembrance of the way in which he toiled for poor humanity? Do we try to be patient under trial, and forgiving under provocation, remembering how he returned good for evil? Do we remember him when we divide up our gains, seeing to it that Christ's cause receives its full share of our gold and silver? Do we remember him in the person of his poor, his enslaved, or his injured ones? These are the practical questions for every Christian to answer, both when he approaches and after he leaves that sacred spot where the voice of his crucified Master says, "Do this in remembrance of me."-Cuyler.