The ever pastoral Rutherford (Fourteen Communion Sermons, pp. 129-130):
Come near to Christ in the word and Sacraments. Christ has now here, under the elements of bread and wine, a bended bow in His hand; with which, and by the foolishness of preaching (as it is called by men) He is lying, as it were, behind a dyke, and stealing a shot at you. Lord, send Him His prey! The Lord send you in the gospel the thing you shall never shake off again. For know ye when Christ speaks to the Elect there, there is a sharp steel-pointed arrow in the end of His tongue, that will pierce sinners to death, and lay them low. (Isaiah 50:4), “The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.” For our Lord has good skill to aim a shot of His arrow, and drive it even to the feather: right to the head in the conscience of His own.
See when He comes by Matthew, and says, Follow Me; immediately he falls over like a dead man: he leaves his custom and his count-books, and follows Christ. Christ comes by Zaccheus, sitting on a sycamore tree and bids him come down: He bends His bow, and shoots an arrow at him, and cries, “Come down, Zaccheus, for to-day I must abide at thy house;” and he came down good speed; and from his heart he could never pull out the arrow to this day. Coming by Jacob’s well at Samaria, Christ bended His bow and shot the woman of Samaria: she left her water-pot, and came in to the city and said, “Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” (Acts 2.)
With an arrow from Peter’s mouth, Christ shot three thousand at one shot: He shot them all with one broad arrow through the heart: they were pricked in their hearts. I think Christ, ever since Adam sinned in Paradise, has been hunting, and until the end of the world, will still be hunting and shooting wild beasts. O! but He will come to His Father at night with a rich prey: many slain men—many shot with His arrow. It is true, we think Christ’s arrow is sharp, and that the word of God pains us, for we have no will* to a bloody head. But we must bear and suffer the word of exhortation. Christ will not slay us, but will bind up the wounds again: His wounds are sweet.
See when He comes by Matthew, and says, Follow Me; immediately he falls over like a dead man: he leaves his custom and his count-books, and follows Christ. Christ comes by Zaccheus, sitting on a sycamore tree and bids him come down: He bends His bow, and shoots an arrow at him, and cries, “Come down, Zaccheus, for to-day I must abide at thy house;” and he came down good speed; and from his heart he could never pull out the arrow to this day. Coming by Jacob’s well at Samaria, Christ bended His bow and shot the woman of Samaria: she left her water-pot, and came in to the city and said, “Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” (Acts 2.)
With an arrow from Peter’s mouth, Christ shot three thousand at one shot: He shot them all with one broad arrow through the heart: they were pricked in their hearts. I think Christ, ever since Adam sinned in Paradise, has been hunting, and until the end of the world, will still be hunting and shooting wild beasts. O! but He will come to His Father at night with a rich prey: many slain men—many shot with His arrow. It is true, we think Christ’s arrow is sharp, and that the word of God pains us, for we have no will* to a bloody head. But we must bear and suffer the word of exhortation. Christ will not slay us, but will bind up the wounds again: His wounds are sweet.
