L. O. COLLYER will be appreciated as the author of two previous pamphlets, Nos. 9 and 39-40. He continues in his study his plea for the application of Christianity to the whole of life.

      "And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, he rake it, and gave to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me.' And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you'."

      This is Luke's word-picture of an incident in the life of Jesus of sublime significance in world history. In varied degree it is the focus and centre of almost all Christian worship.

      To all of us, as a people working towards the Restoration of New Testament Christianity, these words of Luke are familiar from our weekly commemoration of Him whose words are so simply yet so sublimely recorded. With the emblems of His sacrifice, in homely form before us, we are reminded at every Communion Service of the death of our Lord, and we partake of the bread and wine in thankfulness for the fellowship, the reconciliation, we have with God because of this sacrifice and our acceptance of its saving power.

      This Remembrance Feast should be the pivot around or from which our whole life--spiritual, cultural, and economic, revolves and extends. It is fitting, therefore, that attention be given to all the phases inherent in, and inseparable from it, although all of them cannot be dealt with within the compass of this pamphlet.

      Before, however, dealing with the major aspect of the Feast it may be helpful to refer to the general order of our Lord's Day morning services--the hymns, scripture readings, remarks of the presiding brother, the prayers and sermon. Too frequently there is little cohesion of theme in all these. The importance of the scripture readings having little place in the theme taken by the president or by the preacher of the sermon This results in a disjointed emphasis not conducive to concentrated acceptance by the congregation. Would it not be helpful if the president briefly referred to at least some one phrase or theme from the scripture readings, and/or conferred with the preacher to ensure there being some connection, in order to better rivet attention. The prayers, immediately preceding the taking of the emblem, could also helpfully take up this central but changing theme. Might it also be suggested that the sermon should more frequently take the form of educative exposition of the scripture readings not one text from such, but a general exposition, and thus use tine opportunity of the only completer attendance of members towards their wider understanding of such. This seems particularly desirable in a people pleading for the restoration of New Testament Christianity.

      Let us now give consideration to the major purpose of this pamphlet--the desirability, nay necessity, to relate the whole service to contemporary needs. Let it be repeated that we are enjoined to observe the Lord's Supper by the words of Jesus "Do this in remembrance of Me." How wonderfully inspiring is the scope opened up to us by these few words.

      The writer fully subscribes to the statement of Alexander Campbell in connection with the Lords Supper,

      "It is (to the intelligent Christian) as sacred and solemn as prayer to God, and as joyful as the hope of immortality. His hope before God, springing from

the death of His Son, is gratefully exhibited and expressed by him in the observance of this institution. While he participates of the symbolic loaf, he shews his faith in, and his life upon the Bread of Life. While he tastes the emblematic cup he, remembers the new covenant confirmed by the blood of the Lord. With sacred joy and blissful hope he hears the Saviour say. 'This is my body broken--this my blood shed for you.' When he reaches forth these lively emblems of his Saviour's love to his Christian the philanthropy of God fills his heart, and excites correspondent feelings to those sharing with him the salvation of the Lord."

      The summary of the late A. W. Connor is also accepted when referring to this holy ordinance as

      A Commemorative Service
      A Communion Service
      A Covenant Service
      A Witnessing Service

      together with the summary of the late A. R. Main when describing it as

      A Feast of Commemoration
      A Communion
      A Pledge of Brotherly Love
      A Sign of Unity
      A Means of Preaching the Gospel.

      The Communion Service is accepted by all of us as an act of worship, as mentioned by Professor Wm. Robinson when stating, 'It is in this service more than in any other that the Church as a royal priesthood, offers worship to God through the Great High Priest, her Lord."

      The universal aspect of this act of worship is typified in the words of William Law, an Anglican mystic of the 17th century,

      ". . . it may be proper for you to observe that whatever names or titles this institution is signified to you by, whether it, be called a sacrifice propitiatory, or commemorative; whether it be called a holy oblation, the eucharist, the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the heavenly banquet, the food of immortality, or the holy communion, and the like, matters not much. For all these names are right and good, and there is nothing wrong in them but the striving and contentions about them, For they all express something that is true, in a good sense, rightly applicable to it: but all of them are far short of expressing the whole nature of the sacrament, and therefore the help of them all is wanted."

