We are like those Corinthians
who came to the Lord's supper not to be made good men, but to exalt
their own spiritual self-conceit; and so only ate and drank their
own damnation, not discerning the Lord's body, that it was a holy
body, a body of righteousness and goodness.
But if we come hungering and thirsting to be made good men, then we
come for the right thing, to the right place. Then we need not stay
away, because we feel ourselves intolerably burdened with many sins;
that will be our very reason for coming, that we may be cleansed
from our sins--cleansed not only from their guilt, but from their
power; and cry, in spirit and in truth, as we kneel at that holy
table--
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
By the water and the blood,
From thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Yes, from its guilt and from its power also. Let us all pray, each
in his own fashion:--
Oh Lamb eternal, beyond all place and time! Oh Lamb slain
eternally, before the foundation of the world! Oh Lamb, which liest
slain eternally, in the midst of the throne of God! Let the blood
of life, which flows from thee, procure me pardon for the past; let
the water of life, which flows from thee, give me strength for the
future.
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