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We all know, communicants,
that when we are very much interested in a thing, there is no end of the
lights in which we shall place it, or of the points of view from which we
shall regard it. And if Christ be the Christian's all in all: if Christ be
not only the first thing in the Christian's heart, but everything: it will
not be at all needful, though he should come ever so frequently to the
Communion Table, that the communicant's thoughts should run always just in
the beaten track. We can look at the Saviour in a hundred lights: we can
regard Him from a hundred different points of view. Our ‘meditation of Him'
which let us hope that many of us, like the Psalmist, have found to be
‘sweet;' need not consist, as our remembrance of earthly friends generally
does, in going backwards and forwards over the same two or three
perpetually-repeated thoughts. It is a pleasant occupation for the Christian
at all times, and here more especially, to let the mind dwell upon the
thought of Christ, looking at Him in many different ways: and the Bible
shows us that a like spirit has come down among believers since the birth of
time; and that nature has been scanned and searched through for analogies
and emblems, to bring fresher and warmer home to the heart the thought of
our Blessed Lord. All that seemed to type wisdom, and strength, and beauty,
and fragrance, and refreshment, and unchanging sameness, and life, and
light, and joy, has been taken in one age or another of the world’s story,
to set out more clearly the bright attributes of the Redeemer, and to swell
the list of his ‘many names' There are manifold ways of regarding Christ,
and the benefits we derive from Him, which might each furnish us with matter
for meditation on such an occasion as this. We might think of Him as the
‘Branch of Right' that ‘Plant of Renown' which should grow from the root of
Jesse: as the ‘Bread of Life' of which if a man eat he shall never die: as
the ‘Bright and Morning Star’ that dawned upon the Gospel-day, and that
leads on to glory and immortality-We might think of Him as the ‘Captain of
Salvation’ who has routed our spiritual foes: as the ‘Corner-Stone' that
‘Foundation of God’ whereon the soul that rests is safe from the storms and
floods of judgment: as the 'Counsellor’ to all true wisdom: as the
'Deliverer9 from all real danger:' the 'Faithful Witness’ who tells us all
we need to know: the (Fountain Opened/ whence flow the gladdening waters of
eternal life. We might think of Him as the ‘High Priest' who offered the one
sacrifice that since time began had virtue to take sin away: the € King9
before whom all nations and all hearts shall yet bow down: the ‘Prophet' who
reveals to us God’s will: the 'Lamb of God’ whose blood has the strange
power to wash the guilty soul back to the whiteness of innocence: the 'Light
of the World' but for whom the outward sun would shed His beams in vain the
'Prince of Peace’ who yet shall reckon all human beings amid the subjects of
His worldwide sway. We do not wonder that the prophet spake of Him as the
'Refiner' Who cleanses all the heart: we do not wonder if thinking of
guidance kinder and more constant than ever was bestowed by man, the Apostle
should repeat his own declaration that He is the 'Good Shepherd' the
'Shepherd and Bishop of Souls:' we do not wonder if such as remembered how
He dispelled the shadows of ignorance and eternal death from a benighted
earth, should speak of Him as the 'Sun of Righteousness9 that rose upon the
world with healing in His wings: we do not wonder if many a time, in quiet
thought, His people have found food for reflection in following up the
thoughts suggested by His own declaration, that He is 'the Way, and the
Truth, and the Life/ I knowr that each has his own manner of regarding our
Blessed Redeemer, which early associations have made most pleasant: but I
think that none of us can fail to linger with a great delight upon that
beautiful combination of pleasant images in which our Saviour is represented
by the prophet;—I think that at a Communion Table few words can fall more
pleasantly or more fitly on the ear;—than those in which the prophet tells
us, that 'a Man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from
the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place; and as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land.'
