down to hold communion with Christ, but then we shall behold him as he is, in all his love and all his majesty; we now meet with God’s people in the affectionate sympathy of a common faith, but then we shall reign with the vast multitude of God’s chosen saints in the triumphant fellowship of a common glory.  And to those who long for the reality, there is delightful encouragement in partaking of the figure.  They then lay hold on the chain that reaches heaven; they take to themselves God’s emblems, and receive them in faith as pledges and tokens of the final fulfilment of his promises.

There is, therefore, every inducement to partake of this delightful sacrament; and whether we regard its high authority, viz., the Lord’s express command, or its sacred nature, as a service of remembrance, a means of spiritual nourishment, and a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb, we may well wonder how any true believer can forego the enjoyment of such a privilege.  But yet we must not suppose that the simple act of coming to the Lord’s Supper can secure these blessings, for, as we read in ver. 17, we may “come together, not for the better, but for the worse.”  Nay, more, it is expressly declared, in ver. 29, “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”  These are solemn and most important words; enough to startle inquirers, and to make all mere professors tremble; nor can any man who fears God presume to read them lightly.  They suggest two most important subjects of inquiry,—What do they mean? and, To whom do they apply?

III.  What do they mean? or, the danger of eating and drinking unworthily.

In endeavouring to ascertain what the passage really means, our best course will be to refer at once to the context; for, however valuable be human explanations, there is no expositor of the Bible so good as the Bible itself.  The word rendered “damnation” in the text, is translated “judgment” in the margin of our Bibles, and for the following reason.  There are two sorts of judgments mentioned in the Scripture,—the chastisement of God’s children, and the final punishment of the wicked.  Of these, the chastisement is laid on those whom God loves; “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. xii. 6); but the final punishment is on the unbelieving.  Chastisement is limited and proportioned to his people’s strength, whereas the final punishment is an unmixed cup of horror.  Chastisement is for the improvement and sanctification of those who are to reign with Christ; the final punishment is for the vindication of God’s righteous law.  And chastisement takes place here in the form of sickness, suffering, and sorrow; whereas, the final punishment is in eternal fire.  Now, it must be allowed that the word “damnation” conveys the idea of this most awful and final punishment, and many minds have been thereby unduly alarmed upon the subject.  But the context seems to teach us that the leading idea in the apostle’s mind was chastisement for he proceeds to say—“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.  For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged.  But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world.”  It is plain that he here speaks of chastisement.  He says expressly, “we are chastened;” he describes it as temporal affliction in this present life; and he teaches that it is sent for the express purpose of saving us from final ruin, “that we should not be condemned with the world.” [13]

This, then, we are bound to regard as the accurate and literal meaning of the text; and, although there cannot be the slightest doubt that a man may, by the repeated abuse of holy things, and by approaching the Lord’s table in a worldly and carnal spirit, so sear and harden his conscience, that he may be truly said to eat and drink his own damnation in the most awful sense of the words, we venture to believe that such is not the meaning of this present passage, but that it describes the chastening of God’s children in this present life, not as the commencement of final ruin, but as a correction sent in mercy to prevent their falling into the irrecoverable condemnation of the wicked.

But whatever be the character of the judgments, the awakened conscience must tremble at the thought of “eating and drinking unworthily.”  To be “guilty of the body and blood of the Lord,” is a sin so grievous, that if there were no judgment of any kind connected with it, the broken heart must shudder at the possibility of its heinous guilt.  If there be any love of Christ in our souls, we shall not require the fear of judgment to awaken grief and horror at the most distant thoughts of such a sin.  Converted men think more of sins than punishments.

We must inquire, therefore,

IV.  To what characters the words apply?

For the answer to this question we must again refer to the passage itself, and we shall find that,

(1.) They apply to those who are living in strife and schism.  As members of the Church of Christ, we are children in God’s family, and at the Lord’s communion we meet as brethren around the Father’s table.  It is plain, therefore, that love should reign there.  We should be knit to each other in holy love, as each one is knit to Christ by faith; and whoever breaks the bond of love dishonours Christ, and comes unworthily to the communion.  Nor is this said on man’s authority, for this was one of the very sins committed and condemned at Corinth.  “For first of all,” says St. Paul, v. 18, “when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.”  Of these divisions it is important to remark that they were not such as led to any outward and visible separation, for they came together to the same church, and knelt together at the same table; but they did not love each other; there was strife and party temper amongst them; an inward spirit of unkindness combined with the outward act of love; and so they came together not for the better but for the worse.  Here, therefore, we have a simple answer for inquirers.  If they are living in strife or enmity, harbouring the spirit of revenge, unable to forgive some offending brother, or giving way to a party spirit, they will then eat and drink unworthily, and they had better refrain till they can obey their master’s precept—“First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

(2.) A second character to which the words apply is the man who can receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper without regard to the sacred nature of the service.  Such characters are clearly described in v. 20, 21:—“When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.  For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.”  In the present day it is quite impossible that any person should commit the actual sin here described.  The mode in which the sacrament is administered and the laws of society alike prevent all risk of such an outrage.  But the state of heart which led to it is perfectly possible, and, rightly to understand the meaning of the passage, we must consider not so much the