Article April 16, 1904 Issue

The Cup of Salvation

BEN HAWORTH-BOOTH.

It has been the custom of the modern church to attach more and more importance to the celebration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion, and to-day this celebration is regarded by numbers of good Christians as the principal and all-important part of their religious observances. Let us consider a moment whether the Scriptures warrant such an understanding of Christ's instructions.

In their respective gospels neither Matthew nor Mark lay any stress upon the celebration of the last supper of Jesus. They merely describe it as the celebration of the "Passover," which was customary at that season of the year, and entirely omit any such injunction as "This do in remembrance of me." On the other hand, it is true that Luke uses this phrase, but Luke had not been present at the Last Supper; indeed Luke, in his preface, expressly disclaims to have been an eye-witness of any of the events which he records in his gospel. He wrote his account of these events many years later, probably in Rome and almost certainly whilst he was a close companion of Paul. He reflects in his gospel much of the teaching of Paul, and the fact that he did so is indicated in the tradition (Eusebius) according to which Paul alluded to the work of Luke in the expression "my gospel." Luke was truly a historian, and appears to have relied upon Paul largely for his data, and it must be remembered also that even Paul had not been an eye-witness of the Last Supper. John was such an eye-witness, but John, the disciple "whom Jesus loved," does not describe the Last Supper at all, possibly because he feared that too large an importance might afterwards be attributed to the material celebration; but on the other hand, John gives us a full discourse on the all-importance of the spiritual bread of Life and the spiritual communion of the body and blood of Christ. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." It is possible to place a spiritual interpretation only upon these words, for in verse 63 we find, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

It is John's record of the spiritual communion of the body and blood of Jesus Christ which is accepted by Christian Scientists as their guide to Life eternal, and it is to the writings of Paul that we must turn to find the chief authority whereon other churches rely for their present attitude on this subject.

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