Mark 5 - James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

‘FROM THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD’

‘A man with an unclean spirit.’

Mark 5:2

After the storm our Lord landed from the boat at Gerasa, on the east bank of the lake, in the country of the Gerasenes. In the gorge, leading from the water up to the high land on which the town was situated, were numerous tombs in the rocks. From one of them came a man dreadfully afflicted.

I. The demoniac’s wretchedness.

(a) Possessed with an unclean spirit. In those days the devil had power to send some of his messengers (demons) into men. This man had ‘many’ (Mark 5:9), who all belonged to Satan’s army. When he spoke it was the demons speaking through him.

(b) Lived in the tombs. He had been driven from the town, and lived in some empty tomb.

(c) Violent. So fierce ‘no man might pass by’ (Matthew 8:28). This poor demoniac is like the sinner, ‘led captive by the devil’ (2 Timothy 2:26)—a slave to sin.

II. His healing.—Notice the stages:—

(a) He came to Jesus.

(b) Jesus commanded the spirits to come out, when the demons made him cry out, ‘What have I to do with Thee.’ These spirits always knew Jesus (see ch. Mark 1:24). St. James (Mark 2:19) says of demons that they ‘believe and shudder” (R.V.). After begging our Lord not to send them into the deep they came out of the man.

(c) The change. When the Gerasenes came—probably next morning—what did they see? (Mark 5:14-15). The man was ‘sitting,’ Luke adds, ‘at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.’ Jesus did for him what no one else could, for He only had power over the ‘strong man,’ and could ‘bind him’ (ch. Mark 3:27). The changed demoniac should represent those who have found deliverance from sin’s tyranny. They should be found sitting at Jesus’ feet—the place of learning, love, and lowliness; clothed with the ‘garments of salvation’ (Isaiah 61:10); in right mind, i.e. a changed mind.

III. His gratitude.—Jesus was about to leave when the man ‘prayed Him that he might be with Him.’ But Jesus ‘suffered him not,’ for (a) he must have faith in Jesus’ power, though absent, and (b) He had other work for him to do—to be a missionary among his own people. How? By simply telling what the Lord had done for him. The man accepted the task. See how he discharged it (Mark 5:20).

What an example to all whom Jesus has blessed! ‘Made free from sin’ we ‘become servants to God’ (Romans 6:22).

Rev. R. R. Resker.

Illustrations

(1) ‘The ruins right over against the Plain of Gennesaret, which still bear the name of Kersa or Gersa, must represent the ancient Gerasa. This is the correct reading in Mark’s, and probably in Luke’s, perhaps also in Matthew’s Gospel. The locality entirely meets the requirements of the narrative. About a quarter of an hour to the south of Gersa is a steep bluff, which descends abruptly on a narrow ledge of shore. A terrified herd running down this cliff could not have recovered its foot-hold, and must inevitably have been hurled into the lake beneath. Again, the whole country around is burrowed with limestone caverns and rock-chambers for the dead, such as those which were the dwelling of the demonised.’

(2) ‘The whole subject of the demoniacs, or cases of Satanic possession recorded in the New Testament, is unquestionably full of deep mystery. The miserable sufferings of the unhappy people possessed—their clear knowledge that our Lord was the Son of God, their double consciousness, sometimes the spirit speaking, sometimes the man—all these are deep mysteries. And it can hardly be otherwise. We know little of beings that we cannot see and touch. We know nothing of the manner in which a spirit operates on the mind of a creature with flesh and bones like ourselves. We can see plainly that there were many persons possessed with devils during our Lord’s earthly ministry. We can see plainly that bodily possession was something distinct from possession of heart and soul. We can conjecture the reason of their permitted possession—to make it plain that our Lord came to destroy the works of the devil. But we must stop here. We can go no further. Let us, however, beware of supposing that Satanic possession was entirely confined to our Lord’s time, and that there is no such thing in our own days. This would be a rash and unwarrantable conclusion. Awful as the thought is, there are sometimes cases in asylums for the insane, which, if they are not cases of Satanic possession, approach as nearly to it as possible. Human nature is not changed since our Lord was on earth. Satan is not yet bound. Satanic possession is therefore neither impossible nor improbable, though limits may be set to the frequency of it through the mercy of God.’

SATAN’S LEGIONS

‘And (Jesus) asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.’

