450 APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS. no account is there to be anything in your worship which can be called Sacrificial. Your prayers are to be the utterances of the president of your assemblies at the moment. Your praises and thanksgivings are not to be over the cup or the bread which represents the Lord's Body and Blood; rest assured that you wrongly interpret the prophecies of Malachi and other prophets if you imagine that they refer to the Communion of the Lord's Body and Blood." The Apostle's zeal for the glory of Christ and the purity of Christian worship would have certainly led him to deliver some such tradition as this; but if he had, how was it that the worship he ordained wholly disappeared, and the worship which he must have denounced was prevalent everywhere, even in his own generation, though his memory was everywhere cherished as the most honoured servant of the Lord? I am well aware in writing all this of the difficulty which very many Christians have in accepting the Sacrificial idea of the Eucharist, but let such remember that by Sacrifice we mean nothing offered in the least degree after the manner of a Jewish Sacrifice, neither do we mean anything approaching to a fresh immolation of the Lord. Which mode of worship seems most in accordance with the will of the Father? One in which all is left to the will of the presiding minister or elder, whether he should plead the Sacrifice of Christ at all-whether he should even so much as mention the atoning Death;1 and if he does, it should be apart from, and, as a rule, wholly unconnected with, the one Rite which the Lord ordained for His people, that in it they should show forth His Death till He comes. Or one in which the Christian worship should be that which the Lord Himself ordained-in which, no matter how it celebrated, the Death of the Eternal Son must be set forth-in which Christian people are united together as one Body in the Crucified, whilst the idiosyncrasy of the minister is put as much in the background as possible, and in which, in closest union with the Sacrifice 1 Let the reader remember that in this I am not fighting with a shadow. The Reformed bodies of Holland, France, and Switzerland have been so rationalized or Socinianized that the all-atoning Death may for weeks and months together be not pleaded in the prayers. APOSTOLICAL TRADITIONS. 451 of the Redeemer, we are privileged to offer up ourselves living Sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, our reasonable service. Note.-I have fully discussed this subject of the Sacrificial nature of the Eucharist in my "One Offering," to which I refer the reader. CHISWICK PRESS:-C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. CHURCH COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. WITH NOTES, CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL. THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. THE ACTS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES. Fourth edition. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. THE EPISTLES TO Second edition. THE CORINTHIANS. THE EPISTLES TO THE GALATIANS, THE EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS, THESSALONIANS AND TIMOTHY. Second edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE EPISTLES TO TITUS, PHILEMON, AND THE HEBREWS. Second edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE EPISTLES OF SS. JAMES, PETER, JOHN, AND JUDE. Second edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. Second edition. Crown 8vo, 68. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, ... OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. THE GOSPELS. From THE CHURCH QUARTERLY, October, 1883. "It is far the best practical Commentary that we know, being plainspoken, fearless, and definite, and containing matter very unlike the milk and water which is often served up in [so-called] practical Commentaries. For solid Church teaching it stands unrivalled. Nothing could be better than the notes on the Sermon on the Mount, and the practical lessons drawn with convincing clearness from our Lord's words on the subject of Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. Throughout the whole book the writer is ever on the watch for general principles and teaching applicable to the wants of our own day, which may legitimately be deduced from the Gospel narrative." From THE CHURCH TIMES, February 23rd, 1883. "The question of the origin of the Four Gospels is well treated, and a more succinct account of the real standing of the Evangelists with respect to each other, or to a supposed original document from which all copied, could scarcely be found than that contained in these few pages. Some few pages introductory to the critical portion of the volume, and explaining the elements of textual criticism, bring us to the text of the Commentary itself. Throughout the whole of its pages the same evidence of scholarship and critical acumen, which distinguishes all the author's work, is apparent; while the faculty of conveying such knowledge to the minds of the least learned in a simple and forcible manner, is abundantly preserved, and will procure for this work the position of one of the best of popular commentaries. Many of the notes extend beyond the scope generally implied by the term, and become full explanations of doctrinal subjects such as will prove of immense value to the student as well as to the general reader. We may cite as an instance of this exhaustive process the lengthy note on St. Matt. xvi. 18, and those notes on the Parables, which, severally treated in their entirety, present a more intelligible meaning than when explained in short disjointed notes. Finally, it remains to mention the fact, which, however, goes without saying, that the tone of the Commentary is thoroughly Catholic, so that the reader will find here a firm defence of the supernatural and divine character of the Gospel story, which never condescends to the tone of much of modern criticism, but remains true to primitive Catholic teaching." From CHURCH BELLS, November 18th, 1882. "It is written in a clear and sensible style, with a healthy tone; and its practical portions are devout without being wearisome or 'goody."" From THE CHURCH REVIEW, November, 1883. "A valuable and substantial contribution to the literature of the New Testament is made by Mr. Sadler in the volume now before us.... . It might be said that every page of the work lights up the grand historical character of the Church as the one supreme authority for the authenticity and interpretation of the books of Scripture," |