The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 383

trans)tion period immediately after his converRion, the "three yea~s" that be spent in Arabia and Damascus before he went up to Jerusalem and began his apostolic ministry {Gal. i. 17, 18). We can well believe that it was during that time of lonely, silent contemplation that the granc!. verities of the gospel message were divinely unveiled to him; and this may have been among the things that he then "received of the Lord." The simplicity of the way in which he describes the institution of this sacred rite is in ,perfect harmony with the simplicity of the gospel record. One can only wonder how it can have been possible for such an incident to be turned, as it has been, into a weapon ,of sacerdotal pretence and spiritual oppression. 'fhe too prevalent neglect of the observance has, no doubt, to a great extent been the natural and inevitable result of this abuse. The false or ~xaggerated use of anything always provokes to the opposite- extreme. We may urge its claims on the Christian conscience and heart by lookin" ,at it in three different aspects-as a memorial, as a symbol, and as a means of spiritudl ,edification. I. A MEMORIAL. "This do in remembrance of me." "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come." Christ's own words set it forth as an act of personal remembrance, Paul's as a time-long witness to the great sacrifice. Taking the two together, it appears as a memorial of " Christ and him crucified "-of himself in all the truth and meaning of his earthly manifestation, of his death as the issue in which the fulness of that meanin.~ was gathered up and consum- mated. We may regard this memorial in its relation hoth to those who observe it and to those who observe it not; as a method of keeping tlie fact of Christ's self-surrender vividly before the minds of those who believe in him and love him, and as a testimony that appeals with silent eloquence to a thoughtless, careless world. In this respect it resembles other Scripture memorials (Gen. xxii. 14; xxviii. 18, 19; Exod. xii. 2+-27 ; .Josh. iv. 20--24; 1 Sam. vii. 12). And when we think how easily things the most important fade away from our memories while trifles linger there, and sacred impressions are obliterated by meaner influences, we may well recognize with devout thankfulness the wisdom and love which ordained such a mode of perpetuating the remembrance of the most momentous of all events in human histury, while, in spite of all its per- versions, the simple fact of the continuance of such a sacred usage of the Church is a. proof that it rests on a Divine foundation. II. A SYMBOL. It represents visibly that which in the nature of things is invisible. Not merely is bread a fitting emblem of the Saviour's body and wine of his blood, and the breaking of the one and the pouring out of the other of tho manner of his death; but the service itself symbolizes the personal union of the soul with biru, the method alike of its origin and its support. It bears witness, as in a figure, to the deeper reality of the life of faith. It sets forth, in the form of a significant deed, what our Lord set forth in the form of metaphoric words when he said, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man," etc. (John vi. 53-51:l). And in both cases" it is the Spirit which quickeneth." Mysticism has thrown its false halo, its bewitching glamour, around r,hese Divine words; and the sncrcd ordinanco that would otherwise have made its simple appeal to the insight of the Christian understanding 110d the tenderness of tho Christian heart has become mere food for superstition. But there is no Scripture warrant whatever for this. From the gross materialism of the Romish "Mass" to the subtler refinement of thought that regards the Lord's spiritual presence as being iu some mystic sense inherent in the bread and wine, speaking of the sacrament being ·" administered," as though it had some occult virtue in it, a kind of spiritual medica- ment conferred by priestly hands, and "taken" by the faithful for their souls' healing, -all these shades of opinion alike substitute a physical mystery for a spiritual truth, and engender a superstitious faith that fixes its attention on the material emblems and something that is supposed to be true of them; rather than tho intelligent faith that -discerns the unseen Saviour through them, very much as we look through our window upon the golden glory of the setting sun without thinking of the transparent medium through which we behold it (see 'Christ the Bread of Life,' J.McLeod Campbell, p. 21, et seq.). III. A MEANS OF srmITUAL EDIFICATION. Here lies tho Divine reason of the memorial and the symbol. It is more than a "transparent medium" through which the soul -may gaze upon the crucified Christ; it is a channel of spiritual influence by meaus of  388 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [oH. Xl, 1-34,