THE

BREAKING OF THE BREAD.

AN EXPLANATION OF

THE HOLY COMMUNION.

WITH

Notes on the Communion Service.

BY THE

REV. EDWARD L. CUTTS, B.A.
HON. D.D., UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH U.S.

Author of "Pastoral Counsels," "Some Chief Truths of Religion,
Turning Points of English Church History," &c.

London

AUC 'R2

WELLS GARDNER, DARTONE & CO.

PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS.

138. i. b55

655.

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE FALL AND THE REDEMPTION.

In the Fall man alienated from God, God alienated
from man. Man incapable of making atonement
for his sin, or of restoring his corrupted nature.
God provided a remedy in the incarnation and
sacrifice of the Son of God, making atonement
for sin, and giving grace to human nature. Man,
penitent, restores his trust and love to God;
God, reconciled, restores grace and blessing to
man. Our repentance, faith, and obedience
habitual, God's pardon and grace habitual; but
God has ordained occasional acts of religion
in which we express our feelings towards Him,
and He makes these acts of religion the
channels of His grace to us. The great act of
religion is a symbolical representation of the

PAGE

ix

PAGE

sacrifice of Christ, through whom alone we have

access to God, and through whom alone God

gives His favour to us

CHAPTER II.

THE GREAT ACT OF RELIGION UNDER THE

PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.

Ever since the Fall only one religion-faith in the for-

giveness of sin through the sacrifice of Christ.

The great act of this religion was always the

symbolical representation of Christ's sacrifice,

pleading Christ's merits for the forgiveness of

sin. Before Christ's sacrifice this representation

of it was by the sacrifice of slain beasts. God

taught Adam the rite of sacrifice after the Fall.

Noah's sacrifice. The sacrifice of Isaac. The

rite preserved in corrupted religions.

CHAPTER III.

1-8

9-16

THE GREAT ACT OF RELIGION UNDER THE MOSAIC

ECONOMY.

The tabernacle service. Solomon's temple. The

fire of the altar came down from heaven, kept

ever burning. The offering of incense. The

ceremonial of the day of Atonement; St. Paul's

explanation of the symbolisin

17-26

CHAPTER IV.

THE GREAT ACT OF RELIGION UNDER THE CHRISTIAN

DISPENSATION.

On the eve of the great sacrifice of Christ, He ap-

pointed henceforward a new symbolical repre-

sentation of it- the broken bread and wine

poured out. The institution. The breaking of

the bread at once appears as the great act of

Christian worship; at Jerusalem; Troas;

Corinth. Continued always to be so.
It is an

effectual pleading of Christ's sacrifice.

tions answered

Objec-

PAGE

27-43

CHAPTER V.

THE SACRAMENTAL SYSTEM.

Argument for the existence of the supernatural.
Physical science does not find the supernatural
in nature; it is incapable of seeing it; but it is
equally incapable of shewing that it does not
exist. The argument assumes the existence of
the supernatural, of God and the soul, of God's
revelation. Throughout the religious history of
man there are periods of exceptional supernatural
activity, and intervals of normal activity; in
these intervals the supernatural never disappears.
The sacramental principle; the use of external
means as channels of supernatural forces. De-
finition of "grace." Occasional means of grace

*