The Sacraments

I HE origin of the word Sacrament is peculiar. It occurs nowhere in the Bible, but, like the word ‘Trinity, is of purely ecclesiastical origin. In the well-known translation of the Scriptures into Latin, commonly called the Vulgate,’ whenever the word mijsterion, or mystery, occurs in the original Greek, it is rendered by the Latin sacramentum. Sacramentum means generally a thing possessing sacredness, but hidden or concealed; and more specifically the oath which Roman soldiers used to take that they would be faithful to their country and obey their general. The application of the word to certain ordinances of the Christian religion, arose from the idea that there was a hidden sacredness about them. There was in them a mysterious relation between certain outward acts and the most solemn and awful truths of the Christian faith. This notion of mystic sacredness, while not destitute of a certain foundation in the Word of God, has been enormously exaggerated, under the influence of certain ecclesiastical tendencies. In fact, the mysterious aspect of the sacraments has often been so presented as to do incomparable damage. Under the impression of an inseparable connection between certain outward acts, and the highest blessings of the kingdom of God, men have been encouraged to attach to the sacraments by themselves an importance as disastrous to their spiritual welfare, as it is destitute of foundation in the Word of God. And, as often happens, this extreme has been followed by a corresponding reaction. From the enormously exaggerated value attached by some to the sacraments, others have recoiled to the opposite extreme. In their view the sacraments, so called, are of little value. All saving blessings depend on faith in the Word of God. It is the spiritual reception of divine truth that alone is of saving value. The sacraments, according to this view, are little more than acknowledgments of belief and badges of profession; — and any notion of a hidden sacredness, or a hidden relation in them to the chief blessings of salvation, beyond what this view implies, is a mere devout imagination.

It is between these extremes that we conceive the truth to lie. With the supporters of the latter view we hold, and hold very strongly, that the spiritual reception of revealed truth, especially the truth regarding Christ and His salvation, is the only link between the sinner and the Saviour, the only mode of receiving into our possession the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. But it by no means follows from this that the sacraments are of little use. The sacraments may, and we believe do, render essential service when God’s blessing rests on them, in promoting the believing reception of saving truth, in enabling us to grasp Christ and His blessings, to receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation. It is this view of the sacraments, as essential aids to faith, that finds most favour in the churches of the Reformation. The two distinctive views, which may be termed the one Popish, the other Protestant, are first, that a certain store of saving grace has been deposited in the sacraments, and is, by the very act, communicated to the recipient of them when they are rightly administered; and second, that the sacraments are simply channels of communion with Christ, means of promoting the Christian graces, — especially of calling into exercise the faith that appropriates Christ and feeds on Him; and that, in these respects, a special blessing rests on them when rightly received. The main difference between the two systems is, that according to the one, there is a store of grace in the sacraments, according to the other, the only store of grace is in the person of Christ. By the one you get grace when you receive the sacrament; by the other you get grace only when by faith you feed on Christ. This last position is eminently characteristic of all truly Protestant Churches. The Protestant doctrine is, that the only deposit of grace is in the living Christ. The soul that is to taste of saving blessings must in every case be in personal communion with Christ, and that personal communion can take place only in the exercise of faith. No part of saving grace has been sent away from Christ to sacraments or any other ordinances. ‘It hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. Sacraments therefore belong to the same category as the preaching of the truth. They serve to exhibit Christ, — to exhibit Him in most solemn and precious lights; — when they are received in faith, the blessing of God rests on them; they then seal or confirm the blessings which they exhibit, and they convey the blessings which they seal. It is not, as Vinet remarks, that the word becomes a rite, but the rite becomes a word. The sacraments are symbols and seals of saving truth; and they are made effectual to salvation, ‘not from any virtue in them, nor in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing of Christy and the working of His Spirit in them that by faith receive them.’

