THE PRAYER OF HUMBLE ACCESS. Then shall the Priest, kneeling down at the Lord's table, say in the name of all them that shall receive the Communion this Prayer following. We do not presume to come to this Thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table. But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us. Amen. "As for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy, and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple." Such was the childlike confidence, and such the holy awe, in the man after God's own heart, as he drew near to the throne of grace. And such is the spirit of this collect, which has been well called "The prayer of humble access" in our Communion Service. It immediately follows that hymn of lofty praise in which, with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify the Name of God. Is there any want of harmony between that celestial adoration and this profound confession, We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table? There is contrast, but no discord. The noblest trees of the forest, which catch the first golden lights of the morning and the latest rose-tints of the evening, strike their roots the deepest into the soil. The little lark which soars with daring wing into the blue sky, and floods the sunny air with music, returns to its nest on the bosom of the earth, "True to the kindred points of heaven and home." So is it with the soul that is born of God and taught of God. We have confessed our sins, we have heard the voice of God's absolution, we have welcomed to our hearts the comfortable words of Gospel assurance, we have lifted up Our souls to our Father in heaven; but now we are about to come to the Lord's own table, to sup with Him, and He is about to sup with us. In what attitude of spirit shall we come? Surely, as pardoned sinners, we can only draw near in lowliest humiliation. So far from this being a discordant tone, any other would be out of harmony with the deepest and truest feelings of our soul. We first renounce every fragment of trust in our own righteousness. However fair our conduct may have been before men, we know and we acknowledge with the prophet that before God we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." No words could say more, and we would not say less. For if there were ever so small a portion of the wedding garment, which was our own goodness, all our anxiety and solicitude would be to cleanse and mend it; and all would be in vain. But we renounce all. "Nothing in my hand I bring; But while we thus forego all confidence in ourselves, we cast ourselves upon God's manifold and great mercies. They are as manifold, as they are great; as diversified, as they are vast. So the contrite Psalmist prayed," Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies-not one act of mercy only, but mercies; not mercies alone, but tender mercies; not only a few tender mercies, but the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Our God delights in mercy; He is plenteous in mercy; His mercy is everlasting. The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." His eye is upon them, not in wrath, we may be a Isa. lxiv. 6. b Ps. li. 1. L Ps. xxxiii. 18. assured; but if we need more, we have the Holy Spirit's exposition of the words in a later psalm, "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy." It is like a father saying to himself regarding his child, “I will keep an eye upon the little lamb." Here the most anxious heart may rest and be still. ,, с But once more we confess, We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table. -In this there is perhaps an intertwining of three Scripture thoughts: the words of Jacob, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant ; the words of the prodigal to his father, "I am no more worthy to be called thy son; and the words of the Syro-Phenician woman when Jesus said to her, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs," and she replied, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." a And as to any claim of merit, we would fain take even a lower place than this, and confess that we are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under the table of this heavenly feast of love. From this utter self-renunciation, yea, because of it, we cling to Him who changes not, the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. His royal prerogative of grace is our refuge. And a Ps. cxlvii. 11. Luke xv. 21. ¿ Gen. xxxii. 10. it is no mere forgiveness we now proceed to ask, no simple act of reconcilement (this has been assured to us before in the absolution and in the four Comfortable Words); but we plead for gifts of love, greater than which the human heart cannot conceive. We make requests, which the blessed angels themselves cannot prefer. We ask for the very closest communion possible between God and man. We pray that we may eat the flesh and drink the blood of His dear Son. The reference is evidently to the words of our Lord, "I am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed; "a words which affirm not only the necessity of the death of the Incarnate Son of God, but also that every one, who would live for ever, must personally take and eat and drink of this heavenly sustenance, so that the most intimate union of spirit with spirit, even as the natural food is incorporated with the natural body, takes place betwixt the believer and Christ. This is the work of the Holy Ghost in the heart of those, who behold with appropriating faith the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And of this heavenly union the bread and John vi. 51-55. a |