The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 34

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34

The Lutheran Pioneer.

keeps us in the true faith until our pilgrimage is
ended and the heavenly home is reached.

What a great, unspeakable blessing is this com-
ing of the Holy Ghost for our salvation in the Word
and Sacraments of God! Let these means of grace,
by which the Holy Ghost comes and works in our
hearts, not be neglected. All that realize in their
own hearts the blessedness of the coming of the
Holy Ghost will be earnest in helping in all mission
work, by which the means of grace are brought to
those who still dwell in the darkness and misery
of sin. They will be more and more active in
spreading over a sin-cursed, ruined world the bles-
sings of the coming of the Holy Ghost.

—_____ 0-+---——_ -

Of the Lord’s Supper.

In the Lord’s Supper Christ gives us His body
and blood under the bread and wine to eat and to
drink; for Christ said to His disciples: “Take,
eat; take, drink ye all of it!” Every communi-
cant at the Lord’s Table shall eat and drink. It
is therefore wrong when the Roman Catholic
Church deprives the laity of the cup and reserves
it for the priests only. “Drink ye all of it,” are
the plain words of the Savior, and the Evangelist
Mark expressly tells us that “they [the disciples]
all drank of it,” Mark 14, 23. To deprive the

laity of the cup is therefore contrary to the plain —

and explicit command of Christ.

The body and blood of Christ is given us to
eat and to drink. It is not given for the purpose
of adoration. The Lord nowhere has told us to
adore His body and blood. When, therefore, the
Roman Catholics adore the host, such adoration is
an act of idolatry; for that which they adore is a
piece of bread and no more. Christ’s body and
blood is only present during the eating and drink-
ing of the bread and wine, and neither before
nor after.

But what is still worse than this depriving
the laity of the cup and the adoration of the host
is the Romish teaching that the priest in the
Sacrament offers the body and blood of Christ as
‘an unbloody sacrifice for the sins of the living and
dead. ‘This is the so-called Mass. But Christ says
nothing of such a sacrifice; “for by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Now where remission of sins is, there is no more
offering for sin,” Hebr. 10, 14. 18. To speak of
offering a sacrifice for sin, since Christ’s perfect

sacrifice, is a shameful denial of Christ’s merits,
and heaps contempt upon Christ’s sacrifice for
our sins.

_ When Christ instituted the Holy Supper, He
said, “This do in remembrance of me.” We are
to do what He did. We are to take bread and
wine, consecrate, or set it aside, distribute, eat and
drink it. And if we do this, then we shall truly
have the Lord’s Supper, and Christ’s true body and
blood will be present under the bread and wine
by virtue of the words He spoke in that memo-
rable night in which He instituted this holy
Sacrament.

This we shall do in remembrance of Christ.
As often as we eat the consecrated bread and drink
the consecrated cup, we shall show forth the Lord’s
death till He come. In celebrating the Holy Sup-
per, the Lord’s death and all it gained for us shall
rise before us, and our hearts shall be filled with
gratitude and our lips overflow with thanksgiving.

Now that Christ has instituted His Supper, He
also wants us to use it. But how often are we to
partake of it? Only once in our lives, as we are
baptized but once? By no means; for from
Christ’s words it is plain that it is His wish that
we partake of it frequently. He says, “This do
as oft as ye drink it.” The Apostle Paul,. as
Christ’s mouthpiece, says, “As often as ye eat this
bread,” ete. From these words we must conclude
that it is the Lord’s will that we should often
celebrate His Supper. Of course, He has not def-
initely stated how often we should go to the Sacra-
ment, but there are various reasons why our com-
munion should be frequent. There is, first of all,
Christ’s command to commune often. Then there
is the blessed promise of forgiveness, life and sal-
vation offered all believing communicants. And,
finally, there is the trouble of sin which lies heavily
upon us, and which Christ offers to remove from
us in the Sacrament. -

Luther says concerning this point in his pref-
ace to the Small Catechism: “It is necessary to
be urgent on this point, remembering, however,
that we are to force no one to believe, or to receive
the Sacrament, nor to fix any law, time, or place
for it, but so to preach that they may be urged
of their own accord, without our law, and will,

as it were, compel us pastors to administer the

Sacrament. This is done by telling them that if
a person does not seek nor desire the Lord’s Sup-
per at least some four times a year, it is to be
feared that he despises the Sacrament and is not