EXTRACT

The following is the conclusion of an address of Mr Pellatt’s on the same subject as the foregoing address, but given on a different occasion.

The breaking of bread takes place in the scene where the Lord is absent. It would have no significance if the Lord were here. He was forty days here after His resurrection, and they never broke bread. It would have no meaning. It is during His absence and in the scene of His rejection that we call Him to mind in the breaking of bread; and it is, “till he come”, 1 Cor 11: 26. What is the great point as to the Lord and as to the saints in the breaking of bread? As to the Lord, it is divinely lovely. It is His love for us—“Take, eat ... this is for you; this is poured out for you”. The Lord seeks to concentrate all His love in our hearts. The great point on His part is love, and the great point on our part is responsive love to Him. The only thing that can satisfy Him is response to His great love. We have rightly been taught that the breaking of bread is introductory to the assembly—not the assembly that can be taken account of locally, but the assembly in its own proper heavenly character. The great question for you in the breaking of bread is, Did you meet Him? Did He manifest Himself to your affections? If the Lord leads you to take account of Himself in the heavenly scene, that is blessed; but that is not: then “came Jesus, and stood in the midst”. Where did they see Him? “In the midst”, and they rejoiced. What a privilege! Our hearts touched with His love and responsive to His love. And then we find the door to all heavenly privileges wide open. The privileges of Christianity are not locked up. You can go through the door into all privileges. Do you say to me, ‘Describe what it is’? No, I could not—it cannot be described, if any company could have conveyed to another what it was to see Jesus in the midst, the company of John 20 could. But when they told Thomas he said, “I will not believe”. It is a reality, but it is indescribable. There is a glory in Christianity that is “unspeakable and filled with the glory”.

There is only one thing more I would say, and that is—the more you know what it is by the Spirit to see the Lord, the more your heart will turn with affection to the saints. That is Christianity! “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”; then flesh is refused. Then we break bread, and our hearts under the power and control of the Spirit will be touched by His love, and will respond to it. Responsive love delights to own—‘All praise to him is due’. You catch His notes when He sings praises in the assembly. You rejoice, “seeing the Lord”, and you come out with His love to the saints.

We shall soon see His face, but, oh! for one touch of the divine reality of seeing Him by the Spirit now before we see Him face to face!