Mark 5:9

I. Our spiritual dangers.—May we not say of our spiritual dangers, ‘Their name is Legion!’ Satan is constantly changing his form of attack. His servants and his tactics are ‘Legion’! What then? Are you going to give up the fight? Nay, surely not! Think of yourselves rather as soldiers in a weary desert warfare—such warfare as our British soldiers have been called upon to wage.

II. Never let us grow faint-hearted because our difficulties and our temptations are legion. The heart is attacked by hosts of evil. The fierce sun of temptation beats down upon it, it is in itself treacherous, and so you must watch it well. Our temptations are legion. Then we must not attempt to fight them all at once; that would be beating the air; but we must take them one by one. We must concentrate all our efforts upon one sin, our besetting one; and when in God’s great might we have conquered that, attack another. We must use all the help God gives us; especially must we seek fresh strength in our Communions. These must be regular, not fitful. We must kneel at the altar humbly, crying that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, and then rise up to go and fight again against a legion of foes, saying: ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.’

Rev. J. B. C. Murphy.

Illustration

‘It remains that the wise and the wary must set on their guard the simple and the innocent by the best possible device of keeping clear themselves from the snares of wickedness. That Holy Book we profess to take as our guide dwells at far greater length upon the necessity of avoiding sin than it does upon restoration after sin, yet the usual religious teaching is far more of repentance than of the defences in case of temptation. It is strange there are numbers enjoying safety in a state of salvation, who can see their servants, neighbours, relations, and others on the verge of eternal condemnation, and never say the right word at the right time to warn them. “If only I had known!” is the sad cry of the hopeless, while we might have changed it into, “But for you I should now have been—an unbeliever, a drunkard”—or what not.’

THE CHRISTIAN IN THE HOME

‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.’

Mark 5:19

Christianity has quite as much to do with the little things as with the great matters of life. A true Christian never forgets his faith; he is as much a Christian at home as in Church, and he does not lay aside his religion like a Sunday suit of clothes.

I. Where a man shines.—It is in the little common things of life that we need to show our Christianity. One man says, ‘I would do some great thing for Jesus; I would give my body to be burned for the true faith, like the martyrs of old.’ But are you prepared to bear patiently the fiery trial of some unkind, passionate tongue? A woman says, ‘I should like to nurse God’s sick and needy; I should like to go far off to the ends of the earth and do this work for Jesus.’ And all the time there is an invalid relative at home whom pain and sickness have made fretful and ill-tempered, and it never occurs to the woman that here is a work of nursing to be done for Christ’s sake—here, at home. If we would be sure that our religion is true and genuine we must test it in the little common duties and trials of daily existence, rather than on occasions and under circumstances of great importance.

II. The grace of cheerfulness.—Cheerfulness is one outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of true religion. The person who professes religion—yet is gloomy, morose, discontented, miserable—is making a mistake. There is no real religion in being wretched. A true Christian is like sunshine in the house, making everything brighter and better for its presence. Some so-called religious people look as if they were always preparing for their own funeral. I believe that if the love of God dwells in our hearts it will shine out through a happy, smiling countenance. Be cheerful; if you have the Lord Jesus in your home it must be a happy one. It is a sign of true religion to make others happy. There are people who keep all their cheerfulness and their laughter for their friends outside, and bring nothing but their troubles, and their ill-tempers, and their fault-findings to their home.

Rev. H. J. Wilmot Buxton.

Illustration

‘There was a poor hard-working woman in London who used to get up very early on dark and frosty mornings and, before going to her own work, would carry a heavy bag of sand and scatter its contents on the slippery roadway to keep the horses from falling. When she died she left her hardly-earned savings to provide a regular supply of sand for the same kindly purpose. Surely the humble London toiler was as much God’s hero as one who founds a hospital or builds a cathedral.’

THE BELIEVING ONE AND THE UNBELIEVING MANY

‘And a certain woman … when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment.’

Mark 5:25-27

I. The mighty difference.—There is a great difference—it may be a difference for us as of life and death—between thronging Jesus and touching Him. The multitude thronged Him; only this faithful woman touched Him. There was nothing to the outward eye which should distinguish between her action and theirs. St. Peter and the other disciples could see nothing to distinguish this woman from any other member of that eager, inquisitive, unceremonious multitude which crowded around Him, as was their wont; so that St. Peter, who was always ready, and sometimes too ready, with his word, is half inclined to take his Lord up and rebuke Him for asking this question, ‘Who touched My clothes?’ A question which had so little reason in it, seeing that the whole multitude were thronging and pressing upon Him at every moment and on every side. But Christ reaffirms and repeats His question, ‘Who touched Me?’ He knew the difference, He distinguished at once, as by a Divine instinct, that believing one from the unbelieving many. There was that in her which put her in connection with the grace, the strength, the healing power which were in Him.

