have seen the Bread solemnly blessed, broken, and eaten. He would have seen the Wine solemnly blessed, poured out, and drunk by those assembled.

7. Now, it is true that in ancient times, though the victim itself was the efficacious element of sacrifice, it was offered with and by means of bread and wine, and that mealtime and sacrifice were so essentially connected together that " even the modes of expressing the two acts were frequently interchanged."*

8. But what thoughts would have instantly risen in the mind of the pro-prætor? What question would he most certainly have put ? Would he not have asked, "If this is a solemn meal, a religious feast, when and where was the sacrificial victim offered? The victims for our sacrifices find few purchasers, the temples are abandoned, the sacred rites are neglected; where is He whom ye worship,† and what is the sacrifice ye are celebrating?

9. To such a question, what would have been the reply of any Christian in his province? Would he not have said, "This Meal, whereof we partake, is a sacred Feast, instituted by Him, from whom we are called Christians. He commanded Bread to be eaten, and Wine to be drunk by us in memory of His Death, which He underwent upon the Cross"?

10. A Christian of Bithynia would undoubtedly have

* For the religious importance attached by Jews to the actions of breaking bread and pouring out wine, even at a common meal, see Lightfoot's Temple Service; Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, pp. 89, 90; The Book of Jewish Ceremonies, by Gamaliel Ben Pedahzur, pp. 51 -56; Cudworth's True Notion, chap. i.

"Carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere," Plin. Ep. xcvi.

gone on to say more upon the subject to his inquirer.* But the answer, even as far as it goes, brings out a very remarkable feature in reference to this Rite. It claims to rest not upon any conception or theory, but upon an objective, historical fact, and this fact is the death of its Institutor.

II. Now this is deserving of note. The disappearance of an ancient, time-hallowed mode of religious worship is a fact of history. The celebration of this Rite is a fact of history, the rise and origin of which can be traced back to a certain, definite period, of which we know a great deal.

12. We are relegated, then, for an explanation of the origin of this unprecedented Rite, not to a land of hazy theories or shadowy mythology, but to one where we can plant our footsteps on solid ground.

13. This Rite claims to rest within historic times on the death of a Person. Either this death took place, or it did not. If it did, there must have been circumstances connected with it utterly unlike any other that has taken place in history, if we are to account for its commemoration ever since by means of the reception of Bread and Wine, to which Jew and Gentile alike attached a solemn and even a religious importance.

V!

1. Who, then, instituted this Rite? When did He institute it, and under what circumstances? The answer to these enquiries is not a matter of dispute. All the Churches that have received the Symbol, Latin or Greek,

*The question of a higher or lower view of the Eucharist is not material to the argument. The question is, What is the meaning of the Rite at all?

Catholic or Protestant, whatever other view they may take of it, agree in referring it to one and the same Person, and to one and the same time.

2. The Institutor-such is the testimony of Christian writers, and it is strengthened by every incidental notice of the facts which occurs in profane authors-appeared about eighteen centuries and a half ago, during the reigns of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, in Palestine, an obscure corner of the ancient Roman Empire.

3. Apparently He was of the humblest origin. His reputed father was a carpenter of Nazareth, a town hidden away amidst the Galilean hills, unknown and unnamed in the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures. His mother was a Jewish maiden of Bethlehem in Judæa, who lived at Nazareth. Here for thirty years the Institutor of this mysterious Rite grew up, sharing with the town its seclusion and obscurity, far removed alike from the stir and bustle of the great capitals of the Empire, and the disputes of the theological schools of His native land.

4. When the thirty years of seclusion were over, He left His humble home and came forth as a Teacher of His countrymen, and after a while gathered round Him a small body of disciples of equally humble origin as Himself-peasants, publicans, fishermen of Galilee.

5. To these His followers He endeared Himself by a life of self-sacrificing devotion to their highest interests. With them He went about amongst His countrymen. He visited their capital, their towns, their villages, and addressed Himself as a teacher to all classes, rich and poor, learned and unlearned.*

*For the sake of the argument, the supernatural element involved in the Saviour's miracles is not here pressed.

6. His teaching, it has been already* noticed, has exercised a very remarkable influence in the world. It combined terrible severity against sin with infinite tenderness towards sinners; it united a marvellous simplicity with a claim unhesitatingly and unfalteringly urged to an absolutely boundless authority† over the minds and souls of men. But it provoked determined opposition. Its denunciations of hypocrisy, pretence, and formalism, its assertion, never retracted or modified, of the Speaker's natural title to universal royalty and coequality with God,+ arrayed against Him the most powerful classes of His countrymen, and they resolved to compass His death.

7. The extant biographies§ of the Institutor of this Rite tell us that He was well aware of the deepening intensity of this opposition. He saw the tide setting in steadily against Him, and He never disguised from His followers

*See above, p. 4, and Milman's History of Christianity, i. 189. +"Jesus makes everything depend upon His person; in fact, His person is His matter. When He would most emphatically assure or confirm, His words are, Verily, verily, I say unto you. We are to believe His words, not because of the truth of their matter, but because of the dignity of His person-and yet He was the meekest of men!"-Luthardt's Fundamental Truths, p. 284; Liddon's Bampton Lectures, 166–179; see also the comparison in this respect between Christ and Socrates in Ecce Homo, PP, 94, 95.

John v. 17, 18.

§"Into the question of their authenticity and genuineness it is not necessary to enter here. That the three earliest Gospels at any rate existed before the siege of Jerusalem, and that they had before the middle of the second century acquired a sacred authority, may be regarded as a conclusion which has been wrung from the inevitable candour of reluctant adversaries."-Farrar's Witness of History to Christ, pp. 52, 53.

its inevitable issue. It formed the subject of frequent and earnest conversation with them.* Without the slightest trace of misgiving, and with an unearthly calmness, He never faltered in His declaration that on His death depended the most momentous issues alike to His disciples and to the world at large.

8. At length the hatred and opposition of the ruling powers reached its climax, and they were enabled, owing to the treachery of one of His own disciples, to ensure His delivery into their hands. The evening before their designs were carried out was the Eve of the Passover, the great historic Festival of His countrymen. Jerusalem was crowded with strangers and pilgrims from every quarter of the world. The hills around were whitened with countless flocks of sheep and lambs ready for the morrow's Festival. The Institutor of the Rite we are examining had made careful preparation† for celebrating this Feast with twelve of His more immediate followers, and on the evening in question He celebrated it with them according to the custom of the nation.

9. The end, which He had foreseen, and of which He had so often spoken, was now close at hand. But He was neither perturbed, nor alarmed, nor anxious to retract or modify any of His boundless claims. Calmly and quietly, He took, as the Festal Meal proceeded, one of the unleavened cakes that had been placed before Him as Master of the Feast, and giving thanks, He brake it, and gave it to them, saying " Take, eat, This is My body,

* (1) Matt. xvi. 21; Mark viii. 31; Luke ix. 21, 22; (2) Matt. xvii. 9; Mark ix. 9; Luke ix. 44; (3) Matt. x. 33, 34.

+ Matt. xxvi. 17—19; Mark xiv. 12—16; Luke xxii. 7—13.