Ver. 23.-St. Paul's claim to direct revelation. "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." "The whole structure of the passage seems to imply that what follows had been received by St. Paul directly from Christ, and that he is not appealing to a well-known tradition." "The method of communication (whether in a trance, or state of ecstasy, or any other supernatural manner) does not appear to cause either doubt or difficulty to those to whom the apostle conveyed the i11formation thus miraculously bestowed on him." Illustrate St. Paul's distinct daim to npostleshi p on the ground of a direct call and revelation from the Lord Jesus. If St. Paul had a distinct revelation on the matter of the Lord's Supper, we must reganl i.t as a divinely instituted ordinance or sacrament. The verses following our text become for us an authentic explanation, given by the risen Christ, concerning his sacrament. We fix attention on the proors that St. Paul had received a direct Divine revelation. Three points may be dealt with in illustration. I. THE BEGINNING OF HIS CHRISTIAN LIFE WAS A REVELATION. See the remarkable vision and communication on his approaching Damascus. II. THERE WERF. TIMES DURING HIS LIFE OF DlllECT REVELATION. As o.t Trous; on the journey to Jerusalem; when in prison; during the storm and shipwreck; and 11s narrated in 2. Cor. xii. Ill. HE RECOGNIZED HIS KNOWLEDGE OF TIIE FACTS OF CHRIST'S LIFE AS Dl!lECTLY COMMUNICATED. He had no personal acquaintance with Christ; ho was not dependent on the narratives of apostles and disciples, save in part. Christ told him his story by vision and revelation. And St. Paul goes even further, and declares that the gospel which he preached, tho views of truth and duty which were characteristic of him, he received from no man; all came by direct revelation of the Lord. A special iuterest, therefore, attaches to the Pauline teachings.-R. '1'.
Ver. 26.-Tlie Lord's Supper a showing forth. Considering how much has been made 394 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [cH. xi.1-34 ..
of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper by the Christian Church it is remarkable that the passage connected ,vith this text should be the only apostolic teachin" we have respecting its observance. \Ve have iu the Gospels the records of the inchlent from which it takes its origin, but though we should have expected St. Peter or St. John to- give us complete counsels for its observance, neither of them refers to it. St. Paul alone· deals with it, and it is a singular thing that he makes no allusion to it when writin" to Timothy and Titus, and seeking to fit them, and others through them, for their past~ral work. It eYen seems tbat, but for the accident of an abuse creeping into the Corinthian Church, we should have been left entirely without apostolic precedent or instruction concerning it. Our text, and the verses connected with it, contain hints of the way in which the Lord's Supper was then observed; indications of the kind of abuses likely to creep in; and teachings concerning those great principles which were to regulate its management. \Ve can clearly see that it was then a meal, not a service ; a feast, not a fast ; a communion, not an administration; a means of remembrance, and not a. mystical presence. Our Lord kept the ordinary Passover meal, and into one of the customary incidents of it he put a new and spiritual significance. Now, see what actually occurred in the early Church. Those having a common faith naturally sought fellowship together. The Eastern idea of fellowship is partaking of the same food together. In this way grew up the agapre, or love-feasts, and these seem to have been observed in all the Churches that were founded. These agapre could easily be con- nected in thought with our Lord's last meal with his disciples, and on thH closing part of them a special significance was probably made to rest. When Christianity touched Vi"estern life, the old Eastern agapre naturally dropped away. Feeding together is not so familiar a sign of fellowship in the West as in the East. So in the West a part of the meal was retained and became a sacrament, a service, and a mystery. St. Paul helps us to understand the special significance put into a part of the meal. It was a showing forth; but we ask- I. .A. SHOWING FORTH OF WHAT? 1. Of a fact of history: the " Lord's death ...- Remember that St. Paul usually goes on to the Resurrection, as revealing the significance· of the death. The Lord's death is shown forth in (1) the substance of the sacrament- bre.ad, which is crushed in the mill before it can become food; wine, which is trodden in the wine-press before it can become drink; (2) the form of the food in the !iilcrament -it is broken, and poured out. Impress the importance of keeping up the remem- brance of this fact, (a) as affirming the actual historical character of the Gospel records;. (b) as keeping for the death of Christ its central place in Christian doctrine; (c) as- renewing, on men's souls, the special moral influence of Christ, _the life-versuasion, the- "constraining" of his cross. ll. Of a/act of faith: "Till he come." That is" shown forth" in keeping up the observance, and in the manifest fact that he is now sensibly absent. We declare that the only president of the feast is Christ, as spiritually present. The importance of showing forth this fact is seen in its (1) testifying to the resurrec- tion and present life of Christ; (2) in its affirming the foundation of the Church to be faith, not doctrine, or knowledge, or experience; and (3) in its renewing the Church's rrreat hope and witnessina 0 to the reality and value of things unseen, future, al)d eternal. " II . .A. s~own-o FORTH TO WHOM? 1. To God; as assuring him that we value his great Gift. 2. To ourselves; as quickening our own feeling, remembrance, and spiritual life. 3. To our fellow-Christians; as bidding them rejoice with us in the common salvation which we all share. 4. To the world; as testifying that the despised " spiritual" is nevertheless the "true" and the "eternal." In conclusion, show the· value of symbolic helps in religious life, and the claim that rests on us to show forth Christ's death, if we have faith in him and the hope of his coming again.-R. T.