How sweetly does that ancient, yet never-forgotten combination of pleasant
images, fall upon the Christian pilgrim's heart! How dear to the dweller in
the parched Oriental lands, the thought of the hot wind of the desert
searching round our 'hiding-place' but finding no entrance there: of the
howling storm wrestling with the mighty trees, and calling forth from them
their stern wails as of agony, yet shut out from that ‘covert,' where, safe
from all its assault, our souls are sweetly sheltered! With what cool
breaths, only to think of it, would come the mention of ‘rivers of water in
a dry place:' of the clear, sparkling, ever-flowing murmur that makes all
things round green and glad: or of the (shadow of a great rock in a weary
land; with all it tells of rest and joy in the ceaseless pilgrimage; with
its pictures of the weary wayfarers, stretched in the luxury of repose upon
the cool turf, and baring their brows to the fanning wind; and of the
patient camel, loosed from its heavy load, browsing lazily upon the prickly
herbage of the desert! So pleasant and refreshful would be the thoughts
called up before the mind of an Oriental, by these images wherein our
Redeemer’s character and work are represented s and though in a country like
ours, some of the images may lose somewhat of their vividness, even we can
understand the value of shelter from the storm, and refreshment in the hour
of weakness and weariness. And yet more, when we look to the spiritual
significance of the words, and remember how beautifully they set out what
the Redeemer is to our souls, it should be a delightful employment at a
Communion Table, to think of Him as a ‘ hiding-place from the wind, and a
covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of
a great rock in a weary land.'
For these images, while they represent the Saviour, represent also
ourselves. While they remind us of what Christ is to His own, they remind us
also of how much we need Christ. They picture us as wandering over a waste
wilderness, exposed to the fury of the storm: else we should not need the
(hiding-place from the wind/ nor the 'covert from the tempest' And such a
storm does by nature threaten us all: even the fiery flood of God’s wrath
for sin; the thunders and lightnings of a broken law; the wrath and curse
which are denounced against all transgression: and it is only by fleeing
unto Christ that we can find shelter from these: He is the only hiding-place
and covert that can protect from these: and we know that those who refuse to
flee to Him will at the Judgment-day call in vain on the mountains to fall
on them, and the rocks to cover them, and hide them from the wrath of God.
Then, again, these images picture us as travellers through the burning
desert, parched with thirst, worn out with toil, and fainting with heat;
else we should not need the € rivers of water in a dry place/ nor the (
shadow of a great rock in a weary land/ And when we think, communicants, of
the steep and difficult way which as Christian pilgrims we must traverse,
often with the weary foot and the sinking heart, well may we love to
meditate upon Him, through whom we obtain that strength and consolation of
the Blessed Spirit which are to the soul what to the traveller are the
fountain and the rock: save that our 'great rock', is that 'Rock of Ages'
hidden in whose clefts no ill can reach us; and that our ‘rivers of water'
are of that ‘water of life' which can refresh and gladden the weary and
fainting soul!
And surely here, on a Communion day, we have come to a point in our
pilgrimage where we are warranted to hope that we may find our Saviour all
that the Prophet said He should be. As we € do this in remembrance of Him*
and His atoning sacrifice, may He be to our souls what He has been to His
people for ages. Shadow of the Great Rock, shelter us in this weary land!
Hide us from the wind : cover us from the tempest: refresh our souls as with
rivers of living water in this dry place: and may these elements, partaken
of at Thy appointment, be as that bread of which whosoever eats shall never
die; and that water of which whosoever drinks shall live for ever!
On that ever-memorable night, etc.
‘Till He come:' There is the limit of this Sacrament's continuance: it is
not a thing that is always to go on. ‘As often as ye eat this bread and
drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come? There will be a
day—we do not know when —that this rite shall be celebrated for the last
time. Its beginning carries our minds back to the time of our Saviour’s
deepest humiliation: its end carries on our view to the season when Ke shall
come in glory to judge the world. This Sacrament, then, is not a thing which
is intended to last for ever: it is not even a thing which is intended to
last long. 'Behold, I come quickly,’ are Christ’s own words, yet this Rite
is to continue only 'till He come.’ And after time is done—after our Lord
has come in glory —all these ages through which men have joined in this
Sacrament will seem like almost nothing: and saved souls, millioris of years
hereafter, will speak of the little time for which the Sacrament of the
Supper strengthened and gladdened weary souls, as a mere hand-breadth in the
countless ages of the Scheme, the Working-out, and the Results, of the Great
Redemption.
