The Agape, then, in this small community, is combined with the Eucharist. It is a common meal shared by the brethren, with a simple liturgy of its own, Jewish in origin, with marked affinity to Jewish blessings at meals. It is followed by the Eucharist so closely that it is ail one service. None but the baptized participate. Forms are lacking, as a member of tlie charismatic ministry seems in general to preside, and he is to be left free to follow the promptings of the Spirit. Cate- chumens and members under discipline are not ex- cluded from the place of celebration. On the con- trary, they are expected to be present, and are urged publicly to acquire or recover tlie right of participation. The Eucharist is a sacrifice {duala), and the words of Malachi are taken as a prophecy of it, ' In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great King, saith the Lord.' But this does not indicate, as Bickell thought, the germ of the doctrine of the Mass, nor what is technically known as the Eucliaristic Sacrifice. The sacrifice, as all approximately contemporary use of the word confirms, consists in the prayers, the praises, the worship, and the gifts of believers (see EBE v. 546 f. ).
There is no trace of 2. Christian year in the Didache, but there is a Christian week. The Lord's Day is the day of worship ; Wednesday and Friday are fasts. The only evident reason for the choice of these days is the necessity of being dis- tinct in all things from the ' hypocrites ' — the un- believing Jews — who fast on Mondays and Thurs- days ; but the real underlying reason may have been that which was put forward later for these days as semi-fasts, viz. that Wednesday was the day of the Betrayal and Friday that of the Cruci- fixion. There is also v\'hat may be called a Chris- tian day. The beginnings of a certain formalism in devotional exercises appear in the injunction
to pray, using the Lord's Prayer, three times a day. This, too, is founded on Jewish practice. No definite hours are named, and therefore no change of hour is suggested. Tertullian, later, prescribes definite hours. Christians are to pray at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, in addition to the ordinary morning and evening prayers of which no Christian needs to be reminded. These devotions are to include the Lord's Prayer {d-3 Orat. XXV., x.). Clement of Alexandria, in the work in which he cites the Didache as Scripture, though he knows, and, to some extent, commends, the three hours of prayer, rather disparages the adhesion to these definite hours. 'The yvbiariKos prays throughout his whole life, endeavouring by prayer to have fellowship with God' [Strom, vii. 7).
It was in its account of the office-bearers of the Church and the nature of the ministry that the recovered Didache produced the most profound im- pression. Accounts of origins and development like Lightfoot's were greatly strengthened in most particulars, but others received from it a fatal stroke. The details and even the general trend of these controversies lie outside the scope of this article. Our attention is confined to the evidence of the Didache itself. Even in its first section it puts a very high value on the ministry. The cate- chumen is enjoined to ' remember night and day him that speaks to thee the word of God, for wheresoever the Lordship is spoken of, there is the Lord.' Who are included among those that speak the word of God ? The reference plainly is, in the first place, to the unlocalized or charismatic ministry, which occupies so large a place in the part dealing with office-bearers. This ministry is not appointed by the members of the Church, their office is transmitted through no human channel. They comprise only the first three of St. Paul's list in 1 Co 12-^ — apostles, prophets, and teachers.
The apostles are evidently, as already said, rare visitants. The missionarj- work of the Church is elsewhere. But every apostle who pays a visit is to be received as the Lord. He is not to remain longer than two days, for impostors are rife, and the desire to live for longer than two days on the generosity of the community and in the sunshine of its favour, is a sure sign of a false prophet. The genuine apostle will not ask for money, nor take with him more than the necessary food for the next stage of his journey. Prophets are more common, but are held in high esteem. The true prophet is not to be tried or proved ; his word is to be accepted as that of one who speaks in the Spirit. He is to be free from the rules and forma that bind other men. But abuses have crept into the prophetic office, and counterfeit propliets are to be detected by their behaviour, especially by their asking for money for themselves, or ordering an Agape for their own benefit. A prophet may wish to connect himself with a particular com- munity. Such a settled prophet is worthy of sup- port. First-fruits are to be set aside for the use of these men, for, in this respect, they are like the high priests of the Jews. There were communities without any resident prophet. In such the first- fruits were to be given directly to the poor. An obscure sentence about the prophet 'making as- semblies for a worldly mystery' or 'acting with a view to the worldly mystery of the Church ' (even the translation is doubtful) has, as yet, re- ceived no satisfactory interpretation. Little is said about the third class of the general ministry, the teachers. They too are Avorthy of support. This implies that there were both peripatetic and settled teachers. The slightness of tlie reference cannot be due to their rarity. May it not be due to the following? It is commonly argued that the Shepherd of Hermas passed over the prophets be-