This finds emphasis in the constant teaching of the need of purification for participation in holy rites. This is expressed in He 10^'- : ' Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, .and our body washed with pure water.' In other words, devotion must be sincere and not formal, faith must be enlightened and firmly held. The writer goes on to refer to the confession ni.ade at baptism (v.'') : 'Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not.' Other references * Ecclesiastical Polity, v. Ivii. 4.
could be multiplied, but it may suilice to quote I I' 1'"' ", where the exhortation to holiness of life accompanies reference to 'calling on the Father.' The thought is summarized in the ancient pro- clamation by the bishop to the people, ' Holy things to holy persons.'
Again we lind that the primary characteristic of apostolic worshi]) was to oiler to the Lord the lumour due unto His name in holy worship (Ps2U'-). The desire of the Psalmist was fullilled. The Church met to give .as well as to receive.
This thought leads straight u]> into the high region of siicculation entered by Freeman when he traces back the ultimate principle of tlie Eucharist and of the Divine Ollice to the fund.amental doc- trines of the lucarnution and the Perpetual Priest- hood of Christ. The Incarnation is linked up with the foundation truth of sacrilice. ' Though he was ricli, yet for your sakes he became jioor.' * All Christian worship is enriched by that thought. It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Under the conditions of human sinfulness the incarnate life of Christ was necessarily consecrated by suttering, which found its culmination in the Cross of Calvary, His Passion being the pei'fecting of His Priesthood. So it is the privilege of the Church in the Euch.arist to show the Lord's death till He come, to oiler in this memorial sacrilice of praise and thanksgiving ' the one true pure immortal sacrihce.'
The Divine Office of a later age, which tr.aces its roots to the simple congregational meetings for edification, allied, as we have seen, to the Syna- gogue services, is based on the thought of the Perpetual Priesthood of Christ. Constant reference to the mediation of Christ in the familiar ending of priij-ers ' through Jesus Christ our Lord ' kept this ever in mind.
Literature. — L. Duchesne, Christian Worship-, Eng. tr., London, 1904 ; A. Edersheira, I'he Temple ; itn Ministry and Services, do., 187-1 ; A. Fortescue, The Matts, do., 1912 ; P. Freeman, The Pritjciples of Divine Servi(;e, Oxford, 1S63 ; T. M. Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Ccnfun'e.S', London, 1902; J. H. Srawley, The Early History of the Liturfiy, Cambridge, 1913 ; F. E. Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Ante-Nicene Churchy London, 1S97.
A. E. Burn. WRATH See Akger.
WRITING.— 1. The autographs of the Apostolic Age. — The problem regarding ' writing ' and 'book' in the Apostolic Age might be exjiressed by the following question : With what materials and in what forms were letters and longer works written in the primitive Christian community and the Christian churches of the jieriod between A.l). 30 and c. A.u. 100? This question would be easily answered if westill po.ssessed autographs(ai'r67pa0a, apx^Tvira, ISiSxftpa.) from the hands of Christian writers in that period — if, e.g., we had NT Epistles by St. Paul or otlier writers. Gospels, or, say, the First Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corintliians, in the handwriting of the authors or their amanu- enses, or even if we h.ad the earliest transcripts of tlie originals. Unfortunately this is not the case. Down to the present time not the sm.allest scrap of an autograph from a Christian source in the 1st cent. A.D. has come to light. It is quite con- ceiv.ible that such an autograph might have with- stood the ravages of time until now, for we actually pos.sess MS fragments of consider.ably e.arlier origin than the autogr;i]ihs of the NT— a fact which shows the durability of the ancient writing material in cases where the external conditions gave it a fair chance of survival, and, in particular, where the papyrus was protected against damp. Hitherto, however, all reports announcing the discovery of primitive Christian autographs, and all, even the • 2 Co 89.
700
WRITING
WRITING
earlier, references to their being in existence at the time, have proved to be utterly valueless. More- over, even granting it possible that some fragment of a Christian autograph dating from the 1st cent, may yet fall into our hands, we can hardly cherish the hope that in particular the original MSS of the NT will be found. In this connexion we must remember the distinctive character of a large pro- .portion of the NT writings— the fact, namely, that, while they came in time to rank as literature in the highest sense, the majority of them were not originally designed for the general public at all. The Epistles of Paul were certainly not given to the world as books in the sense recognized by the ancient book-trade ; on the contrary, they were sent as true letters, letters in the handwriting of the .sender or his amanuensis. The one much- handled MS, passing from reader to reader, perhaps from church to church, would undoubtedly sutler damage in the process, and it is hardly likely that in the primitive communities the material upon which such letters and their first transcripts were written would be of the most expensive or most durable kind. Again, as regards the primitive Christian writings that may conceivably have been bought and sold as books, it is highly improbable that they were written and preserved with the extreme care that looks to a long futvire ; for, as we know, the mind of the primitive Christian community was for the most part not greatly concerned with the earthly future at all. When Clement of Rome, writing to the Church in Corinth c. A.D. 96, says 'Take up (avaXa^ere) the letter of the sainted apostle Paul ' (ch. 47), his words cannot be reasonably supposed to prove that the autograph of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians was still in their possession. The disputes of the 2nd cent, regarding certain NT passages are intelligible only on the assumption that the disputants neither possessed the autographs nor knew of their exist- ence. Whether the words of Tertullian in de Pra- scrlptione Hmreticorum, 36 — ' percurre ecclesias apostolicas apud quas ipsoe adhuc cathedne apos- tolorura suis locis priesident (preesidentur [?]), apud quas ipsae authenticoe literal eorum recitantur, sonantes vocem et reprsesentantes faciem unius cuiusque ' — are to be taken as implying that Pauline autographs were still extant in many places, as e.g. Thessalonica, the present writer cannot definitely say. In view of all the circum- stances, therefore, we must endeavour to recon- struct the facts regarding 'writing' and 'book' in Christian circles in the Apostolic Age, our data being sporadic references in the primitive Christian •writings themselves, and wdiat we know of the general practice of writing in the period.