THE LORD’S SUPPER
A
CHURCH ORDINANCE,
And
SO OBSERVED BY THE APOSTOLIC CHURCHES.
“NOW I PRAISE YOU, BRETHREN, THAT YE * * KEEP THE ORDINANCES AS I DELIVERED
THEM UNTO YOU [THE CHURCH].”—Paul.
BY
J. R. GRAVES, LL. D.,
EDITOR, “THE BAPTIST,’ MEMPHIS,
TENN.
PUBLISHED BY
Baptist Sunday School Committee
Texarkana, Ark.—Tex.
COPYRIGHT, 1881, by J. R. GRAVES
MEMPHIS, TENN.
COPYRIGHT, 1928
By
BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL COMMITTEE
TEXARKANA, ARK.—TEX.
"There is sufficient proof to convince any close student of church history of
the first three centuries, that in the very earliest ages the Lord's Supper was
regarded as strictly a Church Ordinance, as we have defined the phrase."—
PROF. CURTIS, " COMMUNION," p. 88,
"When a man eats of that' one bread,' and drinks of that 'one cup,' he, in this
act, professes himself a member of that one body, in hearty, holy sympathy with
its doctrines and life, and freely and fully subjecting himself to its
watch-care and government, (i Cor. x : 17); hence, in i Cor. v: II, the Church
is forbidden to eat (in the Lord's Supper, as the context clearly shows) with
immoral persons, thus distinctly making the Ordinance a symbol of church
fellowship."
PROF. HARVEY, HAMILTON THEO. SEMINARY."
THE CHURCH," p. 221.
If the Supper was instituted by Christ to be observed as a Church Ordinance, and
among other things to symbolize church relations, then the members of the
particular church celebrating the Supper, can participate in it; since it sets
forth the fact that all eating of the one loaf, are members of that one
particular church. If the Lord's Supper is a Church Ordinance, then is
Intercommunion unscriptural.