Best Books on the Lord's Supper: 11 Classics on Communion
If you want one book to help you come to the Lord's table well, read Matthew Henry's The Communicant's Companion. It explains what the Supper is, invites you to it, helps you examine yourself beforehand, and tells you what to look for at the table and how to live afterward. If you want something shorter that you can read in the days around a Communion Sunday, use Andrew Murray's The Lord's Table.
The old writers came from different churches and didn't agree on everything about the sacrament. Ryle, Henry, Wesley and the Brethren writers did not see the Supper in quite the same way. But they agreed on more than you might think. The Supper is Christ's own command, "This do in remembrance of me." It points to His death for sinners. It is for believers, and it is meant to feed faith, not to replace it. It calls for honest self-examination but not for perfection. And it looks forward: we show the Lord's death "till he come."
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
1 Corinthians 11:26
Here are eleven of the best books on the Lord's Supper in TheWay Library, all free to read.
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1. The Communicant's Companion, by Matthew Henry
The great Bible commentator's practical guide, in fourteen chapters. Henry starts with the names of the ordinance and its nature, a memorial of Christ's death and a seal of the covenant. Then he takes you through self-examination, renewing your covenant with God, meditation before the table, what faith sees and receives there, the vows we make, and how to carry it into the week.
If we receive not Christ Jesus the Lord here, we have the supper, but not the Lord's Supper.
The Communicant's Companion, chapter 1
Henry is gentle with timid believers who stay away because they feel unworthy:
You think you have no grace, because you are not yet perfect; but why should you look for that on earth which is to be had in heaven only?
The Communicant's Companion, chapter 3
Read The Communicant's Companion.
2. The Lord's Table, by Andrew Murray
A cycle of short daily readings: a week of preparation before Communion, meditations for the Lord's Day on the words of institution, and a week of reflection afterward. Each ends in prayer. Murray stresses the Supper as the meal of the new covenant and as real fellowship with a living Christ.
The Lord's Supper is a covenant meal — the Feast of the New Covenant.
The Lord's Table, chapter 13
The scan has some misread letters, but it reads well. See also Andrew Murray's books. Read The Lord's Table.
3. Practical Religion, by J. C. Ryle
Chapter 6, "Going to the Table," is the best short paper on the Supper in the library. Ryle asks four plain questions: why was the Supper ordained, who should come, what may communicants expect, and why do so many churchgoers never come? His answer to the third is worth the whole book. Right receiving humbles us, he says, and it also makes us holier.
Remember what Christ has done for you, and ask yourself whether there is anything too great to do for Him.
Practical Religion, Going to the Table
Sermons and meditations at the table
4. Sacramental Discourses, by James W. Alexander
Thirteen sermons preached at the Lord's Supper by the Princeton pastor, published after his death. They stay close to the cross: God's love, the two natures of Christ, His bearing of our sins, His death as the center of the faith, and communion in His body and blood. Read one the evening before you take Communion. Read Sacramental Discourses.
5. Thoughts on Sacramental Occasions, by Philip Doddridge
These are entries from Doddridge's private diary around Communion Sundays from 1730 into the 1740s. You see what he preached at the table, how he examined himself and renewed his covenant, and how he came to the table after burying friends and his little daughter Betsey.
I hope God knows that I am not angry; but sorrowful he surely allows me to be.
Thoughts on Sacramental Occasions, October 3, 1736
Few books show so honestly what the Supper meant to one believer over many years. Read Thoughts on Sacramental Occasions.
6. Fourteen Communion Sermons, by Samuel Rutherford
Sermons Rutherford preached at Scottish communion seasons in the 1630s, taken down by hearers. They're as rich and loving as his famous Letters. The scan has errors, mostly in the Scripture headings, but the sermons come through.
No, Christ's blood is in every dish, Christ's flesh is in every mess, and Christ's merit is a sweet sauce to all the messes.
Fourteen Communion Sermons, sermon on Luke 14:16–17
If you love the old Scottish and English Puritans, see our guide to the best Puritan books. Read Fourteen Communion Sermons.
7. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 50, by C. H. Spurgeon
Spurgeon held the Supper every Sunday at the Tabernacle, and many of his short communion addresses were printed. This volume has several among its fifty-two sermons, alongside gospel sermons and words for tried believers.
The presence of Christ is all that his people can ever want.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 50, sermon 2886
See also our guide to Charles Spurgeon's books. Read Vol. 50.
8. Hymns and Spiritual Songs, by Isaac Watts
Book 3 of Watts's hymnbook was written to be sung at the Lord's Supper. "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" is one of them. If your church sings it at Communion, this is where it came from.
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory dy'd, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book 3
Read Book 3 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.
What the Supper is: the teaching of the churches
9. Knots Untied, by J. C. Ryle
Two chapters here, "The Lord's Supper" and "The Real Presence," give the evangelical Anglican view clearly and in Ryle's plain style. He holds firmly to Christ's real presence with believers at the table, and argues against a presence of His body in the bread and wine. If you want to understand why Protestants argued about the Supper, this is the readable place to start. Read Knots Untied.
10. The Assembly of God, by C. H. Mackintosh, with William Kelly's Six Lectures
The Brethren gave the breaking of bread the central place in their Sunday worship, and these two books explain why. Mackintosh's paper "The Lord's Supper" calls the table above all a feast of thanksgiving.
The Supper, then, is purely and distinctly a feast of thanksgiving — thanksgiving for grace already received.
The Assembly of God, The Lord's Supper
William Kelly's Six Lectures on Fundamental Truths Connected with the Church of God sets the breaking of bread inside a fuller teaching on the church and its worship. Read The Assembly of God.
11. The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 8
Wesley published his own abridgment of Thomas à Kempis for his people, and this volume includes its fourth book, the exhortation to Holy Communion. The early Methodists were known for taking Communion often, and you can feel why here. The volume also has Henry Scougal's The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Read Wesley's Works, Vol. 8.
How to use these books
Read Henry or Murray in the week before Communion, a chapter a day. Read Alexander, Rutherford or Spurgeon the evening before. When you want to understand the doctrine, turn to Ryle and Mackintosh, and expect them to disagree in places. For more on what the Supper remembers, see our guides to Christian books on the cross and the atonement.
More by these authors is on their pages: Matthew Henry, Andrew Murray and J. C. Ryle.