"Emerson, Ralph W. - Uncollected Prose" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emerson Ralph Waldo)

of controversy than the Lord's Supper. There never has been any
unanimity in the understanding of its nature, nor any uniformity in
the mode of celebrating it. Without considering the frivolous
questions which have been lately debated as to the posture in which
men should partake of it; whether mixed or unmixed wine should be
served; whether leavened or unleavened bread should be broken; the
questions have been settled differently in every church, who should
be admitted to the feast, and how often it should be prepared. In
the Catholic Church, infants were at one time permitted and then
forbidden to partake; and, since the ninth century, the laity receive
the bread only, the cup being reserved to the priesthood. So, as to
the time of the solemnity. In the fourth Lateran Council, it was
decreed that any believer should communicate at least once in a year
-- at Easter. Afterwards it was determined that this Sacrament
should be received three times in the year -- at Easter, Whitsuntide,
and Christmas. But more important controversies have arisen
respecting its nature. The famous question of the Real Presence was
the main controversy between the Church of England and the Church of
Rome. The doctrine of the Consubstantiation taught by Luther was
denied by Calvin. In the Church of England, Archbishops Laud and
Wake maintained that the elements were an Eucharist or sacrifice of
Thanksgiving to God; Cudworth and Warburton, that this was not a
sacrifice, but a sacrificial feast; and Bishop Hoadley, that it was
neither a sacrifice nor a feast after sacrifice, but a simple
commemoration. And finally, it is now near two hundred years since
the Society of Quakers denied the authority of the rite altogether,
and gave good reasons for disusing it.

I allude to these facts only to show that, so far from the
supper being a tradition in which men are fully agreed, there always
been the widest room for difference of opinion upon this particular.

Having recently given particular attention to this subject, I
was led to the conclusion that Jesus did not intend to establish an
institution for perpetual observance when he ate the Passover with
his disciples; and, further, to the opinion, that it is not expedient
to celebrate it as we do. I shall now endeavor to state distinctly
my reasons for these two opinions.

I. The authority of the rite.

An account of the last supper of Christ with his disciples is
given by the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

In St. Matthew's Gospel (Matt. XXVI. 26-30) are recorded the
words of Jesus in giving bread and wine on that occasion to his
disciples, but no expression occurs intimating that this feast was
hereafter to be commemorated.

In St. Mark (Mark XIV. 23) the same words are recorded, and