LS-30-The Abiding Presence
The Abiding Presence Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age.--Matthew 28:20.
Each century, since the promise was made bears its own testimony to the fulfilment of the promise. Every Christian man who reveals his inner experiences witnesses to the reality of the Saviour’s presence, There are some circumstances in life which help us to feel our need in a special way, and in some of life’s experiences the cheering presence of the Saviour is especially revealed.
There is one trysting place where our Lord has always met with His disciples and where they have become conscious of His living presence. It is at the communion of the Lord’s Supper. He has said: Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. It would almost seem from the history of Christian experience that when the gathering together is for the purpose of remembering Him in the breaking of bread, the realisation of His presence has been especially marked. In those terrible days when the Boxer rebellion was at its height in China, when many missionaries and native Christians were murdered, when the very existence of missionary work in China seemed to be imperilled and every hour brought news of fresh atrocities and dire forebodings, one of the missionaries, Dr. Ament, of Tengchou, wrote home to his friends: "We celebrated the Lord’s Supper this evening, and our hearts and minds were soothed by coming in contact with the pure soul of Christ. The aroma of His life seemed to fill the room, and for a moment the sounds and turmoil of this world were lost in the growing glory of Christ." So it has always been.
Dr. Fairbairn has said: "In upper rooms, in catacombs, where the dust of the dead rested, and the spirits of the living met to speak to each other words of holiest cheer; in desert places and moorlands, where hunted fugitives assembled to listen to a voice which, though a man’s, seemed God’s; in cathedrals, where form and space spoke majestically to the eye, and in lofty music to the ear; in rude huts, in savage or heathen lands; in ornate churches in wealthy, busy and intellectual cities--men of the most varied types and conditions, saintly and sinful, ignorant and educated, rich and poor, peer and peasant, sovereign and subject, priest and people, forming a multitude no man can number, have for centuries met together to celebrate this Supper, and be by it made wiser, happier, holier." And as we join in this age-long communion of saints we pray that this blessing may be ours.