sense of the words with an ordinary meal. As this sacrament was instituted by oiir Lord at the close of the Paschal supper, so it appears to have been customary at the beginning for the Christians to assemble for a common meal and to connect with it the commemoration of the Redeemer's death. Intimations of this usage may be found in such passages as Acts 2, 42. " They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fel- lowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer." In v. 46 it is said, this breaking of bread was from house to house. In Acts 20, 7, it is said, " The disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread," which, from the narrative which follows, appears to have been an ordinary meal. What- ever may be thought of these passages, it is clear from the paragraph before us that at Corinth at least, the sacrament of the Lord's supper was connected with a regular meal. Tliis may have arisen, not so much from the original institution of the Eucharist in connection with the Paschal supper, as from the sacred festivals both of the Jews and Greeks. Both class- es had been accustomed to unite with their sacrifices a feast of a more or less public character. It is also evident that, agreeably to a famihar Grecian custom, the persons assembled brought their own provisions, which being placed on the table formed a common stock. The rich brought plentifully, the poor brought little or nothing. It was, however, essential to the very idea of a Christian feast, that it should be a commu- nion ; that all the guests at the table of their common Lord should be on the terms of equality. Instead of this fraternal union, there were divisions among the Corinthians even at the Lord's table. The rich eating by themselves the provisions which they had brought, and leaving their poorer brethren mortified and hungry. It is to the correction of these disor- ders that the concluding portion of this chapter is devoted.
It was no matter of praise that the assemblies of the Co- rinthians made them worse rather than better, v. 17. The prominent evil was, that there were schisms even in their most sacred meetings ; an evil necessary in the state in which they were, and which God permitted in order that the good might be made manifest, vs. 18. 19. The evil to which he referred, was not merely that they had degraded the Lord's supper into an ordinary meal, but that in that meal they were divided into parties, some eating and drinking to excess, and others left without any thing, vs. 20. 21. This was not only making the Lord's supper a meal for satisfying hunger — contrary to