      Many other quotations from diverse sources could be given emphasising the wide attraction of this generally accepted act of worship although there is significance in the somewhat unusual statement of Dr, Fosdick that "the world has tried in two ways to get rid of Jesus; first by crucifying Him, and second, by worshipping Him . . . The Cross did not crush--it lifted Him. The world, therefore, foiled in its first attempt to be rid of Jesus by crucifying Him, turned to the second, far more subtle and fatal way of disposing of great spiritual leadership--it worshipped Him."

      However, as Churches of Christ, we accept this memorial feast as an act of worship, and perhaps the most general emphasis at our services is one of adoration and thankfulness for the salvation that is ours because of the Love for us evidenced by the sacrifice of the Cross. In the main, expression is given to "our" relationship, the individualistic personal aspect; the comfort and consolation which is "ours"; the desire for an increase of love and faith towards a greater realisation of the extent of God's love to "us" shown by the Cross.

      It is becoming almost a ritual with us in our Lord's Day morning

services that the theme presented by the presiding brethren and the prayers, shall be confined to emphasis of the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus. The words used at the institution of the Feast, and the emblems before us, naturally centre around this, and no one, of course, would in any sense desire to minimise the impact of this central, vital and heart-warming aspect of our faith; but surely it would be helpful to consider what might have been in the mind or purpose of Jesus at this farewell Supper with those to whom he was leaving the task of continuing His mission in the world.

      Is it not a legitimate enquiry to ask whether the Supper as simply recorded in the New Testament, sublime as it is, is sufficient in its expression to fill our needs today? In the light of John's account is our almost tacit assumption that the record of the actual Supper in the other Gospels includes all that Jesus said when distributing the Bread and Nine, a correct one?

      Jesus knew what was before Him, knew He was leaving His disciples a task requiring the utmost courage, fortitude, patience, faith and love to complete. His concern, therefore, would be to fortify them toward such qualities of character, by, it seems legitimate to assume, a recapitulation of the events of the months spent with them, couched in terms suitable for the circumstances and environment which He knew would be theirs in the immediate future. His thoughtfulness would cover the practical, as well as the spiritual needs of His friends, and not alone of his immediate disciples. Having the whole universe of space and time in mind Jesus would visualise the many who would eventually hear and accept His message through many varied experiences by a continued reminder of the many facets of His Person, Life and teaching, fitted to their, contemporary needs.

      The Apostle, Evangelists and writers of the New Testament obviously understood this, and thus we have the exposition of their understanding and recollections in the New Testament. Whilst the basic facts of Jesus' revelation of God's desire towards mankind remain fixed, and are timeless, yet it surely needs to be recognised that their emphasis must have differing meanings to the people in their increasingly varied environment, and against their prior teachings, as the centuries continued, and Jesus with His broad and eternal outlook, encompassing these centuries, would expect His teachings to be presented in all their vivid depth and meaning in a manner appropriate to such.

      It is accepted that the purpose of the Lord's Day morning service is to commune with Jesus far comfort, strength and courage by the constant reminder of our relationship with God through Him. It is, however, not only comfort, it is not only strength and courage to meet our individual circumstances for which we should strive after. It is not only thankfulness, it is not only to express humility before Him. It is all these, but it would surely be helpful if in our worship we expressed and felt a joyful pride that we are associated with our Lord in the task of proclaiming the Gospel.

      We can approach the Table in the manner of Moses at the burning bush in fear and humility hearing the command "Put off the shoes from off thy feet for the place in which thou standest is holy ground", but then should remember that Moses, inspired by his contact with God, left this personal contact to carry out the commands given to him to release his people from their bondage, material and spiritual bondage.

      Let it again be made clear that Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." Not merely to eat of the Bread and drink of the Wine.

      Not only to remember His death on the Cross for "our" salvation: His resurrection; His sacrifice for "our" sins, certainly all this and constantly so, but also to meditate, to remember the wondrous revelation He gave of God's desire towards mankind; universally and always; to remember the depth and extent of His revolutionary teachings; the examples of His practice of such teachings, all towards renewing and consolidating our love of God and Himself to enable us to be worthy of Him in the mission to "Go ye into all the world . . . teaching them to observe all, the things whatsoever I commanded you."