II. In what it consisted.—Do you ask me what this was? It was faith. It was her faith. She came expecting a blessing, believing in blessing, and so finding the blessing which she expected and believed. But that careless multitude who thronged the Lord, only eager to gratify their curiosity, and to see what new wonder He would next do, as they desired nothing, expected nothing from Him, so they obtained nothing. Empty they came, and empty they went away.

III. We are of the many that throng Jesus, not of the faithful few who touch Him. We bear a Christian name; we go through a certain round of Christian duties; we are thus brought outwardly in contact with the Lord; but we come waiting for no blessing, and so obtaining no blessing. Faith is wanting; faith, the divine hunger of the soul, the emptiness of the soul longing to be filled, and believing that it will be filled, out of God’s fullness, and because this is so, therefore there goes no virtue out from Him to us; it is never given to us so to touch Him as that immediately we know in ourselves that we are whole of our plague.

—Archbishop Trench.

Illustration

‘Some remarks of Melancthon’s on this woman’s case are worth reading. We are doubtless to be careful that we do not hastily attach an allegorical and mystical sense to the words of Scripture. Yet we must not forget the depth of meaning which lies in all the acts of our Lord’s earthly ministry; and at any rate there is much beauty in the thought which Melancthon expresses. He says, “This woman doth aptly represent the Jewish synagogue vexed a long time with many mischiefs and miseries, especially tortured with unconscionable princes, and unskilful priests, or physicians of the soul, the Pharisees and Sadducees; on whom she had wasted all her goods, and yet she was not a whit better, but rather much worse, till the blessed Lord of Israel in His own person came to visit and redeem her.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

IMPERFECT FAITH

We need to learn that very imperfect faith may be genuine faith. There was unquestionable faith in Christ’s healing power, and there was earnest desire for healing. Our Lord Himself recognises the woman’s faith as adequate to be the condition of her receiving the cure which she desired.

The imperfections of this woman’s faith were many.

I. It was intensely ignorant.—She dimly believes that, somehow or other, this miracle-working Rabbi will heal her, but the cure is to be a piece of magic, secured by material contact of her finger with His robe. She has no idea that Christ’s will or His knowledge, much less His pitying love, has anything to do with it. She thinks that she may get her desire furtively, and may carry it away out of the crowd. He, the source of it, be none the wiser and none the poorer for the blessing which she has stolen from Him. What utter blank ignorance of Christ’s character and way of working! What complete misconception of the relation between Christ and His gift!

II. It was very selfish.—She wanted health; she did not care about the Healer. She thought much of the blessing in itself, little or nothing of the blessing as a sign of His love. She would have been quite contented to have had nothing more to do with Christ if she could only have gone away cured. She felt but little glow of gratitude to Him whom she thought of as unconscious of the good which she had stolen from Him. All this is a parallel to what occurs in the early history of many a Christian life. The first inducement to a serious contemplation of Christ is, ordinarily, the consciousness of one’s own sore need. Quite legitimate and natural at first, this faith must grow into something nobler when it has once been answered. To think of the disease mainly is inevitable before the cure, but after the cure we should think most of the Physician. Self-love may impel to His feet; but Christ-love should be the moving spring of life thereafter.

III. It was weakened and interrupted by much distrust.—There is not a full calm reliance on Christ’s power and love. She dare not appeal to His heart, she shrinks from meeting His eye. She will let Him pass, and then put forth a tremulous hand. Crosscurrents of emotion agitate her soul. She doubts, yet she believes; she is afraid, yet emboldened by her very despair; too diffident to cast herself on His pity, she is too confident not to resort to His healing virtue.

FAITH-HEALING

‘Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.’

Mark 5:34

She came to Jesus. She felt her disease; she felt her need. Grace meets us, not according to our correct views, or right thoughts of God, but according to our need.

I. The touch of faith.—She touched the Saviour’s hem, and ‘immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up.’ What she had sought for twelve long years from the world’s physicians and sought in vain, she got by a single touch of Jesus. How quickly He can heal the soul! We go to Him in our poverty and sin, in our sorrow and trial, and oh, what a Saviour we find Him! We get by a single touch of Him what the world could never give. How hollow are all the world’s physicians when viewed in His light! How fully every want of the soul is met! What a mighty power there is in a touch, a word, a look from Him! One look brought a backsliding apostle home to the fold. One word dried the tears of a weeping Magdalene, and filled her desolate heart with deep songs of joy. One touch of His clothes dried up the fountain of disease in this helpless cripple, and sent her to her home rejoicing.

