ART. II. ON THE NEGLECT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

Is the number of church members, or regular partakers of the Lord's Supper, in our religious societies, such as ought to satisfy us, as Christians, that all is right? If not, what is the general extent of the neglect, what are its evils, the causes from which it proceeds, and the means to which we may resort for its removal?

That there does exist a very great neglect of the communion is a point which appears, unhappily, only too easy to prove. If a person unacquainted with the customs of Christian countries, a Mohammedan or an Asiatic Jew, were to enter one of our churches, and to be told that he was about to witness the rite commemorative of the founder of our religion, he would experience some surprise at the spectacle presented. Having just heard the whole assembly addressed in language implying that they were all believers in Christianity, having seen them all not only listening respectfully to the instructions of the preacher, but expressing by their posture that they united in the prayers which he offered, he now sees them, before the memorial rite is administered, retiring in such numbers as to leave for the moment a doubt whether any will remain to join in it. And when, on a second glance, he discovers some persons, mostly advanced in years or of the gentler sex, occupying seats at wide intervals in the pews which were but a moment before so crowded, he asks in surprise, Are these all the Christians in the assembly? And, if these be all the Christians present, he might continue, of what religion are the others? He has seen no mosque, no synagogue, no pagoda, in the city or the village. Is it possible that three fourths or more of the inhabitants are of no religion at all, - believers in no God, and followers of no prophet?

The representation just given cannot be thought to be over-colored. We trust that there are churches among us, the aspect of which would be more encouraging. But in its general features, we believe that the representation we have given describes the true state of things in the worshipping assemblies of our own denomination.

Before inquiring into the causes, let us look for a moment at the evils of this neglect of the communion among us. Some, perhaps, may think that it would be a matter of little

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Loss of Benefits.

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consequence, if the non-observance of the rite were carried even farther than it is, that it is but one of the externals of religion, and may be dispensed with, as it is by the Society of Friends, while the spirit of Christianity is still pervading the hearts and influencing the lives of men.

To this we reply, that though the rite is undoubtedly, as all rites are, external, it by no means follows that it is of slight importance. Not to insist on the ground of positive requirement by our Saviour, it is an institution which beyond all others serves to connect the disciple with Christ as his Master. Our religion-the religion we profess to believe is not simple Theism. It is Christianity; Theism as taught, developed, and proved by Jesus Christ. This is a distinction not always kept in view in addresses from the pulpit ; and even if the preacher remember it, the hearers are sometimes in danger of forgetting it, of substituting a general and very indefinite belief in a God, for that beautiful delineation which the Gospel presents to us, in which we are made to understand the character of the Father by seeing it reflected in the Son. In order to avoid this danger, to remain living branches of the sacred vine of which Christ is the root, we need something to remind us continually of him, to bring before us in vivid representation the traits of that perfect character which is to be the model of ours. The communion effects this in a way in which nothing else can. effects it in part even for those who do not approach the table, as it generally suggests as the subject of the accompanying discourse something suited to lead the hearers to contemplate their Master. But to the faithful communicant it does far more. It recalls him from the wanderings of vague speculation, to sit an humble learner at the Saviour's feet. From cold reasoning it recalls him to warm feeling. It places before him the world's great pattern of forgiveness, patience, love, and devoted obedience, and tells him, This is thy Master; go and be thou like him.

It

By the prevalent neglect of the communion, all this is lost to thousands who ought to share its advantages. Nor is this all. An evil perhaps still greater exists in the supposed relaxation of the demands of duty, in favor of those who are not communicants. Highly as we value the influence of the Lord's Supper, we have sometimes been tempted for a moment to indulge the thought, that it were better not administered at all, than to be made, as it is, the privilege of a few.

For if by uniting in it those few express their belief, so by declining may not the majority be said to express their disbelief, or at least their unwillingness to receive the yoke of Christ? And making this negative profession, and being supported in it by the fellowship of thousands, what more natural than that they should live according to it? And thus they do live in many instances, apparently without a thought that they are accountable to the law of Christ, because they have never in the appointed way owned allegiance to that law. An eminent Virginian, when censured for his conduct in reference to a fatal duel, replied on the floor of Congress to the following effect: "I am not a Christian. I honor Christianity, and hope that I may be a Christian at some future time. When I am so, I shall, I trust, act according to that profession. But at present my principles and my practice are those of the cavalier; my code is that of honDid he mean to assert that he was not a believer in the truth of the Christian religion? Not at all. His declaration, that he hoped to be a Christian at some future time, was an admission to the contrary. He only meant that he was not a church-member, "a professor," as the phrase is, and therefore, as he reasoned, was not accountable to the laws of religion for the part he had borne in the fatal deed. He spoke according to the views generally entertained on the subject through the greater part of our country, and I fear too prevalent even in New England.

or."