      All this offers the widest scope for the presiding brother (end why not a sister sometimes) to bring to remembrance any of the vivid and challenging word pictures from the life and teachings of Jesus, relating same to the contemporary circumstances and problems which the Church should be concerned about, and which so frequently can be inferred from the set scripture readings.

      The parable of the Good Samaritan surely has contemporary significance in relation to all the unfortunate and helpless of the world, those in our immediate circle and those starving, wretchedly despairing millions in Asia, Africa. Latin America and other parts. The denunciation of the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees of Matthew 23 also has application to many in these days who support, either actually or by acquiescence, the exploitation of men and women in many areas of the world today, or to these who apply the wonders of God's creation to diabolical means of destruction instead of the uplift of all those for whom Christ died. All this and many other aspects of our Lord's life come within the compass of "Remembrance of Me."

      By all means let us ever keep in mind our personal relationship to God through our Lord but it would be salutary for many of us if, from our communion, we were disturbed in mind that many of our fellows are outside that relationship, those who perhaps only subconsciously, are seeking something higher and deeper; which only is to be found in Christ. Let us by all means imbibe the comfort of remembrance of Jesus' love towards ourselves, but never let us overlook that such remembrance also includes a reminder of the privileged responsibility of the task which is jointly ours and His.

      But, however frequent may be our attendance at the Remembrance Feast, it will not be fully effective to its unless we are emotionally and intellectually aware of the deep import of the life of Jesus.

      Whilst the account we have of the Supper in the Gospels is Jesus foretelling the time when He would offer His very life for man, yet the disciples to whom the words were spoken would of course, remember His previous talks regarding His one-ness with the Father, and would thus be reminded of what we call His Incarnation. The incomparable extent of the "offering" would, therefore, have made a deep impression upon them.

      Without a similar heartfelt faith and belief in the word of Jesus that He is the Son of God, and that He emptied Himself of the glory He had with the Father to become as a man in our world, we shall be unable to fully comprehend the concern of God towards us and all mankind. This fact of the Incarnation should be ever with us, especially because it is God's manifestation of the marriage of the spiritual and material; the eternal and the "now"; covering the whole scope of the life span of man here and hereafter. In many respects it is beyond our comprehension, but with the fact of the Cross and the Resurrection, it can be accepted by faith as the

supreme evidence of mans worth in the sight of God.

      By this marriage of the spiritual and material--God in man--God reveals not only His love, but with the command given by Jesus to "Go into all the world . . . teaching them to observe all things . . ." reveals also His desire that the "whole man" should come within the scope of His reconciliation. It is therefore, impossible for any Christian to say he is not concerned with this or that specific activity of our daily living. The moral teaching of Jesus, given in principles applicable to all circumstances and times, is equally as important as His spiritual teaching, from which of course, the moral teaching stems.

      In the light of the Incarnation and the teaching accompanying it, separation of any part of our life's activities, family business, community responsibilities, or national or international affairs, is a refusal to witness to the Incarnation. "I am come that ye may have life"--how can it be contended that this is limited to "eternal" life when the Gospels are so full of Jesus' concern for His contemporaries' material well-being, the physically sick and hungry were His concern just as much as the soul of the rich young man was close to His heart.

      The reconciliation of man to God inherent in the Incarnation can now only be evidenced to men by us who have accepted the task left to us by Jesus, and as His ministry on earth covered every aspect of life so we must minister just as widely. Our changed and more complex physical and social environment only challenges us of this day to so interpret His teaching that it will be relevant to our contemporaries.

      Ethel Mannin in "Christianity or Chaos" republished in 1946, says

      "What do people believe in today'? The great majority, as individuals and as nations, believe in Money and Power; as individuals this belief means, in practice, making money and "getting on" . . . as nations it means the money system of society, social inequality, and imperialist domination and greed, and, inevitably, wars. Bound up with all this there it is belief amounting almost to mania, in the Machine with its horrifying and seemingly limitless capacity for destruction."

      Can this evaluation be objectively or honestly denied? Consequently is it not essential that the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, for example, should be offered as the antidote and alternative, and where could the force of this alternative be more effectively expressed to us than at the Memorial Feast of Divine Compassion?

      "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the compassionate. Blessed are the peacemakers. Do not lay up stores of wealth for yourselves on earth . . . for where your wealth is there also will your heart be. Beware of false teachers which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves, by their fruits shall ye know them."