But what are the ordinances to which the name of Sacraments is applied and for what reason is it so used? In the Protestant Church the term is restricted to the two ordinances of Baptism and the Lords Supper. In the Church of Rome it embraces besides, confirmation, penance, extreme unction, ordination, and matrimony. We do not mean to enter here on the controversy with Rome on this point. We simply remark that the name is restricted by Protestants to Baptism and the Lords Supper, because these two ordinances alone are held to possess the features that entitle them to the name.

I. In a sacrament, there is a certain outward act or ceremony, which is a sign, picture, or representation of some of the blessings of salvation.

This is obviously true of the two ordinances of the Old Testament which are commonly ranked as sacraments. Circumcision and the Pass-

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over as well as of those of the New. In administering circumcision, a certain act or ceremony was performed, which act, from its very nature, was a representation or sign of the truth, that whatever is born of man is polluted, and needs as it were to be cut off — in other words, that the whole nature of man is corrupt, and that it needs to be suppressed, and succeeded by a holier. Circumcision, in its very nature, was thus a sign or representation of the mortifying of the old man, with his affections and lusts — putting off the old man and putting on the new. And hence, in writing to the Colossians (ii. ii) the apostle reminds them that through Christ they had experienced the inward reality of which circumcision was the outward representation — in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, viz., in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.^ The Passover, again, was an evident and a very significant representation of salvation through Jesus Christ. Both in itself and in the circumstances in which it was instituted, it was fitted to shadow forth the way of salvation. On the night of its institution, the Angel of the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites, on whose door-posts the blood of the lamb was sprinkled, and left the deadly token of his visit on the person of every Egyptian firstborn. How significant was this of the difference between a state of salvation and a state of condemnation! The wail of distress issuing from every dwelling of Egypt, the joyful sense of deliverance brightening every Hebrew countenance — what expressive symbols these were of the feelings of the two great classes of men on the day of judgment! In the sacrament of the Passover, the manner of partaking was not less expressive. A meal was furnished for a whole household from a slain lamb, roasted whole which was served with bitter herbs to the members of the family in a standing posture, with their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands; — shadowing forth how Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; how His flesh and blood, received in faith, become the meat and drink of the soul; and how it is as pilgrims and strangers, passing from a house of bondage to a heavenly home, that we should eat this feast, and receive this salvation.

When we turn to the two sacraments of the New Testament — Baptism and the Lords Supper, we find that they too very obviously furnish representations of the leading blessings of salvation. Thus Baptism, bringing the person baptized into immediate contact with water, represents the close personal connection into which Christ is brought with the soul of the believer, and the manner in which the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, purifies men, — constrains them to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Pure water poured on us in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, represents at once our native pollution, and testifies to a method of removing that pollution, in which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost concur. In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, again, the broken bread and the poured out wine are plainly fitted to represent the sacrifice of Christ, while the eating and drinking of these very significantly indicates the emphatic way in which His sacrifice is appropriated the closeness of the union between Him and the believer, and his entire dependence on Christ for the sustenance of his spiritual life. In the words of one of the greatest of theologians — Baptism testifies that we are washed — the Supper, that we are redeemed. Ablution is figured by water, — satisfaction, by blood. Both are found in Christ, who, as John says, came by water and by blood, that is, to purify and to redeem.... This sublime mystery was illustriously displayed on the cross of Christ, when water and blood flowed from His sacred side; which, for this reason, Augustine justly termed the fountain of our sacraments.’ (Calvin.)

