A Key to the Knowledge of Church History (Ancient) | Page 6

and Love found their outward expression both towards God and towards man. Towards God in "the Breaking of the Bread," the Daily Sacrifice and Thank-offering of the Holy Eucharist "at home[28]," i.e. in their own upper room, the first Christian Church, as well as in their constant attendance on the daily "Prayers" and praises still offered up in the Temple. Of the conduct of the first Christians towards each other we are told twice over, immediately after the Outpouring of the Day of Pentecost, and again after that increase of "boldness," which was granted to the earnest cry of the Church on the approach of persecution[29].
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[Sidenote: and towards man.]
Both these accounts speak to us of their full realization of the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. They "were together;" they "were of one heart and of one soul:" the need of one was the need of all; each felt his brother's wants, as if he himself suffered; and so great was the liberality of those who had "possessions and goods," that there was not "any among them that lacked." "They had all things common," as to the daily use of God's worldly gifts.
[Sidenote: The Holy Eucharist as a Sacrifice]
The Holy Eucharist was to the Church then, as it is still, the chief act and centre of Divine worship. In this new Sacrifice the Apostles showed forth and pleaded before God, the One Sufficient Sacrifice, which they themselves had seen "once offered," with unspeakable sufferings, and all-prevailing Blood-shedding upon the Cross of Calvary. [Sidenote: and a means of union with Christ.] In it they adored Him, Whom they now acknowledged with every faculty of their souls to be indeed their "Lord" and their "God;" in it they found again the Real and continual, though invisible, Presence of the Master and Friend for Whose sake they had forsaken all earthly ties; and by it they were brought into closer union with Him, than when of old they had walked and talked with Him beside the Galilean Sea, or beneath the olive-trees of Gethsemane; for now, they were indeed "nourished and cherished" by Him and made more and more "members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones[30]." [Sidenote: Thankfulness of the first converts.] What wonder, then, that we read of the "gladness and singleness of heart" of the {15} Apostles and their converts thus living in the constant joy and presence of their Lord, and that "praising God" is mentioned as one of their distinguishing marks:--
"By 'Deo gratias,' as they pass'd, The faithful folk were surest known; That watchword for the daily strife Might well their thoughts and tongues employ, Who made the Church transform their life, And the great Offering crown their joy[31]."
[Sidenote: Continued attendance of the Apostles on the Temple Services.]
We may here remark the many indications which are given us throughout the Book of Acts, that the Apostles, who were themselves Jews, did not, even after the Foundation of the Christian Church, oppose or neglect Jewish ordinances and worship, so long and so far as the union of the two dispensations was practicable. In this they followed the example of their Divine Master, Who, from His Circumcision upwards, paid obedience to that Law which He came to fulfil, and Who was a constant attendant at the services of the Temple and of the Synagogues. There was no violent rending away from the old Faith, until God, in His wisdom and justice, saw fit to ordain the destruction of the guilty city Jerusalem, and the overthrow of the Jewish Temple, and Altar, and Priesthood, none of which had then any further purpose to serve in the Divine plan for the redemption of mankind.
[Sidenote: In the cases of St. Peter and St. John,]
Thus we read of St. Peter and St. John going up to the Temple to worship at the ninth hour of prayer[32], and of their afterwards preaching to the people in that part of the {16} Temple called Solomon's porch[33], of the daily preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles in the Temple[34], and of their constant resort to the Jewish Synagogues during their stay in such places as possessed them[35]. [Sidenote: and of St. Paul.] Even five and twenty years after the day of Pentecost we find that the very tumult which resulted in St. Paul's apprehension and consequent journey as a prisoner to Rome, was immediately excited by his having "entered into the Temple[36]," in performance of one of the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law.
Section 7. The First Schism and the Appointment of the Diaconate.
[Sidenote: A. D. 33. The first deadly sin in the Church.]
Great and deadly sin had already made its way into Christ's fold, and been cast out from the midst of it by a fearful judgment. Ananias and Sapphira had "lied unto