II. Need supplied.—What had she got from Jesus? Just as much as she needed. No more. For this cause He came into our world—to meet man’s need. He is the same to this hour. What do you get from the Saviour now? Just what you need. There are no dealings now between the Saviour and His people beyond this. Every approach to Him is founded on this. Every answer to prayer is according to this measure. Every blessing we receive corresponds with the need that it meets.

III. Life’s one aim.—Christian, seek to feel more deeply your need of the Saviour. Nothing brings you so close to Him as these hidden needs. These tell us something of what a Saviour He is. These are the channels through which His virtue flows. It is Him you want to meet every need. In the solitude or the throng, in the routine of daily duty or the calmness of the closet, in sickness or in health, in sorrow or in joy, in living or in dying, let your heart be filled with one desire, one thought, one aim—to touch Jesus.

—Rev. F. Whitfield.

Illustration

‘One of the best illustrations of this text is to be found in the last great picture of Doré, called “The Vale of Tears.” The paint was wet on the canvas when he died, for he only finished it three days before. In the background is a shadowy valley with a barren, rocky crag on one side. At the entrance to the valley stands the Saviour, clothed with a long white garment. He has a cross on one side, and His other hand is raised, the forefinger uplifted, as if inviting the broken heart to come to Him for healing. Nearest to Him are the poorest of the poor, the despised and rejected of men. Every single form of human suffering may be seen in that “Vale of Tears,” from the king to the beggar. The king, in royal robes and a crown on his brow, turns a wan and weary face to Christ. By his side is the prisoner with heavy chains on his wrists; his face, too, is towards the Saviour Who can set the captive free. Here is a wealthy mother, but on her lap lies a dead child, and in her deep anguish she turns to Christ for comfort; there a dying mother, lying on the ground, holds her infant in the direction of the Saviour, as if committing it to His care. There are strangers from every clime, the Indian and the Negro, while on a lonely rock, under a blasted tree, stands the leper. Many are the suffering and the sorrowful in that dark valley, but all look to Christ, and Christ alone, for rest. The old enemy, the serpent, is seen crawling away, scared by the light of Christ and His cross. Beyond all, at the Saviour’s right hand, is the narrow way, where everlasting spring abides. It leads to the Beautiful Land to which the Saviour beckons all weary souls. I looked on that picture till my eyes filled with tears, and I praise God that His Christ is still able to heal and bless and save—that He is living and not dead—the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’

FAITH AND LIFE

‘Be not afraid, only believe.’

Mark 5:36

Our Blessed Lord had just performed three out of that wondrous cycle of miracles which Mark brings into close sequence. First, the ‘stilling of the tempest’; second, the casting out of the fiends which possessed the demoniac of Gadara; third, the healing of the woman with an issue of blood; fourth, the raising of Jairus’s little daughter. The first demonstrated His control over the elements; the second, His absolute authority over evil spirits; the third, His power over human suffering and incurable disease; the fourth, His supreme sovereignty over the ‘King of Terrors’—Death itself.

I. The faith of Jairus.—Jairus’s faith has been compared with that of other suppliants for our Lord’s help, and has not always received the full measure of admiration that it deserves. There are points in the incident which show that his faith was very sorely tried, and that it stood the test, and stood it well. Our Lord, it is to be noticed, complied at once with the father’s request, but His progress is (we cannot help feeling it to be so ourselves, as we read) neither direct nor quick enough to satisfy the natural impatience of that poor father’s heart. He stops on His way to perform another act of mercy; but the delay does not extort a single word of expostulation, not even a sigh, from the distracted man. Assuredly Jairus had faith, and strong faith, too. For this delay, what might it not involve? Indeed, what did it not involve? The poor sufferer who arrested our Lord’s attention is cured, and again a forward movement is about to be made, when the father’s worst fears are realised. ‘While He yet spake, there came … certain which said, Thy daughter is dead.’ And what does the stricken father do? Does he turn away at once in hopeless despair, or is he hesitating to prefer a yet stranger request before our Lord, hesitating, as the messengers, representing an unbelieving world, exclaim: ‘Why troublest thou the Master any further? ‘However this may have been, our Lord promptly rallied the broken-hearted father with words of encouragement and hope—‘Be not afraid, only believe.’