2. Another feature of the ordinances called Sacraments is, that they are seals or confirmations of the blessings which they represent. They cannot make the blessings more certain than they would otherwise have been; but they convey the notion of their certainty more impressively to men. Thus we are told of circumcision that it was to Abraham a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith, being yet uncircumcised. In other words, it was to Abraham a confirmation of the truth that in consequence of his faith he was accounted righteous in the sight of God. A man of like passions with ourselves, the mind of Abraham might have been clouded with doubts, whether the covenant would really be fulfilled to him — and in particular, whether he would really be accepted through his faith by the great Judge or no. Circumcision was God’s seal, testifying that the covenant would stand fast and that he would be accepted. As often as it was administered, it was equivalent to a solemn assurance from God that all would be made good to him; it was as if he had heard Gods voice declaring, The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kingdom shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee/

The Christian ordinances, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are seals in a similar way. They are divine attestations to the provisions of the new covenant, divine assurances that all these provisions shall be made good. But let us mark to whom this assurance is conveyed. Not to every one who happens to receive the sacrament. The fact of any one being baptized, or receiving the Lord’s Supper, is not necessarily to him a seal or assurance of salvation. It is so only when he is a believer. Circumcision would have assured nothing to Abraham if he had not previously believed the promise of God. It was not an assurance to Abraham absolutely, but to his faith. The seal was not attached, so to speak, to Abraham as an individual, but to Abraham as a believer. The case is similar with the New Testament sacraments. They are not seals absolutely to every one who receives them, but only to those who have faith. Wherever there is a heart looking to Jesus for salvation, looking to the ’ water and the blood at once for cleansing and for purification, they assure that heart of the blessings which it seeks. They are Gods seals or attestations to the faith of that soul — material guarantees, as it were, of the blessings of the future, pledges of the payment in full of the blessings that have been promised when the moment shall have come at which the bill falls due.

It is of the greatest possible practical moment to bear in mind that the sacraments seal nothinsr but condemnation where there is not faith in Christ, and in the benefits of redemption through Him. Wherever this fact is duly considered, it will discourage the habit of resorting to the sacraments, without regard to the state of mind of the person receiving them. Of what avail can the reception of the sacraments be to one who has not opened his heart to Christ, and who has no real faith in the blessings of his purchase? Can it be imagined that the mere reception of these ordinances compensates for the careless or unbelieving heart, or that God regards the mere bodily service as equivalent to the holy trust of the regenerated soul? The supposition is as wild as it would be to suppose that by possessing ever so many impressions of a rich man’s seal, one was assured of inheriting his wealth. The seal is nothing apart from the document to which it has reference. Sacraments assure nothing, apart from the covenant of grace, and faith in that covenant. If one should suppose that going to the Lord’s table will save him, though he has no real faith in Christ, and hardly knows what redemption means; if a parent, receiving baptism for his child, fancies that it will bring a blessing, although he, as representing the child, knows and cares nothing of the salvation in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost of which that sacrament speaks; or if a grown-up person, who had been baptized in infancy, should persuade himself that his baptism had done him some mysterious good, though meanwhile he neglects the Saviour to whom he was presented.

and tramples on the covenant in which the salvation is offered, — such persons are practising a miserable deception. They trust to a seal which can seal nothing to them, because they destroy the only ground or surface to which the seal can have an attachment. It is as if a company of miners should suppose that because they grasp a certain rope they shall be drawn to the surface, although they have detached the end of the rope from the machinery by which alone it would have accomplished its purpose.

3. There is a third property of the ordinances which we call sacraments, — they are channels by which the blessings which they represent and seal are actually conveyed or applied to believers.

Besides being visible representations of the blessings of redemption, and seals or pledges of the certainty of these blessings to all who partake of them in faith, they serve, with Gods blessing, actually to communicate them, or some of them, to their souls. The sacrament of the Supper furnishes the most intelligible illustration of this remark. Not only does that sacrament represent or picture forth the manner in which sinners are saved through the sacrifice of Christ; and not only does it confirm the promise of God that all who take Christ as their Saviour shall come to salvation; it is moreover one of the channels through which Christ, and certain of the blessings of His redemption are conveyed to such participants. By feeding on Christ in this sacrament, they receive Him into their very souls. His love warms them, His peace satisfies them, His joy gladdens them the blessed hope of glory by Him animates and strengthens them. They enter into closer sympathy with Him, they learn more of Him who is meek and lowly in heart, and get rest to their souls. They share the spirit by which He overcame the world, and triumphed over all the powers of darkness. Often, in this sacrament, they seem to sit with Christ in heavenly places, and to enjoy the choicest repasts of the heavenly banquet. Their nature, as it were, is steeped in Christ’s Spirit; the old man shrivels and dies.