And for this reason among others, communicants, perhaps it was fit enough,
that in looking over Christ’s names and doings, we should select from all
the characters in which we might regard our Saviour that which we did. We
sat down here for a little while to think of Christ: we considered how we
should think of Him: and I sought to lead your meditation of Him into an old
and pleasant track: ‘A hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the
tempest; rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land.’ And it is fit enough, that at a Feast which is only temporary,
we should regard Christ in a character which is only temporary, however
pleasing and beautiful it be. It is only while the believer remains in this
world of sin and sorrow, that he can regard the Saviour as standing to him
in such a relation as that ou which we have dwelt. When the believer has
entered that world where there is no wind and no tempest, he will need no
hiding-place and no covert there. When the believer has entered that
glorious world, though Christ may be the Rock of Ages still, and still the
water of life, He will not be as 'rivers in a dry place;' nor will He cast
His refreshing shadow over a ‘weary land.' It is now, in this evil world,
where Christ is all that stands between us and the fiery floods of God's
wrath for sin: it is here, where we faint and stumble along this weary
pilgrimage, that this beautiful promise is being fulfilled in the experience
of Christ's people. Now our Saviour is our hiding-place and our covert, our
river of life and our rock of shadow. The prophet looked far forward into
the future, and wrote, 'A man shall be a hiding-place from the wind and a
covert from the tempest:' and after the last Communion Service is over,—when
the believer drinks this earthly cup no more,—if ever he desires to think of
Christ thus, he will have to look back upon his own life in this world, and
say, As I laboured upon earth, as I prayed, and toiled, and sinned, and
suffered there, my Saviour used to be, long ago, as 'a hiding-place from the
wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, and
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land!'
Enjoy, then, communicants, while it lasts, the present reality of this
gracious promise; for it will not last long. Look to Christ in this light
while He still stands in this light to you. They tell us that some of the
most beautiful aspects of the sun—as, for example, the rich golden
sunsets—are the result of causes in our own atmosphere: it is only to beings
who dwell among earthly vapours and clouds that he appears in that majesty
of purple and gold. And even so it is only to souls dwelling in a world of
sin and sorrow, that our Blessed Lord can wear this aspect to which I have
sought to turn your thoughts. It is only to those round whom 'winds' and
'tempests,' blow, that Jesus can look like the f hiding-place9 and the
'covert:' it is only in a 'dry place', that we know the full value of
'rivers of water;' and no one can know how precious is the ‘shadow of a
great rock' half so well as he who journeys through 'a weary land.' It is
just because the Sun of Righteousness shines upon us through a laden
atmosphere of sin and sorrow, that He wears to our eyes this beautiful
aspect of which we speak. The happy spirits who never sinned can hardly
understand the delight with which we look to Jesus thus. They never needed a
Saviour: they cannot feel, as we do, all that that word means. Yet though
when you have entered the world where weariness, and peril, and sorrow, and
sin are done with, you may choose other ways in which to regard your Lord;
surely when now you rise from that table with some anxious thoughts of all
that awaits you as you resume your wilderness way, you will hardly be able
to look to Jesus in a light more exactly suited to your needs; and you will
hardly be able to frame a more comprehensive prayer, than that this Divine €
Man Christ Jesus9 may be to each and all of us c as a hiding-place from the
wind and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, and
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land!’
Go in peace from the Table of the Lord: and the God of peace go with you.
Then is sung a further portion of Psalm CHI., to the same tune.
5 Who with abundance of good things
doth satisfy thy mouth;
So that, even as the eagle’s age,
renewed is thy youth.
6 God righteous judgment executes
for all oppressed ones.
7 His ways to Moses, He his acts
made known to Israel’s sons. |