II. And its reward.—You know the sequel. The Saviour entered the chamber of death with the father and mother of the child and three of His disciples; He entered that chamber, and, after a brief interval, He returned; but He left behind Him a father and mother shedding tears of joy over a darling child restored to life and health. You especially, who are parents, can enter at once into both the sorrow and the joy that fills this story.

III. A lesson for parents.—But, apart from the admiration it excites in all our hearts for the Saviour’s loving sympathy and amazing power, apart from its parabolic teaching, which, like those two kindred miracles of His, points us so plainly to the general Resurrection in the Last Day, there is at least one obvious and important lesson for us parents. There are worse things than even bodily weakness and death—there are the moral plague spots, the sins and vices of our fallen nature; and these, untouched by Him, may end in spiritual death. Let us see to it that our dear children sleep not such a sleep as that. Put them, so far as you can, under His charge; bring them when infants to His Holy Baptism. Pray without ceasing; for hereafter their child-eyes shall open with joy at His call from the eternal throne—‘Damsel, young man, I say unto thee, arise.’

—Rev. E. F. Cavalier.

Illustration

‘There are certain dangers to which children are peculiarly exposed. There is the danger to their moral and physical well-being which arises from “over-crowding” and bad sanitation—this, as a rule, can scarcely be said to lie at the parents’ door; they have to live where they earn their bread. At the same time it is a matter of such vital importance to the present and future welfare of the race, that parents must not allow themselves to rest satisfied with such surroundings. Notwithstanding compulsory measures now being taken to insure proper accommodation in the houses of the poor, yet so great is the increase of population that these measures scarcely keep pace with the urgent need and its allied risks. It is a question whether it is generally realised how the discipline and education of the child at school is often neutralised by the bad conditions of its home life. But there is another and greater danger arising, partly from this exposure to physical and moral infection, and partly from a lack of the sense of responsibility for the child’s spiritual health on the part of too many parents. Free education, which has relieved the parent of responsibility for his child’s secular education, may, to a great extent, have undermined the parent’s sense of an even higher duty; but, taking it for granted that the majority try to carry out their parts in their children’s worldly training, is it a fact that all are as keen as they should be about their spiritual up-bringing? Do they take care to rear them “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”? Do they give them every opportunity, and see that they have it, of being brought under the influence of their parish priest and the care of Christ’s Church? And, further, do they use every means to insure that home example—what the children hear and see at home—may agree with what they are taught to be the Will of their Saviour Christ?’

THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN

“And He took the damsel by the hand.’

Mark 5:41

This is the earliest miracle of raising the dead recounted in the Gospels. Two others follow, but the one was a growing youth, the other was a man of mature age. The young woman was Christ’s first miracle of resurrection. On her was wrought first this stupendous miracle. For her was won this earliest triumph over death and hell.

I. The fundamental principle of the Gospel charter.—Is not this a significant fact in itself, for it proclaims the fundamental principle of the Gospel charter? It announces that the weak and the helpless in years, in sex, in social status, are especially Christ’s care. It declares emphatically that in Him is neither male nor female. It is a call to women to do a sister’s part to their sisters. Christ’s action in this miracle is a foreshadowing of His action in the Church. The Master found woman deposed from her proper social position. A moral resurrection was needed for womanhood. It might seem to the looker-on like a social death, from which there was no awakening; but it was only the suspension of her proper faculties and opportunities, a long sleep, from which a revival must come sooner or later. It was for Him, and Him alone, Who was the Vanquisher of death, Who has the keys of Hades, for Him alone to open the door of her sepulchral prison and resuscitate her dormant life and restore her to her ordinary place in society. When all hope was gone, He took her by the hand and bid her arise, and at the sound of His voice and the touch of His hand she arose and walked, and the world was astonished with a great astonishment.

II. A social revolution.—We ourselves are so familiar with the results, the position of woman is so fully recognised by us, it is bearing so abundant fruit every day and everywhere, that we overlook the magnitude of the change itself. Only then when we turn to the harem and the zenana do we learn to estimate what the Gospel has achieved, and has still to achieve, in the emancipation of woman, and her restitution to her lawful place in the social order. To ourselves the large place which woman occupies in the Gospel and in the early apostolic history seems only natural. To contemporaries it must have appeared in the light of a social revolution. Women attend our Lord everywhere during His earthly ministry, and as it was in Christ’s personal ministry, so it is in all the Apostolic Church.