the new nature of holiness gets fresh encouragement and support. Yet let it not be supposed for a moment that in producing such effects, the sacrament of the Supper operates like a charm. Whatever effects it may produce are brought through the action of the spiritual faculties of the soul, and especially of its great organ of appropriation — Faith. If the question were asked, What makes the sacrament of the Supper productive of higher good to an earnest Christian than a powerful sermon on the death of Christ and its saving fruits? our first answer would be, that this is due to the Holy Ghost working more powerfully through the sacrament than through the sermon; but if it should be further asked whether there be anything in the nature of the Lord’s Supper to invite the more powerful action of the Holy Ghost, we should reply: 1st, that God may deem it right to put peculiar honour on an ordinance which is specially designed to show the glory of His grace in Jesus Christ, and to nourish the souls of the needy; and 2nd, that the mental preparation undergone by a careful Christian before going to the Supper — his self-examination — his fervent prayer, — the solemnized atmosphere, so to speak, — the sympathy of his fellow-communicants, — the effort to stir up his soul to unusually strong acts of faith and love and holy desire, — the spirit of watchfulness against worldly and distracting thoughts — his more intense resolution to banish the world from his mind, and occupy himself exclusively with his holy fellowship — that all such things as these — the usual concomitants of the Supper, — may make it a peculiarly suitable channel for the communication of extraordinary grace and blessing. Add to this, that it is of the very nature of a sacrament to call in the aid of the senses, and thus make the bodily organs a help to the faculties of the soul. When truth is preached, the ear alone of the bodily organs is employed to convey it to the mind; when exhibited in a sacrament, the eye, which has far more command over the mind than the ear, is also called into operation. Suppose, however, that all the accompaniments of a communion now referred to are neglected by a believer; in such a case, believer though he be, it is certain that the ordinance will convey to him but a scanty measure of grace. Even the Lords Supper may be but as an empty well; while in proportion to the pains taken to enter into the spirit of the service and enjoy the working of the Holy Spirit, will be the degree of enjoyment and of benefit which it brings. He who rushes on this holy ground without taking the shoes from his feet — without any effort to be impressed by the sacred Presence, can only leave that Presence as he came into it; the sacrament will not be to him, as Bethel was to Jacob, the house of God or the gate of heaven.

In a word, if a sacrament is more efficacious of spiritual good than a sermon, it is not because a different kind of influence is at work, but the same influence in a higher degree. In both cases, whatever saving good takes place is due to the action of God’s Spirit on the faculties of the soul.

How is the preaching of the word ever effectual? Not merely because the arguments are convincing, the illustrations clear, and the appeals forcible and appropriate; but because the Spirit opens the hearts of hearers, causes them to ponder, to feel, to tremble; and makes the truths which they have heard to live and abide in them for ever. And why are sacraments ever effectual? Not merely because in their own nature they are fitted to gender a solemn state of heart, and to direct the mind powerfully to the great doctrines of the cross; but because the Holy Spirit prepares and opens hearts to appreciate and feel the truths which they exhibit, and thus makes them channels of saving grace to the soul.

