The last evening before his crucifixion, which Jesus spent with the disciples, was spent in a little upper room in the city of Jerusalem. Among the places made sacred by the presence of Jesus is this little room. Any one of the events transpiring there was enough to make it sacred and to set apart the evening from all others. But it is as the place where and the evening on which Jesus gave to the disciples the Lord's Supper that it is most remembered. For three years they had been his companions and friends. He is about to leave them. Here, before he goes, he gives to them a simple memorial service, which is well fitted to call to memory the Giver. It was the gift of this service which made sacred the place and the hour.

      We read that in the days after the ascension of Jesus, following the day of Pentecost on which the church of Christ came into being, the disciples "continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers." They ate the Lord's Supper in all its simplicity, without questioning. It brought to their memories the scene of the upper room, and by the law of the association of ideas the mind of the believer was made to live over the life of Jesus, to go with him by the way of Calvary, through the open tomb, up Olivet's side to the throne of God. Look in upon them as they are gathered to break bread. It is the evening-time. They have come together in the guest-chamber of one of their number. They are bound together as one family by invisible ties which are stronger than all the ties of earth. As we look upon them we feel no service could be more brotherly, more beautiful, more simple or more inspirational.

      In the story of the life of Thomas Campbell we read that soon after he had begun his work in western Pennsylvania he was sent in company with a young preacher by the name of Wilson up the Allegheny some distance above this city to visit a few scattered members of the flock and to break bread with them as did Jesus with the disciples in Jerusalem. How changed is the religion of this day from the religion of Jesus, and how different the church from that which he founded! The basis of Christianity is no longer faith in and devotion to the Son of God, but it is acceptance of a system of doctrine and loyalty to an ecclesiastical organization. His followers are no [461] longer united by a common faith and a personal devotion, but are divided into hostile and warring camps. The church is no longer a group of people bound together by a common faith and a common devotion, but a group of people giving intellectual assent to a certain traditional interpretation of his work. It is far removed in faith, in practice and in spirit from that of the upper room and the early church of Jerusalem.

      Even on the frontier of the New World, in the district to which Thomas

L. G. BATMAN.

Campbell had been sent to break bread with a few scattered members of the fold, this spirit had wrought its work. Here, far away from the centers of civilization and the schools, this spirit had divided men religiously into many parties and erected barriers which forbade the fellowship of the members one with another. Here Campbell found pious and godly men belonging to other branches of the church from that to which he belonged who had not for a long time had the privilege of partaking of the Lord's Supper, yet according to the discipline of his church he was not permitted to invite them to join in the service which he had come to conduct.

      The sympathy of Mr. Campbell for these people, and his broad spirit, led him to ignore their denominational distinctions, and the discipline of his church, and to invite all those good people present who felt so disposed and duly prepared to join in the breaking of bread. It may well be said that this communion service marked the beginning of the Reformation of the nineteenth century, the beginning of the movement of the Disciples of Christ. It is true that many other influences were at work preparing the way, and that many events and forces contributed to its origin, but the overt act which marked the beginning of the separation of Mr. Campbell from the church to which he belonged was this communion service. He who traces the movement of the Disciples back through the century will find its headwaters on the Allegheny above this city, where stood Thomas Campbell at a table spread with the Lord's Supper, and invited all pious and godly people who felt so disposed and duly prepared to break bread together in peace and in love as did Jesus with the disciples and as did the members of the early church.

      The movement of the Disciples of Christ not only had its beginning there, but the Lord's Supper has ever had a prominent place in their churches.

      In the Book of Acts they read that when the early disciples met on the first day of the week it was to break bread, so the Disciples of Christ have spread the Lord's table and eaten the Lord's Supper on the first day of each week, and the table spread with the emblems of the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus before waiting people is one of the distinguishing marks of all their churches.

      They have sought to restore it not only to its central place in the service of every Lord's Day, but also to restore it in all of its original simplicity. They have not sought to interpret and explain it. There are moments of communion too sacred to be dissected. As one is satisfied with enjoying the fellowship of a friend, and seeks not to explain the mystery of the relationship, so they have been satisfied to feed upon the bread and wine, to be strengthened by the presence of the Lord, and have not sought its mystery.

