THE Lord gave the commemoration of his sufferings and death to his disciples, and Paul, in Corinth, gave it to the congregation of the saints, and not to any others. Those who are his disciples, who are in Christ, in the body, are communicants, and those not in Christ, are not communicants. We “neither invite nor exclude,” but show to whom the Lord has given the communion, and that no others have any right to it, only those in good standing in the body, and give it to no others.
But for any preacher or church to arrange purposely for communion with persons whom they know are not in Christ, not in the kingdom, and try to blur over the clear violation of the law of the kingdom, as thus deliberately arranged for, by defining the position of his church to be that they “neither invite nor exclude,” is certainly a weak and shallow device. It is an attempt to ignore the very act by which we enter into union with the Father and with the Son, as, also, the “whole family in heaven and on earth,”—immersion into Christ, into the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, under the sham pretext of a union meeting, a union communion. There is no Christian union in any meeting that intends to ignore the clear law of induction into the kingdom of God. It is only a union in disloyalty to the Great King—ignoring his law.