The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-08
Interesting Discourse at South
 Highlands Presbyterian
MEANS OF REMEMBRANCE
Explains the Significance of Com munion. His Text Was, DO This in Remembrance of Me-
 Large Congregation.

yesterday morning al lhe 9ouNA ii'9H lands Presbyterian church to a large con gregation on the subject of the Lords supper. The sermon was regarded by those present as a helpful discourse on that subject and was listened to with close attention. His text was taken rom Luke 22:ls. eThls do in remembrance Of me-"
 Dr. Foster said in part:
 The Apostle Paul in one of his epistles speaks of ''the simplicity that is In Christ" We never feel the force of this statement more strongly than when we meet around the communion table to com memorate His death. How simple is the service He instituted.
 A common meal in a simple upper room with His twelve disciples is the first of the long series of communions which are to be continued to the end of time and even then shall not end, for we are to sit down with Him in His Fathers house.
 It will ever be one of the inexplicaole mysteries. how 1t was ever thought neces- sary that this service should be invested with all 'the pomp and circumstance or n gorgeous ceremonial. Twelve men, hsh- ermen. and men from the common walks of life, could little have dreamed that thls "supper'' would so far depart from l's original intention and become sacred mystery" observed like the sacred mys- teries of the east
 It gains nothing by this, but loses rather it's deeper and richer meanings.
 Knowledge Prerequisite. 1 of Io plies a previous knowledge of Christ TOT one cannot remember what has never been learned. To 'know Jesus Christ then, is the first and only prerequisite for a participation in this service. Ihose to whom the words were first addressed had learned to know Him through the three long years in which they had shared His poverty and privations, and had seen +he sacrifice and suffering He had en- dured
 They had learned to know the beauty and grandeur of His divine nature, and all save Judas were one with Him in Ills nurpose and plan of life. and when the final separation had occurred, they gave evidence of how we'll they remembered Him, for they sealed their testimony with l their blood
 This knowledge is not to be acquired bv A hasty glance over the record of His ] life for if this were true, there would be few excluded from this solemn ser vice.
 The Apostle Paul spent forty years or his life in this study, and then contesseu that he had not reached the limits or the possible knowledge of Christ That l may know Him in the power of His resur- reotion and the fellowship of His suffer ,neso was the burden of his prayer even in his old age This. then, is the secret of this divine knowledge. It IS power learned through sufferings.
 There is no power in the resurrection or Jesus to the soul that has never felt the need of power. He reads 1t, but ne reads it as he would of the prodigies or the grants of old He reads 1t to eriticlse and find fault But when the shadows or life begin to thicllen around him, and the nurnoselessness and nothngness or his life dawn on him at last, he finds that he can heein to fellowship with Jesus in His sufferinss and then does the resurrection gain an infinite power.
 Then Is his heart drawn to the world g chief sufferer and lifes real communion hesins. DO this in remembrance of Me- acquires a significance never before con ceived and each recollection of Him be- comes a blessed memory.
 Learn to know Him then and whether young or old, this command will come to YOU not as harsh and severe, but as a kindly invitation to reunion Of friends.
 Love Revealed.
 This command then reveals a love stronger than death. It is the most na- tural wish of the human heart to be re- membered. It has been the custom or ages. for the dying to leave some love token as reminder to those remaining on earth
 Doubtless Jesus Christ in his human nature felt as keenly as the most de- voted parent, this desire to be remember ed. but there was no selfish element CO., mingled with it.
 He knew that the memory of His life and death would save them from evil and it's consequences. For their saks. the sakes of His disciples and the multitude of those who should follow them, He left them this aid to memory.
 As one gazes through the ages, the im- agination tires, in effort to picture the evils, the sorrows and pains, that man- kind has escaped through this simple service with all its holowed associations.
 Here we are hurried on by the mighty tide of material things and in danger Of being swept into the great gulf of merely material existence. The earth seems no larger than the counting house, and life Is only a process of being ground be- tween the upper and neither millstone.
 There is no zest in life or living and no vision either upward or outward.
 Then cutting across the current of such a murky materialsm come the words of Jesus. DO this in remembrance of me-" And straightway the ceiling of the count ing house Is removed. and vast sweeps of distances are seen the limitations are re- moved, and the soul knows that 'it is not all of life to live" knows that In no proper sense is this living at all.
 DivineIy Given Process.
 This, briefly. is the dlvnely given pro- cess for lifting up the life and putting heart and hope into us, we make our way across the years. Therefore we say with the past. again today
 ..In memory of thy cross and shame | I take this supper in thy name This juice of grape. and flour of wheat My outward man doth drink and eat 1 ohi may my Inward ma1 be fed