Section 92 — A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels

(3) It is a f'irm of prayer. The prayers which John the Baptist taught his disciples' (Lk lli) must have been forms ; and when a disciple of Jesus, reminding Him of John's custom, said, ' Lord teach us to pray,' it was doubtless a prayer- form for which he asked. And Jesus justified the request by replying. 'When ye pray. say. Our Father,' etc. Not that He wished Hi.s disciples to restrict themselves to this form or to repeat it in- cessantly. It is significant that, apart from these two passages in Mt." and Lk., we do not hear of the Lord's Prayer in the NT again. The recorded prayers of the Apostolic Church bear no resem- blance to it. When God .sent forth the Spirit of His Son into men's hearts, they prayed with freedom

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as the Spirit gave ihem utterance. And yet from the first this must have been, and must ever con- tinue to be. a specially consecrated form of prayer, which no one can sincerely use without being con- scious that, in presenting his petitions in the verj- words that Christ has given, he is asking accord- ing to the will of God (cf. 1 Jn 5").

(4) It is a prayer especially for social use. There are prayers which can be offered only in secret, and Jesus had already spoken of these. ' TIiou, when thou prayest. enter into thy closet,' He .said (v.fi). But this was a prayer for the whole Chris- tian society : ' After this manner pray ye.'' -When ye pray, say.' The invocation is addressed to 'our Father,' the requests are on behalf of others as well as oureelves : ' give us,'' ' forgive us,' ' bring us not,' 'deliver us.'' And so this prayer, which is an appeal to the Fatherhood of God. is also a constant reminder of our human and especially of our Chris- tian brotherhood. It teaches us to join our desires with those of the univereal Church as we pray for the coming of the Kingdom. It teaches us when we ask for bread, or forgiveness, or guidance and deliverance, to bear the needs of others along with our own on our hearts before God, and to remem- ber that the unspeakable privilege of intercession is of the very essence of Christian prayer.

LiTERATrRE. — See precedin-r article.

J. C. Lambert. **LORD'S SUPPER— (L)

Introductory.

1. The Sacramental in Hebrew worship.

2. The Method and Teaching of Jesns.

3. Passover Eve.

(||^ The Svnoptic Gospels.

(b) The Fourth Gospel.

4. The Institution.

(d) The common underlying Tradition.

(b) Ditferences in detail.

(i.) Mark-Matt.; (ii.) Luke 2215-20; (iii.) Paul ; (iv.) The Fourth Gospel. Results.

5. The Apostolic Church.

(«) The Jewish-Christian Commnnity. (h) The Pauline Churches.

6. The sub-Apostolic Church.

(a) Clement of Rome.

(ft) Phny's Letter to Trajan.

(d) Ignatius.

(() Justin Martyr.

7. The Lord's Supper and the Pagan Mysteries.

Literature.

Introductory. — The Lord's Supper has been for centuries, and is to-day. a theological storm-centre ; though the blasts have shifted, recent critical scholarship having occasioned a new incidence of forces. Former controversies raged round the meaning of the institution. At present the dis- cussion is even more vital, for it is a matter not of interpretation only, but of the trustworthiness of the sources. The Gospels as they now stand are said to owe so much to the thought and practice of the growing Church, that it is neces- sary to read between the lines in order to detect the simple form of the Eucharist on the day of its first celebration, when • it signified rather the abro- gation of the old worship and the near approach of the Kingdom than the institution of a new wor- ship.' It is denied that Jesus, with His views as to the speedy consummation of His Kingdom, could have instituted the Supper as a perpetual memorial of His death ; and the connexion between the Last Supper and the Passover in the Gospels is regarded as a later overlying deposit, which can be easily detached from the primitive stratum. To take an example. Jesus is supposed to have uttered the words of the Supper recorded in the Gospels on the impulse of the moment. Feeling Him.self already victor over death and the world. He wishes to inspire His disciples with His own

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LORD'S SUPPER

conviction, and by an act of vivid imagination con- ceives Himself as already dispensing the blessings of the comi:)leted Kingdom, their simple farewell meal having been transformed into the great Mes- sianic banquet of the future, which commonly served as a figure for the joys of Messiah's sove- reignty. Professor Gardner is even more drastic in his treatment of the Gospel tradition, eliminat- ing all evidence except that of St. Paul, who, he thinks, was the real originator of the rite, having ' turned a pagan ceremony to Christian use ' in a moment of ecstasy under the influence of what he had seen of the Greek mysteries in Corinth. But the great majority of impartial scholars who have discussed the question do not adopt such a highly critical attitude towards the narratives of the institution of the Supper, or reverse so completely the ordinarily accepted views as to its origin and purpose. No sufficient treatment of the Lord's Supper can pass in silence these problems which have been raised with great learning and acute- ness, but they must be discussed in relation to the method of Jesus the Messiah, who brings Israel to its fulfilment.