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Contemplate the subject in another point of view. The communion, as it is now observed, or rather as it is now neglected, becomes a snare for weak consciences. A young man grows up, and does not feel that strong religious impulse which is necessary to make him break through the prevailing custom and become a church-member. Still, he is sufficiently aware of his duty to make him feel that he has done wrong in neglecting it. There is then a sin committed, recognized, and persevered in. What a deeply injurious influence upon the character must proceed from the consciousness that this is the case! In those denominations which encourage their adherents to expect especial calls from God, this evil would be diminished. The young man would justify himself by the plea that he was waiting God's time, and would thus be saved in part from the debasing effects of conscious wrong-doing. But to a believer in our opinions this excuse would not be available.

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Opposite Views.

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But evil as this prevalent neglect of the Lord's Supper is in its consequences, it is still more alarming when viewed as a sign of the general state of feeling, or want of feeling, with regard to religion. We hope, indeed, to show that the existing state of things in our churches has arisen in part from other causes than want of piety. Yet we cannot but feel that the scanty number of communicants among us, particularly as compared with the attendance on the ordinance among our brethren of other denominations, is to be contemplated with humiliation and with anxiety.

What are the causes to which we must trace this lamentable inattention to the commemorative rite; and what the remedial measures to which we can resort ?

Two different views of church-membership have been held among Christians. They may be called, for distinction's sake, the Catholic and the Genevan. We use the term Catholic, as, though liable to misconstruction, the best which the case admits. We mean by it the doctrine which we conceive to have been the original one; which prevailed undisputed in the Church of Rome, and was retained at the Reformation by the German Lutherans and the English Episcopalians. According to this view, church-membership is the right of all who believe in the truth of the religion, unless under express church censure. According to the Genevan view, it is the right only of those who have experienced a change of heart. In the Romish Church, the child, when he has attained a certain age, is confirmed and partakes of the communion as a matter of course. The same is the custom in the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches, except where their practice has been modified by intercourse with the Genevan sects. The Church of England knows no distinction between church-members and worshippers who are not church-members. The table is spread for all. Only in the Book of Common Prayer the direction is given, that if the minister shall know of any notorious evil-doer among those who approach the table, he shall warn him to abstain. So in the Lutheran Church. At a certain age the children are instructed in the principles of religion, examined and confirmed. They are then as much entitled to the communion as the most tried Christian in the congregation. The other view of the ordinance is the Genevan. This, proceeding on the theory of a natural opposition of the heart to God, regards those only as proper members of the church.

of Christ in whose hearts this opposition has been overcome by the influence of the Holy Spirit; and requires some proof of this fact, at least that the individual himself should be convinced of it, before he partakes of the communion. This view is carried out in the most consistent manner by the Baptists; for it is somewhat difficult to see why one of the ordinances should be granted to the unregenerate person, while the other is denied ; why the child should be admitted, by baptism, into the church, and then, years after, find himself excluded from its privileges.

Now the Unitarian Church stands in this singular position, -that while its principles are such as favor the Catholic view of church-membership, its practice, derived from our Puritan ancestors, is in conformity with the Genevan. Hence we lose the advantages of both. Our people neither come to the communion as a matter of course, on reaching the suitable age, like the members of other non-Calvinistic denominations, nor do many among them ever experience that great inward conflict, succeeded by the transporting assurance of Divine favor, which their Orthodox neighbours regard as the proper commencement of a religious life.

In saying that the view of church-membership which we have called the Catholic one is more congenial to our opinions than the Genevan, we are aware of the objections which may be brought against this position. We may be told that the tendency of such a view is to degrade the ordinance of the Supper, by throwing it open to the whole congregation; and may be referred to the English Test Act, by which formerly all military and civil officers were compelled to partake of the communion in the Established Church. But the desecration of the ordinance here was not the result of any peculiar view of its nature. It was the result of a union of Church and State; and precisely the same result followed, from the same cause, among our Puritan ancestors. With them, no man could vote for civil officers, much less bear an office, unless he was a church-member, in other words, unless he attended the communion under their form. Thus, even Genevan strictness could not save the ordinance from desecration to the purpose of a political test, under a government which recognized a union of Church and State..

If, as we are accustomed to maintain, there is no natural, hereditary depravity in man, but the child when born is pure from all stain of sin; if it is the legitimate work of a relig