This might interest you. It is a very great pleasure to recount this. When I got to New Zealand, thoroughly convinced of the ground of gathering, who should meet me was my eldest brother, an honored servant of Christ for years, and long since with the Lord. And he said, “Eric, I am going to take you Lord’s day morning to a meeting! Would you like to go?” And I said, “I certainly would. If you go there, I’d certainly like to go!” He said, “now remember, nobody knows you there, so you just sit back and listen.” I said, “certainly, I will.”
There were 250 odd, more-or-less in that meeting in those days when I was commended to the work of the Lord. And I noticed a table in the center of that gathering, and on the table there was a big bread and a goblet of wine with one cup. So I sat there very interested. You can imagine how one would feel. This was something new to me. And then I began to wonder, who is going to take charge of this meeting? Who is going to lead this meeting? I don’t see any preacher here. So you can imagine how I felt.
About 15 minutes to eleven, they were all quiet. And that is a very nice thing, isn’t it? To come 15 mins before you sit down at the table of the Lord. And they were all in there quietly sitting. At the hour of eleven o’clock sharp, one brother (I didn’t know him, of course, anybody except my brother)– he gave out a hymn. Do you know which one it was?
“O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head,
My load was laid on thee,
Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead
To bear all ill for me”
Well, I thought that was very nice. That is a beautiful hymn. Then, I wonder what would happen next. Well, an elderly brother stood up, and he prayed. I never heard a prayer like that. It followed on exactly the lines of the suffering of Christ. Now, you become very used to this, you dear ones. I know you could become used to these things. But here was one ignorant of everything sitting there, and looking and listening.
Then, a brother in another part read from Psalm 22 and a portion from Psalm 102 — no comments, and sat down. And then they sang another hymn. I just forget which now — until it came to the breaking of bread, and I wondered what would happen then. Well, one old brother got up with his white beard, and he stood there at the table and he broke the bread, and they passed it around. And he sat down. He thanked the Lord, and I remember him saying especially, “we’ve come here precious Saviour to remember thee in thy death!” Oh, that impressed me. It was to remember the Lord Jesus in His death. That is why we go there. It is preeminently so. To remember the Lord Jesus in His death! His death! Well, they partook of it. The same brother came back, and he gave thanks for the cup. And I will never forget, he quoted that verse from that same hymn:
“Death and the curse were in that cup,
Oh Christ, ‘Twas full for Thee!
But thou hast drained the last, dark drop,
‘Tis empty now for me!
That bitter cup, love drank it up,
Left but the love for me!”
Now, at the end of that, they sang a hymn. Well, there was a basket there, and it went around and they put in the portion that the Lord had given them. And then they sang a hymn, and the brother spoke a few words on Psalm 22. I thought that it was very nice to follow that same leading of the Spirit of God right through. And in Bolivia, you find that they follow that same leading. If they begin with the glory of the Lord Jesus, they end with it. If they begin with the suffering, they end with it. It is very nice.
What impressed me, dear ones, was the gracious leading of Spirit of God. Are we becoming less interested in that glorious fact that the Spirit of God is able (and abundantly able) to guide us, whether in ministry or in worship? The Church, my dear ones, is not an organization. I was brought up to think that the Church was an organization. It is not an organization, dear ones, it is an organism. Souls redeemed with the precious blood of Christ brought into the family of God through simple faith. What a wonderful thing it is to belong to Christ! Are we becoming indifferent to this that we would, instead of the gracious leading of the Spirit of God, trust more to organized services? We try not, we do not want that, beloved. That’s not good. He is able! The Spirit of God is able!
Well, this is very interesting to my soul to recount this because we seek to give the Holy Spirit His place. And we long for the days to come back when the assemblies were spiritual enough to leave the meeting as an open meeting. Those who were in the energy of the flesh dared not get up because of the power of the Spirit of God there.