The adult person, near to death, may be baptized if he is sufficiently conscious to understand the act, and to make true and proper confession, however abbreviated it may be. This virtually requires the pastor to officiate. Dr. Fry* would withhold baptism from a candidate who refused to receive the Lord's Supper, on the ground that he does not apprehend the purpose of the Sacrament; in-as-much as the Lord's Supper should follow adult baptism. The Catholic Church admits the baptism of blood, for those martyred, and the baptism of desire, or by desire, when the exigencies of the occasion prevent formal baptism, and the person desire it; it is possible in this Church to receive three indelible characters, through baptism, confirmation and ordination. THE LORD'S SUPPER. As with baptism, so with the Lord's Supper, there are essentials and unessentials. The essentials are not subject to Christian liberty, but the unessentials may be so. There are also some practices which for the sake of truth and doctrine are to be rejected. Among the rejected items we place that practice, which depends upon the purely memorial conception, and makes a distinction between the consecration and distribution, previously mentioned. The practice which withholds one element, which carries the Host around, the practice which considers one consecration a permanent one,§ that offers the Sacrament for the dead, or during the absence of the worshippers, or if present not distributing to them; also that the priest makes the Sacrament. It is not a sacrifice which the priest offers up; it is not medicinal; it is not magical;** it is not to be used to cure diseases, it cannot be partaken spiritually while the Host is offered up. tt Among the non-essentials are the language, English, German; the kind of grain, wheat, rye, barley, rice flour; the shape of the loaf, wafer or loaf, round or square; leavened or unleavened; broken or unbroken; how much is received; genuflections at reception; as to the wine, whether red or white, mixed with water or not; if the bread may be leavened or unleavened, wine * Sem. Dict. on Pastoral Theol. + Cath, Bel., BRUNO, p. 82. Ibid. 117. § Ibid. 115, 116. ++ Ibid. 122. may be fermented or unfermented.* But each element should be genuine. Whether the reception be in the hand or directly in the mouth is not essential; but the mouth is to actually receive it one way or the other.† Standing or kneeling is immaterial; though standing seems to imply a feast rather than a fast. I In cases of private or sick communion, the Service may be abbreviated to the confession, which also may be abbreviated, and the essentials.§ A rule is given that only the minister may administer this Sacrament;|| but some take exceptions to this rule. The character or intention of the administrator is not an impediment to validity;** but of course this does not mean that the minister may be anything he pleases. It is a standing rule that preparatory or confessional Services shall precede the Communion, tt so that members, by proper meditation and preparation may approach the table worthily. ‡‡ This Service gives opportunity for self-examination and also for the Church examination through the Council, where this followed, of those who purpose to commune. Gerhard would exclude those who do not examine themselves, those who cannot, or do not discern the Lord's body, among which are those unconscious, those who do not show forth the Lord's death, persistent heretics, notorious sinners, the excommunicated, the possessed, maniacs, demented and infamous persons.§§ The Westminster Confession (p. 152) says that after the consecration the minister is to "take and brake the bread, to take the cup, and . . . . to give both to the communicants; but to none who are not then present in the congregation." Also (p. 154) "Wherefore all ignorant and ungodly persons, as they are unfit to enjoy Communion with Him (the Lord), so they are un* The Doctrines and Discipline of M. E. Church, 1880, N. Y., p. 284. prescribes unfermented. + Ibid. p. 291. Ibid. pp. + SCHMIDT'S Doct. Theol. of Luth. Church, ed. 1876, p. 582. 548, 593, 594. ** Ibid. pp. 548-10. DR. FRY'S Sem. Dict. on Pastoral Theol. §§ Ibid. p. 592. § In The Doctrines and Discipline of M. E. Ch., p. 295, the Elder may omit all but the consecratory prayer, the invitation and the confession, when time is short. || Liturgics, HORN, p. 41. ** Book of Concord, JACOBS, p. 477. ++ Church Book. §§ Ibid. p. 614. In The Doctrines and Discipline of M. E. Church, p. 287, the pastor confesses for the people. worthy of the Lord's Table, and cannot, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries, or be admitted thereto." The Doctrines and Discipline of the M. E. Church, (p. 287) admits those who are penitent, are charitable and in love with neighbors, and purpose to live a new life, following the commandments of God. The faith of the recipient does not constitute the Sacrament but affects his benefits,* nor does it invalidate it. The validity of the Communion rests upon the two elements of bread and wine being present and being distributed and received by the participant and the use of the words of institution as given by Christ.