222 CHAPTER IX. WORSHIP IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. of the second and third centuries gradually disappeared. And therefore, even now, Christians of different denomThe apostle requires the Christians668 to prepare inations and holding different opinions can unite around themselves for the Lord’s Supper by self-examination, or the table of their common Lord and Saviour, and feel one earnest inquiry whether they have repentance and faith, with him and in him. without which they cannot receive the blessing from the § 56. Sacred Places. sacrament, but rather provoke judgment from God. This Although, as the omnipresent Spirit, God may be caution gave rise to the appropriate custom of holding worshipped in all places of the universe, which is his special preparatory exercises for the holy communion. temple,670 yet our finite, sensuous nature, and the need of In the course of time this holy feast of love has be- united devotion, require special localities or sanctuaries come the subject of bitter controversy, like the sacrament consecrated to his worship. The first Christians, after the of baptism and even the Person of Christ himself. Three example of the Lord, frequented the temple at Jerusalem conflicting theories—transubstantiation, consubstantia- and the synagogues, so long as their relation to the Motion, and spiritual presence of Christ-have been deduced saic economy allowed. But besides this, they assembled from as many interpretations of the simple words of also from the first in private houses, especially for the institution (“This is my body,” etc.), which could hard- communion and the love feast. The church itself was ly have been misunderstood by the apostles in the per- founded, on the day of Pentecost, in the upper room of sonal presence of their Lord, and in remembrance of his an humble dwelling. warning against carnal misconception of his discourse The prominent members and first converts, as Mary, 669 on the eating of his flesh. The eucharistic controversies the mother of John Mark in Jerusalem, Cornelius in Caein the middle ages and during the sixteenth century are sarea, Lydia in Philippi, Jason in Thessalonica, Justus in among the most unedifying and barren in the history of Corinth, Priscilla in Christianity. And yet they cannot have been in vain. The Ephesus, Philemon in Colosse, gladly opened their different theories represent elements of truth which have houses for social worship. In larger cities, as in Rome, the become obscured or perverted by scholastic subtleties, Christian community divided itself into several such asbut may be purified and combined. The Lord’s Supper is: semblies at private houses,671 which, however, are always (1) a commemorative ordinance, a memorial of Christ’s addressed in the epistles as a unit. atoning sacrifice on the cross; (2) a feast of living union That the Christians in the apostolic age erected speof believers with the Saviour, whereby they truly, that is cial houses of worship is out of the question, even on spiritually and by faith, receive Christ, with all his bene- account of their persecution by Jews and Gentiles, to say fits, and are nourished with his life unto life eternal; (3) nothing of their general poverty; and the transition of a communion of believers with one another as members a whole synagogue to the new faith was no doubt very of the same mystical body of Christ; (4) a eucharist or rare. As the Saviour of the world was born in a stable, thankoffering of our persons and services to Christ, who and ascended to heaven from a mountain, so his apostles died for us that we might live for him. and their successors down to the third century, preached Fortunately, the blessing of the holy communion in the streets, the markets, on mountains, in ships, sepuldoes not depend upon the scholastic interpretation and chres, eaves, and deserts, and in the homes of their conunderstanding of the words of institution, but upon the verts. But how many thousands of costly churches and promise of the Lord and upon childlike faith in him. chapels have since been built and are constantly being built in all parts of the world to the honor of the cruci668 1 Cor. 11:28. 669 John 6:63: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh fied Redeemer, who in the days of his humiliation had no profiteth nothing, the words that I have spoken unto you place of his own to rest his head!672 are spirit, and are life.” This passage furnishes the key for the § 57. Sacred Times—The Lord’s Day. understanding of the previous discourse, whether it refers to Literature. the Lord’s Supper, directly or indirectly, or not at all. That the George Holden: The Christian Sabbath. London, ἐστί in the words of institution may indicate a figurative or 1825. (See ch. V.) symbolical (as well as a real) relation, is now admitted by all W. Henstenberg: The Lord’ s Day. Transl. from the critical exegetes; that it must be so understood in that connection is admitted by those who are not under the control of a doctrinal bias. See my annotations to Lange’s Com. on Matthew, 26:26, pp. 470 sqq.
670 Comp. John 4:24. 671 ἐκκλησίαι κατ̓ οἱκον, Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19. 672 Luke 9:58.
