The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1887, Page 14

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14

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Is There a Real Presence in the Holy
Supper?

Christ says there is, and we teach that his
body and blood are truly present under the
form of bread and wine, and are communicated
to those who participate in the Lord’s Supper.

It is just here that most of the doctrinal
differences arise as to this holy sacrament. The
feast that should have been the bond of union
among Christians has become through the evil
one an apple of discord.

Satan has always tried to cheat men out of
great blessings by darkening God’s word and
misrepresenting his promises. God plainly for-
bade our first parents to eat of a certain tree in
Eden. Satan wishing to raise doubts, whis-
pered, ‘‘ Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden?’’ God spake from
heaven clearly affirming: ‘‘This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.”’ Satan in
that great temptation boldly said: ‘‘Zf thou be
the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread.’’ And when Jesus, almost
in his dying hour, said to his disciples:
‘«Take, eat, this is my body, také, drink,
this is my blood,’’ does it not seem like
Satan’s old device to hear the suggestion:
‘Did Christ really mean what he said?”’
‘‘How could he; he only meant to say
‘this represents my body, this is a sym-
bol of my blood!’”’

Now, if these words were dark or equiv-
ocal; if they had been spoken in haste or
by a thoughtless, impulsive man, we might
have put some other meaning into them.
But they are the words, the solemn test-
amentary words of God himself. and are

~ so plain, so clear, so simple that they can-
not be plainer, clearer, or more simple.
A child can understand them, but no an-
gel dare change them, no creature has
any authority to expound them otherwise than
as they read.

What other language could Christ have used

We admit that Christ is not an ordinary door, | of virtue in a sinful world. Beware! You are

but the spiritual—but no less actual and real—
entrance into his kingdom.
Christ say that by the body and blood He only |
means a spiritual, figurative body and blood? |
It is against this very error that the words of |
Christ guard, for He says, ‘‘ Take, eat, this is |
my body which is broken for you,” ‘Take and |
drink, this is my blood which is shed for you.’? |
Christ’s real, substantial body was given for |
us, not a figure of it. His true life’s blood,
not spiritual blood, delivered us from sin.

St. Paul, to whom was granted a special
revelation upon this most vital point, is very
clear in enforcing the above truth. Writing to
the Corinthians he says: ‘‘The cup of blessing,
which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break,
is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”’
What he intended to teach is freed from all
doubt by his following words in another place:
‘Wherefore, whosoever shall eat of this bread

‘He is Risen.”’

and drink of this cup of the Lord unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the
Lord.”’ Then the body of the Lord is present,
for unworthiness in eating and disrespect to a

treading on dangerous ground. ‘If any man

But where does | shall add unto these things, God shall add unto

him the plagues that are written in this book.’’
The Workman.

The Hope of a Better Life.
By Dr. Martin Luther.

If there were no hope of the resurrection of
the dead nor of another and better world, after
this short and miserable life, wherefore then

doth God offer Himself that He will be our

God, that He will give us all that is necessary
and healthful for us, and in the end will de-
liver us out of all trouble both temporal and
spiritual? To what purpose is it that we hear
His Word and believe in Him? What are we
the better when we cry and sigh to Him in our
anguish and need, that we wait with patience
upon His comfort and salvation, upon His grace
and benefits which He shows in Christ?
Why do we praise and thank Him for the
same? Why are we daily in danger, and
suffer ourselves to be persecuted and slain
for the sake of Christ’s Word, which we
teach and hold for our greatest treasure,
and do acknowledge it before the wicked
world!

But forasmuch as the everlasting merci-
ful God, only through His Word and Sac-
raments, talketh and dealeth with us (all
other creatures excluded), not of temporal
things which pertain to this vanishing life,
all which in the beginning He hath pro-
vided richly for us, but where we shall
remain when we depart from hence, and
giveth unto us His Son for a Saviour, who
delivereth us from sin and death, and hath
purchased for us everlasting righteousness,
life, and salvation; that we believe in
Him, and at His commandment are bap-
tized, etc. Therefore it is most certain that
we do not die away like the beasts that have
no understanding; but so many of us that do

to express this mystery: Consider, if a per-
gon were to hand you a cup, without stating
explicitly that there was anything in it, say-
ing, ‘‘Take, drink, this is wine,’’ could we
understand the words to mean anything else
than that there is wine in the cup, that the
4 wine is offered to usin and at the same time
with the cup, and that we are to drink the

sleep in Christ, shall through Him be raised
again to life everlasting at the last day; but
the ungodly to everlasting shame and de-
struction.

little bread and wine would not incur such a
penalty as that spoken of in another place, for
St. Paul says, ‘‘He that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to
himself, not discerning the Lord's body.”

We cannot evade the fact, nor do we desire
to, that in, with and under the bread and wine

~~ +9 0 +

The Place for Luther’s Catechism.

same. Would it not be a piece of mockery if
the cup really contained no wine? Now can we,
dare we believe that the dying Redeemer only
wished to mock his disciples and His whole
Church, when handing bread He said, ‘‘ Take,
eat, this is my body,’ and extending the cup,
said, ‘‘Take, drink, this is my blood’’? Christ
gave and the disciples received His true body
and blood.
' There are some who try to escape the force
of this plain statement by saying that Christ
calls Himself the door, the vine, a rock, and
as we are to take these figuratively, so with the
words ‘‘this is my body, this is my blood,”

the body and blood of Christ is given to and
received by each communicant at the table of
the Lord.

And, let us ask, where, if any one is allowed
to change or twist or explain away these solemn
words, where will a halt be called? If one has
a right to explain Christ’s clear words ‘‘ this is
my body,”’ into this represents or symbolizes
my body, why has not another the same right
to so change the word of God where it posi-
tively asserts that Christ is the Son of God,
that he is the Saviour of the world, as to teach
that Christ only represents what a son of God
should be, or he symbolizes the saving power

“And this I say for myself. I also am a
doctor and a preacher, yea, as learned and ex-
perienced as all who have such presumption
and security. Yet I do asa child who is being
taught the catechism. Every morning and
whenever I have time I read and say, word
for word, the Ten Commandments, the Creed,
the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, etc., and I must
still read and study daily, and yet I cannot
master it as I wish, but must remain, and that
too gladly, a child and pupil of the catechism.”

—Inither.