CHAPTER XX. TRAVELS OF PAUL THE SABBATH-THE LORD'S SUPPER-LONG CHURCH MINISTERS-BENEFICENCE. We have, in this chapter, a brief but expressive epitome of the touching address which Paul made to the assembled clergy or presbyters of Miletus and Ephesus, there and then assembled before him. We have read in the previous chapter of the great riot and disturbance got up in the theatre on account of the new doctrines, as they supposed, which Paul had introduced; quelled only by the good sense of the town-clerk, who succeeded in bringing the assembly to a more sober and manageable mind. It is to these facts that the opening verse of this chapter alludes: "After the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia." We have in the first six verses a sketch of his journey, or travelling from place to place, in order to build up the people of God, and to instruct the ignorant in the way of eternal life. In the seventh verse we have one of those incidental proofs, not the less valuable because they are incidental, that the first day of the week was observed in the Apostolic Church as the Christian Sabbath: "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." It is not, you observe, mooted as a controversy whether the Christian Sabbath was the first or the seventh day, or whether both were abolished; but it is stated in the narrative as a fact by the evangelist Luke, implying a practice prevalent throughout the Church, that on the first day of the week, which we call the Lord'sday, the disciples came together. The meaning of the word Church is, an assembly out of the world, met together. "Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Upon this day, as the Christian Sabbath, the disciples met together "to break bread,”—I have no doubt to celebrate the Communion; to break bread being the act of hospitality in ordinary life, transferred to denote that special act of Christian communion known by the name of the Lord's Supper. There have been many disputes about this subject. In Scotland, where the Communion is celebrated in country parishes only once a-year, and in town parishes only twice a-year, there is a very unapostolic habit. In the Church of England, and among our dissenting brethren, it is celebrated oftener: but still these last are not apostolic altogether; for there is to me, not only from the New Testament, but also from the earliest Christian writers, presumptive proof that the Lord's Supper was celebrated every time that Christians met together for ordinary public worship. The fact is, it was regarded as part and parcel of Christian worship; and it was not profaned, or desecrated, or less appreciated, because it was frequently celebrated. When objectors urge, "But would it not be looked upon as a very trivial thing if you had the Communion every Sabbath?" I ask, Must not prayer be looked upon as a very common thing when you have it every Sabbath? Must not praise be looked upon and regarded as a very common thing, seeing you offer it every Sabbath? There is not a more solemn act in the universe than a sinner's approaching God; and if the frequency of the act takes away from its sacredness, it would be an argument for having prayer and praise much rarer than now. But we do not find that the Christians of the first two centuries were one whit less spiritual because they had the Communion so often. I admit there is no decisive law, no unalterable rubric. The words of the apostle are, "As often as ye eat this bread," leaving the time to the discretion and the judgment of different churches; only indicating that to celebrate it often is more in keeping with apostolic precedent than so seldom as it is in many a country parish. Upon this occasion, "Paul preached to them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." Let us notice another incidental thought here. It is clear that Paul preached, not a morning or a mid-day sermon, but an evening sermon. It is also probable that the Lord's Supper must have been celebrated, being in connexion with his sermon, in the evening also; and when it was first instituted, you will recollect it was "that night in which he was betrayed." Now I do not say that the time of its celebration is of material consequence; but when people begin to dispute about forms and ceremonies, every section of the visible Church should be told that in none are all the precise forms and ceremonies of the Apostolic Church retained. For instance, when the apostles celebrated the Lord's Supper, it was in the evening; but I do not think there is any large section of the Christian Church, at least that I know of, that celebrates the Lord's Supper in the evening. Secondly, they did not kneel, as in the English Church, nor sit around a table, as in the Scotch Church; they reclined at full length upon a sofa, leaning upon the left elbow. So that, if we were to take ceremony as a thing of intrinsic importance, we should have to make many alterations in our present forms, that would be extremely inexpedient and inconvenient. Let us therefore recollect always, in all our worship, "God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth;" and in all our sacraments and services we should recollect, "The kingdom of God is not meat nor drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." On this occasion it appears that Paul preached to a very protracted hour; "he continued his speech" or his sermon, as it might be translated, "until midnight." The complaint sometimes made of sermons being very long, is rebuked at least by one precedent. But there was, perhaps, a reason here: Paul preached to them for the first time, and knew that he was preaching to them probably for the last; and therefore it was excusable in an apostle, while it might be inexcusable in an apostle's successor, to preach so long as to reach the hour of midnight. A youth on that occasion, named Eutychus, sat in a window; there was no glass in those days-windows were simply open holes or crevices in the walls; and this young man-probably, like many in modern days, worked from six o'clock in the morning till eight, nine, ten, eleven, or twelve at night-long hours' labour being a too ancient practice-weary and wayworn with the fatigue of the day, listening to a very long address, fell asleep, and fell down from the window, and was nearly killed, or, as some think, was really killed. "And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him." Some think that this means he was not killed, but only injured; others think that he was really killed, and that the apostle, in virtue of those miraculous endowments with which he was invested, raised him from the dead. "And when he was come up again, he talked a long time, even till break of day." In that climate, where the sun sets between six and seven, and rises between six and seven, the service must have lasted about eight or nine hours; and there is no reason to believe that the people were wearied. And if men can listen in the House of Commons, for instance, to very long speeches, by different speakers, continued for seven, eight, nine hours, and not always the most eloquent, nor always the best-tempered, nor always the most interesting, I do not see that any can complain reasonably, if the preacher speaks to them an hour, or an hour and a quarter; although I readily admit the difficulty is to preach short sermons. It is not long speeches that are the best; the difficulty lies in compressing into the fewest and the most intelligible and persuasive words the most precious and the most instructive truths. Paul continued his travels until he came to Miletus. And when he was at Miletus, "he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church." I wish to make one |