I. Scriptural Statement of the Subject. — The instruc- tions given by the N. T. in reference to baptism and the Lord's supper are of two kinds : 1. Those found in the example and precepts of Christ himself; 2. Those found in the subsequent practice and teaching of the apostles. Introductory to both is the great fact with which the Gospel history opens, viz. John's baptism : that was dis- tinctly declared to be a baptism of repentance, intro- ductory to the kingdom of God about to be established by the promised Messiah. John's baptism, therefore, is to be regarded as a connecting link between the old and the new dispensation; and as it was prophetic of Christ's immediate advent, so it was sanctioned by the fact of Christ's accepting, indeed demanding, baptism at the hands of John, in order to "fulfil all righteousness." By this expression we may understand that Christ not only fulfilled, in his own person, the law of the Abra- hamic covenant in circumcision, but also the spiritual law of Christianity which he was about to establish, and of which baptism was to be the appointed emblem. This view is corroborated in the fact that, in connec- tion with this baptism, not only was the Messiahship of Christ attested by an approving voice from heaven, but bv the descent upon him of the Holy Ghost (Matt, iii, 13-17 ; Mark i, 8-1 1 ; Luke iii, 21, 22). This great event occurred at the beginning of Christ's public min- istry; and although, in the record of his ministrations, little is said of baptism, yet sufiicient is recorded to in- dicate that the rite was practiced from the first as ini- tiatory to Christian discipleship. It is summarily men- tioned in John iv, 1,2, "that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself bap- tized not, but his flisciples." In the preceding chapter (ver. 22) it had been stated that " Jesus and his disci- ples came into the land of Judiea ; and there he tarried with them, and baptized." Hence we may infer that baptism was fidly established as a custom of the initial Church prior to the formal command by which, in the great Commission, its perpetual observance was enjoin- ed (Matt, xxviii, 19). From the first exercise of their appointed office, the apostles preached baptism as a duty (Acts ii, 38), and administered it to those professing Christianity (see Acts ii, 41 ; viii, 12, 13, 16, 38; ix, 18; xvi, 15, 33; xviii, 8, etc.). See Baptism.
The institution of the Lord's supper was, in some re- spects, similar. In his custom of fulfilling all righteous- ness, our Lord, on the night before his betrayal, assem- bled his disciples to eat the I'assover (q. v.), in accord- ance with Jewish law and custom. In that connection he not only identified himself as the true Paschal Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, but appointed bread and wine to be emblems of his bo<ly and blood, to be used by all his followers in perpetual commemora- tion of his impending sacrificial death (see Matt, xxvi, 26; Mark xiv,22; Luke xxii, 19; 1 Cor. xi, 23-27). That this institution was observed by the apostles and the
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churches founded by them in the simplicity and sacred- ness of its original appointment is obvious from various statements and allusions in the Acts and Epistles; but we may search the whole New-Testament record in vain for an account of any other appointments of a corre- sponding character. If, by analysis, we seek to deter- mine what is peculiar and essential to baptism and the Lord's supper, when considered as ordinances of the Christian Church, the following characteristics will be found to inhere in both : 1. They were illustrated by our Lord's own example, and enjoined by his specif- ic command ; 2. They were enjoined upon the whole Church, and as of perpetual obligation ; 3. They were recognised by the apostles and the New -Testament churches in the character stated, and b)' them observed in the form and spirit of their appointment; 4. Each of the institutions named had an important signiticance with reference to the whole scheme of salvation, and was adapted to serve as a means of grace to all Chris- tians. See Lord's Suppek, If, now, the ordinances named are to be considered as sacraments of the Chris- tian Church (which has never been questioned or de- nied), it is evident that nothing else should be consid- ered a sacrament in which the same characteristics do not in like manner inhere. Let the several points named be applied as tests to the five additional ob- servances of the Greek and Koman churches, called by them sacraments — viz. confirmation, matrimony, pen- ance, orders, and extreme unction — and it will be seen how radically defective they all are.
Keeping in view the fact tliat the term sacrament has no sanction from scriptural usage, a question of some importance arises as to how it came to its present significance and general adoption, also whether and to wiiat extent the term itself has become an agency of error. In considering this question, it is well to go back in thought to the post -apostolic age, and trace downward, by successive steps, tlie development of ideas and customs in the Christian Church. 1. Ideas of peculiar sacredness could not fail to be associated with duties enjoined in the last commands of the Lord Jesus — the recently crucified but now ascended Sav- iour. 2. These ideas would be intensified in the par- ticipation of the Lord's supper, which, by its verj' de- sign, addressed itself to the tenderest sympathies and highest moral purposes of the human soul. 3. As the act of commimion demanded of each believer, not only self-examination as to his faith and spiritual life, but also an actual or implied pledge of future obedience and devotion to Christ, the Captain of our salvation, so that pledge might easily come to be regarded somewhat in the light of an oath. 4. IMore especially as Christians were taught to regard theinselves as soldiers, called to fight the right of faith and to war a good warfare, it would be natural to regard the act of devotion by which they pledged allegiance to Christ as very anal- ogous to the sacrament itni, or oath, by which Koman soldiers swore allegiance to their emperor. Hence the Lord's supper came to be called sacrameittum eiicha- ristee. 5. In like manner, as baptism was regarded in the light of an enrolment to be a soldier of Jesus Christ, so it came to be called sacramentmn aqua. Thus, or similarly, in point of historic fact, the term sacrament became generic and inclusive of the two and only ob- servances enjoined by Christ as of universal and per- petual obligation upon the Church. Moreover, as both sacraments were designed to serve as outward signs of a promised invisible grace, they would naturalh' be rev- erenced as involving much that was incomprehensible to the natural mind, in fact, mysterious. Hence, in the Greek language, the term i.w(Tri]piov (niystery') came to be used as the equivalent of sacramentum in the Latin. This term "mystery," however, became misleading bj' very natural processes. It had for a long time l)een applied to certain secret ceremonies, practiced specially among the Greeks [see Eleusinian Mysteries], and could hardly fail to suggest analogous and corrupting