CHAPTER XIV.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS

(continued).

OU will remember that the Church of Corinth had written a letter to S. Paul, to consult him upon many questions that they were troubled about. This letter was

brought by three members of the Church of Corinth, Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus.

S. Paul would no doubt have many conversations with these representatives of the Church, representatives perhaps even of different parties in the Church, and would ask them many searching questions about what was going on in the Christian community at Corinth.

They had to tell him a sad and shameful story, not only of gross immorality and faction of the bitterest sort, but of the rivalry, and love of display, and the general disorder of their religious assemblies.

Sad to say, the religious assemblies of the Corinthian Church, even the solemn meetings for "the Breaking of the Bread," were characterized by selfishness, faction, and excess. The things that should have been for their wealth, had become to them an occasion of falling. The Sacrament of love and unity had become the occasion of selfishness and envy; the Sacrament of holiness had become an occasion of drunkenness and excess.

In the first fervour of Christian love and unity, the Christians of Jerusalem had all things common; among other things they had a common meal, to which each contributed according to his ability, which became known as the Agapé or Love-feast. This was succeeded by the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the true Lord's Supper.

The Christians who first organized these lovefeasts were men whose whole souls were possessed with the spirit of brotherhood; they had what has been called "the enthusiasm of humanity;" with them it answered perfectly well, and the Agapé became a not unworthy introduction to the Holy Supper itself.

But when this practice was transplanted to other countries, and introduced, as in some cases it seems to have been, into foreign Churches, made up of Jews and Gentiles; and in times when the first love of Christians had cooled down; when the spirit of faction and selfishness had tainted, if not destroyed, the feeling of brotherhood in the community, the Feast of Love became a contradiction and absurdity, and could lead to no good results.

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We do not know to what results the Agapé led in other Churches; but we do know what it came to be at Corinth.

Of all the Churches which S. Paul planted, the Church at Corinth seems to have been the most immoral, the most disorderly, and the most divided.

The divisions and factions which prevailed among them, instead of being extinguished and lost in the Feast of Brotherhood and in the Sacrament of Love, were only emphasized and made more revolting.

Let us endeavour to picture to ourselves, as S. Paul's description enables us to do, the sort of scene that went on every Sunday night at Corinth.

The assembly would be held in the evening, for it had not yet become necessary for the Christians, for safety's sake, to meet at the dead of night or before daybreak. The place of assembly would be merely a large room, with nothing church-like about it to our notions.

Presently-if we may venture to imagine what must have occurred-a party of well-dressed, wellto-do looking people would come in, and take their places at one of the tables, and spread out the provisions which they had brought, consisting of costly viands and choice wine, and instead of waiting for the rest of the brethren to take their places, they would begin upon their supper, till, by the time the Agapé was over, they were noisy, or perhaps merely heavy and stupid with drink. Another, and a very different party would next come, and take their places as far as possible from the previous comers, and would, with ostentatious simplicity, spread their part of the table with bread, vegetables, and fruit, with plain water for their drink. Then a larger party would come in, consisting of poor people, and would take places where they could find them. Most of them had brought but little, some, perhaps, had brought none at all, and the result would be that their scanty provision was done long before their appetites were half satisfied. There they would sit watching the richer members-it would be too absurd to call them brethren-while they finished their luxurious repast, with feelings not far removed from envy and hatred.

Then the signal would be given, the Bread and Wine would be placed before the celebrant, and the service of the Holy Communion would begin; and so it would come to pass that the Body and Blood of Christ would be partaken of by a congre

gation, some of whom were hungry, and some were drunken.

Can we be surprised that S. Paul, in dealing with such profanation as this, should use strong language of rebuke? Indeed, the surprise is all the other way, that he should have rebuked them as mildly as he did.

With this explanation, and with the great advantage of having a revised translation of this passage, which more perhaps than any other has suffered by the change of meaning in the words used, and which it is to be feared has kept numbers of God's children from the Table of their Lord, I think you will be able to understand without much difficulty, and perhaps with a new insight, this famous passage.

Ch. xi. 17: But in giving you this charge, I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all when ye come together in the Church [i. e. the congregation, not of course the building], I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. . . . . When, therefore, ye assemble yourselves together, it is not possible to eat the Lord's Supper: for in your eating, each one taketh before the other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the Church of God, and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, how that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks He brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till He

come.

Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, if he discern not the body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. But if we discerned ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, wait one for another. If any man is hungry let him eat at home; that your coming together be not unto judgment. And the rest will I set in order whensoever I come.

The next section of the Epistle has to do with the nature and regulation of the spiritual gifts and ministries with which the Church of Christ was enriched.

Now at Corinth, which seems to have been the most disorderly of the Christian societies, the exercise of these spiritual gifts ran to complete riot, and by no means tended to edification.

We have very slight means of knowing what was the nature of the religious services in which, in these early times, the Christian community engaged.

It seems probable that the ordinary service of the Church was constituted on the lines of the synagogue service. People seldom invent altogether new forms, but alter and adapt existing ones. The service of the synagogue seems to have consisted of stated prayers, and readings of the Holy Scriptures, with a sermon or address, which might be given by any Jew who might wish to address the assembly. Whether this service was connected with the one act of worship which our Lord instituted, viz. the celebration of the Eucharist, the Christian Sacrifice, or whether it was held at a different time, we do