      All this and much more of the Gospel we need in these days, to be reminded of when we "Do this in remembrance of Me."

      The Lord's Supper it is also extremely important to recognise, reminds us equally of the Incarnation and the Cross. They are inseparable. The Incarnation would not be complete without the Cross, and the Cross would not have the same relevance to man as it has, without the Incarnation. This one-mess of God's revelation by the Incarnation and the Cross cannot be emphasised too strongly as by any separation the minimise the practical--material, "earthy"--aspect of Jesus' ministry with its implications,

and take away from the mystery of the Cross the practical build-up of His earthly ministry, the aspect of the Gospel most easily understood and accepted, by the non-Christian.

      It is appreciated that the philosophic, mystic, presentation of God's salvation through the Cross has its strong appeal to many but it cannot be gainsaid that the crowds that followed Jesus had accepted Him in the earliest day of the Church were attracted by knowledge of His works and teachings and the early disciples' plain exposition of such. They were in the main the "common" people.

      It must also be recognised that the Cross is not fully understood if it is accepted as only a sacrifice for "our" salvation. The account by John includes an act of deeply significant service: a foreknowledge of betrayal; an avowal of loyalty later disowned; au affirmation of Christ's one-ness with the Father: a promise of the Spirit of Truth; an injunction of union with Christ through obedience: a commandment "to love one another as I have loved you"; a warning of persecution of the faithful, and, finally, a prayer of inestimable poignancy.

      The Supper is, therefore, a call to service in the deepest and fullest meaning of "take up thy Cross and follow Me", a challenge to all the finest attributes possible to us to an adventurous mission to explore all the majestic associations with God towards fulfilment of a task in His Name; all this as well as an assurance of comfort and rest.

      We should remember the Cross not as "the world has made it from the time of Constantine" when he turned it into a sword, not from the standard of the church's "distortions and betrayals of the teachings of its Founder", but as the full acceptance of doing God's Will even unto death as revealed and demonstrated by Jesus in His new evaluation of the true salvation offered by God, a complete non-acceptance, or reversal, of the world's standards.

      Yet with all this, our "Remembrance of Me" is not complete without recognition that the Cross of Calvary was not the end. Courage and strength towards answering the challenge of the Cross comes from the sure acceptance of the Resurrection of Jesus which ensure that His promises to us will be fulfilled because He is a Living Christ, and one desirous of living in us as a continuing demonstration of Himself to our own day and generation, translating His teachings to our contemporaries in all their uncompromising beauty and certainty. This alone will meet the needs of the present complex and fearful problems facing all people.

      Let us weigh the word of Dr. S. C. Carpenter,

      "We have here (in this Sacrament of Holy Communion) the supreme case of the religious use of both Nature and Industry, the wheat, the water, and the grapes, and at the same time the livelihood of men, the way in which they earn their living- and support their homes, the daily bread, now consecrated and made into holy bread . . . It is a perpetual surprise to many who care intently about it that people in general do not perceive either the romance, or the social significance, or the necessity of the Christian Sacraments. It is certain that they do not. It seems to then that Holy Communion is the concern of the clergy and a few white-handed leisured people who happen to like that kind of thing."

      Also let us meditate on this statement of Rev. Stephen Neill--"Holy Communion is a fellowship of those who are prepared to die for Christ, as Christ has died for them."

      And may we as we leave our weekly Remembrance Feast be ready to pray as St. Francis of Assisi,

      "Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace. Where there is hatred, let me saw love, where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light: where there is sadness, joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned: it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

      So, when we "Do this in remembrance of Me" deriving personal solace and comfort from the renewed experience of His love for "us", let us also glimpse afresh His concern for all mankind. In partaking of the emblems let us also partake of His Spirit of boldness against religious and secular convention humbug and hypocrisy; His passion, to the point of tears, for the "City of Jerusalem" as well as the individual person, sinner or sinned against; His vision of a full and abundant life for all men, and His uncompromising adherence to His Father's Will.

      Going from the Feast, and forth into the work-a-day world saturated with this Spirit, and carrying His Message of Love by word and, deed, will bring nearer the achievement of the Bethlehem song of "Peace on earth, goodwill towards men", and the prayer of our Lord "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will he done in earth as it is in heaven."