In a talk entitled “The Sacramental Covenant,” Melvin J. Ballard (1873-1939) wrote, in part, the following:
“We stand for spiritual growth through attendance at sacrament meetings." The sacred covenant of the sacrament with its attendant blessings, which we repeat as we consecrate the emblems of the broken body and the spilt blood of the Lord, has been especially revealed to the Latter-day Saints by the Lord himself, so that we have the very words of the covenant as they were formulated by our Redeemer, with its promised blessings. I appreciate, I believe, to some extent, the sacredness of the covenant which we, as members of the Church, enter into when we partake of the sacred emblems. I realize that each time we partake of these emblems, we manifest before the Father that we do remember his Son; and by the act of partaking of the bread and the water, we make a solemn covenant that we do take upon us the name of our Redeemer, and that we do, further, make a pledge and an agreement by that act that we will keep his commandments.
Taking the oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, we make a pledge and an agreement that we honor, uphold, and sustain the laws of the land and will be faithful in defending the rights of our country. We expect to receive blessings in return for keeping that covenant, blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We make our pledge to the United States government when we are admitted as citizens and when we take office in the government, local or national. We do have, therefore, occasions when each citizen, whether he enters the service of his country as a soldier or engages in any other official duty, renews the covenant and pledge that he made when he became a citizen of the country. So our Father in heaven has provided that, not only once but frequently, we shall meet together to renew our pledge, our covenant, and our agreement to keep his commandments and to take upon us his name again. I have always looked upon this blessed privilege as the means of spiritual growth, and there is none other quite so fruitful in the achievement of that end as the partaking, worthily, of the sacrament of the Lord's supper. We eat food to stimulate our physical bodies. Without the partaking of food we would become weak and sickly, and fail physically. It is just as necessary, for our spiritual body that we should partake of this sacrament and by it obtain spiritual food for our souls. If we were given our physical food only on stated occasions and at specified places, we would all be on hand. We heard how, during the war, many communities had to feed the inhabitants by distributing bread tickets or rations of various kinds which were given only by application at certain places. We have seen in our country that the people stood in line to get their sugar rations and other provisions, such as were curtailed and limited during the war, and they were always present, at the appointed time and place. If we really realized and felt the need of spiritual food for growth, we would be present at the appointed place where this may be, and is, administered.
We must come, however, to the sacrament table hungry. If we should repair to a banquet where the finest of earth's providing may be had, without hunger, without appetite, the food would not be tempting, nor do us any good. If we repair to the sacrament table, we must come hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for spiritual growth. (Bryant S. Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1949], 147-48)