† It follows, then, that only baptized and confirmed or received members, and those in good standing, those who have the mind of Christ respecting the Sacrament, and the worthy, are eligible to it. The appointed place is the church, the appointed time is a regular meeting, without a general invitation, the preparatory Service is the occasion to settle such matters; and the appointed recipients are those who are worthily prepared.‡ The act of consecration seems to lie in the distribution and reception of the elements in connection with the words of institution. The Methodist Episcopal consecration would appear to be found in the consecratory prayer;|| the Westminster Confession gives no formula direct.** Morgantown, W. Va. IRA M. WALLACE. * SCHMIDT'S Doct. Theol. of the Ev. Luth. Church, ed. 1876, p. 549. ↑ Ibid. + Biblical Psychology, DELITZSCH, p. 412. The Cath. Chris. Instr., DR. CHALLONER, N. Y., p. 87. Cath. Bel., DR. BRUNO, pp. 100-105. § Ibid. p. 116. Liturgics, HORN, p. 118. + Ibid. pp. 41-44, 118. 8 Elements of Religion, DR. JACOBS, p. 171. The Doctrines and Discipline of M. E. Church, p. 289. ** Westminster Conf. of Faith, p. 152. Ibid. p. 166. LITURGICAL ACCURACY AND SPIRITUALITY. BEFORE treating of our theme itself it will be profitable, if indeed not absolutely necessary, to consider a few questions which certainly are germane to it, and though the ground suggested by these questions has already been covered by previous papers published in the MEMOIRS of this Association certain phases which have to do directly with the subject in hand must be, if only briefly, touched on. I. WHY WE HAVE A LITURGY. The question why we have a Liturgy is not now nearly so pressing as it was a generation ago; for this we are profoundly thankful. The Lutheran Church is a liturgical Church. To quote the striking and eloquent words of one of her sons: "During the last fifty years the Lutheran Church of this country may be said to have been in a steady process of recovery, finding herself again with all the treasures that had been her inheritance since the days of the great Reformation. She had, indeed, wandered away from her Father's house where there was bread enough and to spare. She was begging for bread at the door of strangers, and perishing with hunger. But at last the time came when she said: 'I will arise and go to my Father, -to the Rock from which I was hewn.' And so she returned to the same experience which the reckless and deluded son in the parable made when he came home to the fatted calf, the best robe, the ring and the shoes, the feast and the music. Thus our dear Church, in the time of her gracious revival, returned to the sound, substantial Gospel doctrine of the fathers and to the beautiful robe of her glorious Service." It is true there are still a few prodigals who claim their right to do with the portion of goods that falleth to them as they please, who have no Liturgy or their own substitute for a Liturgy, or a crippled and stunted Liturgy, but their number is surely (lxxxv) growing less, and even aliens no longer class the Lutheran Church with the non-liturgical denominations. The practical unanimity with which, at least the English portion of our Church, has accepted the Common Service, is the strongest argument for the use of a Liturgy in congregational worship. Much more than in the Anglican denomination our use of a common form of Divine Worship is a proof of the fact that our congregations themselves need and want a Liturgy, for the Episcopalian must have his Liturgy because his Church proclaims its universal use as one of her fundamental and irrefragable laws, while the Lutheran must have his Liturgy only because his heart cries out for it; with him it is a matter of personal conviction more than Church-loyalty. At least this should be so. And yet we can hardly ignore the fact that in some of our congregations the Liturgy owes its place and use more to the sense of loyalty to the Church which has provided it and urges its use than to a real desire and love for it on the part of the congregation. Here then the question "Why have a Liturgy?" is still important and an answer very necessary, and we venture to give an answer though the answer has been given, one would think, often enough. I. We need and have a Liturgy because we need and must have congregational worship. "The authority of Christ as distinctly requires common prayer as it requires prayer in secret. If He said: 'Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,' He also said: 'After this manner pray ye, Our Father Who art in Heaven.' The last as clearly implies a social act as the first implies a solitary act; and, in enjoining the duty, He also gave the form of words to be made use of. . . . The first devotional utterance, therefore, of the disciples, was common prayer." It should be clear to every one that there can be no true congregational worship without words and forms which express not private and personal but public and universal needs, which convey universal gifts. 2. We need and have this particular Liturgy, because it is rooted in the fundamentals of congregational worship found in the true Church of Christ from the days of the Apostles and is an expression of faith as well as of devotion, an assurance of Divine blessing (reception of Divine gifts) as well as an offering of Divine honor in words of praise, prayer and confession. |