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p456 MY DEAR BROTHER, - I entirely dissent from the view you refer to as to the bread at the Lord's supper.* There is nothing new in it: Bellett took it up at one time and had to give it up as untenable. The name of the ordinance is sufficient to shew its wrongness. Some refer the breaking to each individual's taking a part; but if this were so, then each individual ought to break the unity of the body for himself, which is absurd. It puts the unity in the place of the memorial of Christ, as the principal thing. Christ, when He had given thanks, brake the bread: the disciples never partook of any but a broken loaf. So Christ was made known to them in the "breaking of bread" - not the full Lord's supper, I admit, but bearing the stamp of the same truth. That breaking is of the essence of this institution of Christ: it is "the bread which we break;" "they continued in . . . the breaking of bread."

{*'That the loaf should not be broken before it was passed round, and that each should partake of an unbroken loaf, as a symbol of the unity of the body.'}

There is no such thing in scripture as partaking of an unbroken loaf. The unity is referred to our partaking of one loaf, not to its being unbroken - which it certainly was not when Christ gave it to His disciples to eat. There is no variation in the account given in the gospels, nor in 1 Corinthians 11, nor in the Acts at Troas. The not doing it departs from the original institution, and what gave it its essential name. We shew forth the Lord's death in it, though as all partaking of one loaf (not breaking it, which would be absurd) we are all one body: "the bread which we break," "the cup which we bless" (a word identical with giving thanks) - both of them the actions of the Lord previous to the disciples partaking, and this the apostle did at Troas. It is an entire departure from the original institution, and from the essential character and meaning of the ordinance, which shews forth the Lord's death till He come; though the unity of the body is betokened in us, in partaking of one loaf. But the body is the body of Christ in the ordinance, as is expressly said. (1 Cor. 10:16) But you, dear brother, must guard against any restlessness or uneasy feeling as to - and seek to walk in unity. I dread notions, but peace we must pursue.

[1877.]

[53338E]

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