ACTS ii. 42 57
of Christ, and to bear a character of the utmost gravity. He rehearses the history of that institution, and bases on it some stern and awful censures of the profaneness which marked the Corinthian practice. The " breaking of the bread " was something more than the formal act by which a social festivity was inaugur- ated. It was more than an eloquent symbol — more than a solemn act of commemoration. It was the current phrase for a religious rite to which the Apostle evidently attributed the greatest importance. The very phrase had historic reference ; it was an appeal to the devout recollection of Christians — it recalled and set before them the Master Himself in " the night in which he was betrayed." The bread which then He blessed and brake was identified with the bread there placed on the table of the Eucharist, and the cup was the same. So the Apostle links together the profanities of the Corinthian Eucharist and that last supper in the room at Jerusalem, where Christ Himself had instituted the sacrament. "For as often as ye eat this bread and drink the cup ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body."
IT How much lies behind that simple phrase " the breaking of bread ! " However close the association of the Eucharist with the Agape was in the apostolic age, it never went so far as to submerge the distinctive character of the Sacrament. St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, not to say, also, the Gospel of St. John, which certainly reflects the eucharistic doctrine of the later apostolic age, absolutely prohibits the popular notion that the unique and awful significance of the Holy Communion belongs to the later period of the Church.1
T[ It is not uninteresting to compare with St. Paul's language the eucharistic prayer preserved in The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. "As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and gathered together became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom, for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever " {Didache, i. 4).
1 H. H. Henson.
58 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY
1. Now we have seen that St. Paul was very careful to dwell on the deep significance of the Holy Communion, and circum- stances proved at this time how necessary this was. But the great precaution which was taken to guard the sacred observance of the Holy Communion does not preclude the joyful association which essentially attached to the " breaking of bread." The " Eucharist," the name given to that service, in itself indicates the manner in which the primitive Christians regarded it. "And this food is called among us Eucharistia, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. Por not as common bread and common drink do we receive these ; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh." x
^f In " The Breaking of Bread " the Apostolic Christians possessed one abiding and unchanging secret in which their whole spiritual being stood rooted, in possession of which they could face all that was before them, whatever the long and cruel years might bring. Here that secret was embodied. The innermost soul of this integral life was an act of organic worship, " the breaking of bread." Christ has passed out of sight, they see Him no more, and they now therefore have sorrow. Sorrow there must be. Nevermore would they have His visible presence in their midst, His voice in their ears, His breath on their brows. Nevermore would they move and walk and talk together, and sit at the same table, and eat in the same room. Nevermore the intimate and enthralling joy of that brief earthly companionship. " And ye now, therefore, have sorrow, but I will not leave you comfortless ; I will come unto you, and your joy shall be full, and that joy no man can ever take from you." So He had promised, and the pledge of that promise being fulfilled came out of the heart of those days now gone, when they had eaten and drunk with Him as His friends that last meal in which the sweet earthly companionship had crowned its blessed intimacy, that last meal in which the old days of friendship had come to a close, and had said their last