III. The order of deaconess.—But it was not only desultory, unrecognised service, however frequent, however great, that women rendered to the spread of the Gospel in its earliest days. The Apostolic Church had its organised ministrations of women, its order of deaconesses, its order of widows. Women had their definite place in the ecclesiastical system of those early times, and in our own age and country again the awakened activity of the Church is once more demanding the recognition of the female ministry. The Church feels herself maimed of one of her hands. No longer she fails to employ, to organise, to consecrate to the service of Christ, the love, the sympathy, the tact, the self-devotion of women. Hence the revival of the female diaconate in its multiplication of sisterhoods. But these, though the most definite, are not the most extensive developments of this revival. Everywhere institutions are springing up, manifold in form and purpose, for the organisation of women’s work. It is the province of the Church, when acting by the Spirit and in the name of Christ, to develop the power of women, to take by the hand and raise from its torpor that which seemed a death, but which is only a sleep; and now, as then, revived life and beneficent work will amaze the looker-on—‘they were astonished with a great astonishment.’

IV. The secret of effective work.—Do you ask how women’s work may be truly effective? I answer you in the words of the text, ‘He took the damsel by the hand.’ There must be—

(a) An intensity of human sympathy; and,

(b) An indwelling of Divine power.

—Bishop Westcott.

FEEDING UPON CHRIST

‘And commanded that something should be given her to eat.’

Mark 5:43

This is one of those fine touches of tender consideration, of which Mark’s history is characteristic, and which so illustrate the beauty of the thoughtfulness of Christ. A great thing never made Christ forget a little thing. Remember always that God is the God of your little things; and that you never honour Him more than when you commit them, and rest about them.

I. God feeds the life He gives.—But the passage reads us a deeper lesson, that God always feeds the life He gives: wherever He bestows life, He is careful to add that which that life really needs for its development and perfection. We see this

(a) In creation. The whole earth is a table laid out, and amply spread for the sustenance of everything which God’s hand has made.

(b) In the life of man—body, intellect, and soul.

II. Spiritual food.—And now the great question is, ‘What is it which He gives us to eat, and which is the vitality of a soul? and how is it communicated?’ The answer to that question is only one—‘Christ is the food of the soul’ (see John 6). He will do wondrously with your soul when once He has quickened you. He will give you Himself to eat. The food must assimilate to the life which it is to cherish. The life is Jesus, and the food must be Jesus. ‘How can this be?’

(a) The written Word is the channel of the Living, that is, the Life-giving Word of the soul. You must find the Christ that is in the Bible before it feeds you. Only Christ feeds. And the more Christ you find in the Word, the more that Word will feed your soul.

(b) All spiritual acts between the soul and God feed.

(c) Christian intercourse and fellowship feed.

(d) Lastly, and especially, the Holy Communion was ordained for this very end. It is essentially feeding. It is the feast, where there is spread the richest, the sweetest, and the best! How can some of you expect your souls to live if you neglect this great sustentation of all spiritual life? Could your body live without its meals? The baptism of the Holy Ghost imparts life. The Communion of the body and blood of Christ feed and sustain that life.

Thus, Christ has, by many ways, not only given ‘command’ but fulfilled it for His Church—that ‘something should be given her to eat.’

Illustration

‘The Catechism teaches us what is required of them that come to the Lord’s Supper. The fact of God’s great gift does not depend upon ourselves. There the gift is, whatever we are or think or do. But its value for us does depend upon our worthiness. Indeed, the Bible and our Prayer Book repeat most solemn warnings against those who receive it unworthily. They eat and drink, as St. Paul says, not as we have it translated, “damnation,” but “judgment” to themselves. Being worthy does not mean being perfectly sinless or free from temptation. But it does mean that we may not approach the Holy Communion after committing any deliberate disobedience of God’s law for which we have not sought God’s forgiveness. It means also a sincere desire to be what God wills us to be, and to do what God wishes us to do; and therefore also honest ceaseless struggle and effort to be this and to do this. If we have not, and know that we have not, this desire, and are not making, and know that we are not making, this effort, then the Sacrament, which makes the union between Christ and His people most complete, only marks and increases our separation from Him, and this is what “judgment” really means. Every gift of the Sacrament turns into its opposite—the food which should strengthen the life of the soul only increases its deadness to spiritual things.’