I recently came across Edward Judson’s book, The Institutional Church: A Primer in Pastoral Theology(New York: Lentilhon, 1899; link is to a reprint) and found an interesting discussion of communion. Judson was the son of Adoniram Judson and had been born on the mission field. He served as pastor of Memorial Baptist Church in New …
For several years now I have enjoyed Elizabeth Prentiss’s poem collection titled Golden Hours (now nicely reprinted by Solid Ground Christian Books). I came back across this poem this week as I have been contemplating communion. “In Remembrance of Me” Dear Jesus, Thou this feast hast spread, Invited guests are we; We come as Thou …
“This ordinance hath a direct and peculiar tendency to the improvement and strengthening of faith. It is a pledge superadded to the promise for faith’s sake: Heavenly and sublime mysteries do therein stoop down to your senses, that you may have the clearer apprehensions of them; and the clearer the apprehensions are, the stronger the …
J. I. Packer has a wonderful essay on the Lord’s Supper titled “The Gospel and the Lord’s Supper” in Serving the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings of J.I. Packer, Vol 2 (I have the Paternoster edition, but it is published this side of the pond by Regent). In the original article he is addressing …
I have recently read John Brown of Haddington’s booklet An Apology for the more Frequent Administration of the Lord’s Supper: with Answers to the Objections Urged Against It (Edinburgh: Printed by J. Ritchie for Ogle & Aikman, Edinburgh, M. Ogle, Glasgow and R. Oble, London, 1804). According to WorldCat there are only about 3 copies …
Here is another good quote from Melanchthon Jacobus, this time on faith in coming to the Lord’s Table, “Some will not venture to profess Christ until they can rather profess themselves. they wait for worthiness to come to the Lord’s table, not considering that it is uworthiness which they are to profess, along with Christ’s …
In a previous post I took issue with J. M. Pendleton’s morose description of communion. It has not been heartening to find Pendleton’s sentiments echoed in various other Baptist authors of the past. However, today I was encouraged to find M. E. Dodd addressing his own church members, reminding them of their times of celebrating …
I am currently working on a chapter on the practice of communion in churches (I promise, Tom and Matt, I am chasing that deadline!). I recently found an older expression of a view of communion which I want to counter. Here then is an excerpt from my work at this stage: J. M. Pendleton in …
I am swamped just now with various things including preparation for a new baby (any day now) and a flood of good new books- both blessings! So, I will plan in the next several days to primarily post some book notes. For the first one, I am excited to mention a brand new press, The …
Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) was the first professor of Princeton Theological Seminary and one a key figure in early American theology. I am currently working on a review of a reprint of his A Brief Compendium of Bible Truth, which was designed to be a brief treatment of Christian doctrine for laypeople. This weekend I read …