OUR LORD'S OWN SERVICE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Our Lord asked His Disciples, when gathered for their evening meal, to realize His presence with them by `" Sharing a Broken Loaf and a Cpp of the Fruit of the Vine," just as they were wont to do when He was visibly among them. 'He gave.no hint of wishing that, when thus " remembering Him," they should attach any religious service, beyond the " Giving of Thanks" the "Blessing -of the Great Giver ") with which every head of a family began a meal.
It was natural, nay, inevitable, that the " Sharing of the Broken Loaf " and " the Prayers " should come to be associated together in each place of meeting (gar' decoy) where a gathering of Christians " assembled, to provoke one another to love and to good works " and for common devotion. How soon the " Lord's Supper " came to be lovingly and solemnly recalled (celebrated ?) in a. Christian synagogue, and thus' to be asso- ciated with a formal public service, we know not. The " service " 'which reverence has added to the original institu- tion has 'differed from age to age in .various countries and churches, being As entirely independent of any wish or injunc- tion of the Divine Master as is Matins or Evensong or any other formality of man's device. Is it not therefore a trans- parent fallacy when men demand that the " Lord's' Own Service " (sic) should be the " Principal Sunday 'Service " in
all public 'worship P—I am, Sir, &c., F. DAUSTIV/ CRIMER.
Seaford Vicarage. S
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