THE EUCHARIST

Abstract

THE Church has certain solemn ceremonials, called sacraments. They are, according to Protestant doctrine, instituted by Jesus Christ and given to the Church that she should administer them for the benefit of the faithful. That conception compels any one who cannot ascribe the founding of the Church to Jesus to study the question when and how the two sacraments, Baptism and Eucharist, originated. Eor if Jesus entrusted them to the Church, she must have existed at the time he did so and, consequently, must have been established by him. The Catholic Church is not interested directly in that problem. Her sacraments are enjoined as such, not by Jesus, but by the Church by virtue of her divine origin and authority. As to Baptism, we possess not the least bit of evidence that it was ordained by Jesus. The posthumous baptismal commandment and trinitarian formula of Matt, xxviii. 19, is of apocryphal origin and was not added to the text of the First Gospel before the year 350 (see The Open Court, May, 1920, "Manifestations of the Risen Jesus"). The Gospels connect the Christian Baptism with that of John the Baptist, by whom Jesus himself was baptized. Only in one instance are we told that Jesus baptized in person (John iii. 22ff). The absolute silence of the Synoptic Gospels as to that fact is rather ominous. The Apostle Paul did not regard baptizing as very important. He writes : "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel" (1 Cor. i. 17). Thus the question whether Jesus instituted the sacraments is confined to the Eucharist. The New Testament contains four passages which refer to the