"Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of
malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth. " - I Cor. v. 8.
My soul, hast thou duly considered the unsuitableness of all leaven to
mix up with the unleavened bread of the gospel of Jesus? Whatever
sours, and gives a principle of taint to the mind, is indeed a leaven,
carefully to be avoided. And "a little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump!" So that it was expressly enjoined, in the divine precept of the
law, on the Passover, that "there should be no leaven found in their
houses; the soul that did eat of it was to be cut off from the
congregation." Exod. xii. 19. Sweet instruction, couched under the
prohibition! With Jesus there is to be no mixture; nothing of creature
leaven, of self-will, or self-righteousness to mingle. My soul, thou
hast been at the gospel feast, and sat with Jesus at his table. Surely
thou hast kept the feast then, as here enjoined, and allowed nothing of
leaven, in the old nature or in the new, to be with thee. Oh! the
blessedness of thus receiving Christ with "the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth!" Oh! the felicity of receiving a broken Christ
into a broken heart; preciously feeding upon his body broken, and his
blood shed, as the sole, the only, the all-sufficient means of
salvation by faith! Oh! Lamb of God! keep thy table sacred from all
leaven, both in the persons approaching it, and the offerings made upon
it. Let not the children's bread be received, or given to the leaven of
hypocrisy and wickedness; but let all who meet around thy board be of
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth! And do thou, Lord, come
into thy house, to thy table, to thy people; and let each for himself
hear, and joyfully accept the invitation of the kind Master: "Eat, O
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!
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