TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
present, when a school is set up, or any novel manufacture in trade, or extraordinary machinery is to be brought into use, to set it going by sending a person fully skilled in its practical details. Such was St. Paul as regards the system of Christian discipline and worship; and when he could not go himself, he sent Timothy in his place. He says in the 4th chapter: "I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every Church." Here there is the same reference to an uniform system of discipline, whether as to Christian conduct, worship, or Church government.
Another important allusion appears to be contained in the 22nd verse of the chapter above commented on. "What have ye not houses to eat and drink in? or despise ye the Church of God?" This is remarkable as being a solitary allusion in Scripture to houses of prayer under the Christian system, which nevertheless we know from ecclesiastical history were used from the very first. Here then is a most solemn ordinance of primitive Christianity, which barely escapes, if it escapes, omission in Scripture.
A passing allusion is made in another passage of the same Epistle, to the use of the word Amen at the conclusion of the Eucharistical prayer, as it is preserved after it and all other prayers to this day. Thus the ritual of the Apostles descended to minutiæ, and these so invariable in their use as to allow of an appeal to them.
In the original institution of the Eucharist, as recorded in the Gospels, there is no mention of consecrating the elements; but in 1 Cor. x. 16, St. Paul calls it "the cup of blessing, which we bless." This incidental information, vouchsafed to us in Scripture, should lead us to be very cautious how we put aside other usages of the early Church concerning this sacrament, which do not happen to be clearly mentioned in Scripture; as e. g. the solemn offering of the elements to God by way of pleading his mercy through Christ, which seems to have been universal in the Church, till Popery corrupted it into a superstitious and blasphemous ordinance.
As regards the same Sacrament, let us consider the use of the