      The place which has been given the Lord's Supper by the Disciples of Christ has had a very practical influence, and has contributed no little to the movement. As a people, they have ever held the communion service to be the most important feature of the hour of worship. It has been the means of holding together, cementing the lives of the scattered Disciples, and has laid the foundation of many a strong church. It has been to them what the mountain was to Jesus, a place where they could be alone. To sit and sing is to have your thoughts, in company with those of others, guided by the mind of the poet; to bow in public prayer is to have [462] your meditations guided by the words of another; to listen to the sermon is to follow the thought of the preacher; but to sit about the table of the Lord is to be alone with your mind and God.

      This moment in which each believer has stood alone with God has been a time of self-examination and heart-searching. At the Lord's table they have entered into the sweetest, closest and most inspirational fellowship and communion with God. This moment has been the holy season. It has been a season of meditation when the mind of man, led by the Spirit of God, has ascended to the throne. It has been a moment of transfiguration, when the soul of the believer has had fellowship and communion with heavenly visitors as did Jesus on the mount. A moment when every disciple has often said with the poet:

      Although the Disciples of Christ have restored the Lord's Supper in its original simplicity to its central place in the worship of the Lord's Day, and have been greatly blessed spiritually by its observance, they have not as yet fathomed the depths of its possibilities.

      We are certainly living in a peculiar age, an age unlike any other in all the centuries past. It has been called the "power age," the "age of the machine," the "electrical age," and what not. Whatever you may call it, it is true that life never was so intense, that men never lived as rapidly as now. The church is searching for some way to stop them in their mad rush, to arrest them for awhile, and then bring them to God. To do this, it has organized societies, adopted watchwords, arranged contests and conducted whirlwind campaigns, until it seems that the church has been caught in the mad rush and is whirling no one knows where. The souls of the men of this age are hungry and weary. Nothing superficial will satisfy. The supreme need is that they be taken from the crowd and rush, not to enter another rush, but be alone with God, where they can find rest, examine themselves, get their bearings anew, and be strengthened by personal contact with Jesus.

      There is no part of the service of the church so well fitted to call men apart, to compel them to examine themselves, and to bring them face to face with God, as the Lord's Supper. Here they must sit alone and be still. Here, as nowhere else, does the consciousness of God prevail. Here, as nowhere else, does the stream of consciousness flow heavenward, and do men see God and have communion with him.

      It is for the Disciples of Christ who restored the Lord's Supper in its original simplicity to its central place in the worship of the Lord's Day to fathom in the new century the depths of its possibilities as a factor in the Christian life. It is for them to exalt it, to beautify and enrich the service, making it the one supreme moment in all the week. A moment when men shall be called apart from the busy world; a moment when the intense struggle of the busy life shall have ceased, and when men shall search their hearts and test the standards of their lives and shall see God and respond.

      It is for the Disciples of Christ to lift it up and use it as a magnetic power in their program of union. The tie which bound the disciples and the members of the early church was the personality of Jesus; it was their common fellowship with him, their common devotion to their common love which united them. In the coming years, when the people of God shall be united once more, they will be bound together by the personality of Jesus; the tie which shall bind them will be a common devotion to the Son of God. There is no service in all the world which sinks men's differences and leads them to Jesus as the Lord's Supper. It is for the Disciples of Christ to lift up the Lord's Supper, to bring men to sit down to the Lord's table to communion together with him.

      Last Wednesday thirty thousand people met on Forbes Field to witness the national game. The enthusiasm ran [463] high. To-morrow another crowd, larger still, will gather there to sit at the Lord's table and communion with him. The devotion of this gathering will be as great as was the enthusiasm of the other. There will be gathered people from the North and the South, and from the East and the West, people with all kinds of temperaments, all kinds of training, and of all shades of thought; but as they sit there they will be united by a common devotion to the Lord. In this great gathering I see a prophecy of that which is to be when all of God's people, of every race and clime, shall sit down together with the Lord, and when their differences shall fade away as the darkness before the coming day, and as the morning mist before the rising sun, and they shall all be one.

[CCR 461-464]