We are well aware of the pious horror which this view of the efficacy of the sacraments would raise in certain minds. Those who elevate the sacraments far above all other ordinances of the Gospel; who represent them as the most wonderful, the most mysterious, the most certain depositories of saving grace; who think that for any one to partake of a sacrament is equivalent to drinking the elixir of immortality or bathing in the River of Life; who maintain that if one do but receive the sacraments devoutly, and is but vrapt in wonder at the unapproachable privilege which is given him through God’s priest, no other exercise of mind is needed for realizing the unspeakable treasure — all such persons will recoil from the view we have presented as a sacrilegious robbery, as an impious stripping the most holy mysteries of our religion of the surpassing glory with which God has invested them. But no such representation can invalidate the substantial soundness of the view we hav€ presented. And if it should be proposed to test the question by results, we should not dread the decision. Against the excited wonder and ecstasy of Sacramentarians, we would confidently place the experience of intelligent and well-exercised Protestants. In the feelings of the former we believe there is really nothing to compare with the experience of the latter — the sense they have at the Lord’s Supper of the reality and sufficiency of redemption, of the grace of the Son, the love of the Father, and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit; their lessed repose of soul in the thought of a completed and appropriated redemption; their tranquil composure and satisfaction of heart, in the belief that all that concerns them is in the hands of a covenant God; the brotherly and loving spirit which flows out to their brethren of mankind; the happy, confiding feeling with which, in the view of the past, they can contemplate the future — Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever/

4. We add another feature of the Christian sacraments — they are badges of Christian discipleship. He who receives them puts on, as it were, the livery of the cross. He makes a declaration before the world like Joshua’s, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, And this is not true merely in a general sense. He must be regarded moreover as making a special profession corresponding to the character of the sacrament itself. Has he been baptized? Not only in the general does he profess himself to be Christ’s, bat more especially he testifies that he believes his nature to be polluted and that that nature requires to be changed. Has he been baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Not only does he signify his belief in the Trinity, but he professes to take each of the three persons in the capacity or office specially assigned to him: the Father as his God and Portion, his Judge and Ruler; the Son as his Redeemer, his Guide, his Teacher; the Holy Spirit as his Quickener, his Comforter, his Sanctifier. Has he gone to the Holy Supper? Not only has he signified his belief in Christ and His redemption, but he has professed to appropriate Christ spiritually, and from His broken body and shed blood to draw, by faith, the blessings of reconciliation. He has decfared his conviction, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died that they that live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and that rose again.

Alas what an amount of miserable hypocrisy is often connected with these glorious sacraments! How marvellously man often contrives to reverse the tendency of Divine institutions, to pervert them to the very opposite purpose to that for which they were graciously designed! These holy ordinances,, designed among other things as badges of manly profession of free, frank, fearless appropriation of Christ, how miserably they are often perverted to the purpose of a hollow acknowledgment, used like the kiss of Judas, not to honour but betray the Son of Man! Happily we have outlived the time when these hallowed institutions were made by law the porch to every civil office and employment, and a wholesale profanation of them (as it often turned out) was carried on by the highest authorities of the land. But what has ceased to be demanded by public law is in some circles still required by the force of social custom. In nothing is the want of deep personal sincerity so often shown as in the spirit in which men receive the Christian sacraments. And in regard to the Lord’s Supper, it is quite marvellous how that which was designed as a bond of union among all Christians is perverted to a badge of separation! The communion of the Lord’s body and blood often becomes the crowning badge of sectarianism, in place of the holy symbol of the common faith and hope of Christians. Happily there are individual Christians who break through these miserable restraints of human origin, and delight to communicate with all of every name that love the Lord and look for His appearing. May God hasten the time when on a wider scale this most Christian spirit shall come into operation; and when, in the various Christian denominations, the one bread and the one cup which were designed to show the world the unity of the Christian Church, shall be restored to the glorious use for which they were designed! Morning star of the millennial day, arise and shine! For surely the Bridegroom’s chariot will

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not be far oflf when His people, over the memorials of His death, whatever their differences mayhave been before, shall be unable to know anyfeeling but love. Is it right that the graves of our children should have more power to bring hearts together than the feast that commemorates the death of our Lord? The poet says touchingly,

‘For when we came where hes the child
We lost in other years,
There above the little grave,
O there above the little grave,
We kiss’d again with tears.

Would that the Holy Supper were such a scene: — a place where Ephraim who has so long envied Judah, and Judah who has so long vexed Ephraim, would meet to bury their quarrels and kiss again with tears’ 1