LOOKING GLASS

Moses states that the women who waited all night at the door of the tabernacle, cheerfully offered their looking gla es, to be employed in making a brazen laver for the purification of the priests, Exod. xxxviii, 8. These looking gla es were doubtle of bra , since the basin here mentioned, and the basis thereof, were made from them. The ancient looking gla es were mirrors, not made of gla as ours; but of bra , tin, silver, and a mixture of bra and silver, which last were the best and most valuable. LORD’s DAY. See Sabbath . LORD’s SUPPER, an ordinance instituted by our Saviour in commemoration of his death and sufferings. The institution of this sacrament is recorded by the first three evangelists, and by the Apostle Paul, whose words differ very little from those of his companion St. Luke; and the only difference between St. Matthew and St. Mark is, that the latter omits the words, for the remi ion of sins.” There is so general an agreement among them all, that it will only be nece ary to recite the words of one of them: Now, when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve,” to eat the pa over which had been prepared by his direction; and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and ble ed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remi ion of sins,” Matt. xxvi, 20, 26–28. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper being thus instituted, was adopted by all the early Christians, with very few exceptions; and no modern sect rejects it, except the Quakers and some mystics, who make the whole of religion to consist of contemplative love. In the early times of the Gospel the celebration of the Lord’s Supper was both frequent and numerously attended. Voluntary absence was considered as a culpable neglect; and exclusion from it, by the sentence of the church, as a severe punishment. Every one brought an offering proportioned to his ability; these offerings were chiefly of bread and wine; and the priests appropriated as much as was nece ary for the administration of the eucharist. The clergy had a part of what was left for their maintenance; and the rest furnished the repast called ἀγάπη, or love-feast , which immediately followed the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and of which all the communicants, both rich and poor, partook. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper greatly resembled the religious feasts to which the Jews were accustomed. At those feasts they partook of bread and wine in a serious and devout manner, after a solemn ble ing or thanksgiving to God for his manifold mercies. This was particularly the case at the feast of the pa over, which our Saviour was celebrating with his Apostles when he instituted this holy sacrament. At that feast, they commemorated the deliverance of their own peculiar nation from the bondage of Egypt; and there could not be a more suitable opportunity for establishing an ordinance which was to commemorate the infinitely more important deliverance of all mankind from the bondage of sin. The former deliverance was typical of the latter; and instead of keeping the Jewish pa over, which was now to be abrogated, they were to commemorate Christ, their pa over, who was sacrificed for them; the bread broken was to represent his body offered upon the cro ; and the wine poured out was to represent his blood, which was shed for the salvation of men. The nourishment which these elements afford to our bodies is figurative of the salutary effects which the thing signified has upon our souls. And as the celebration of the pa over was not only a constant memorial of the deliverance of the Israeli tes out of the land of Egypt, but also a symbolical action, by which they had a title to the ble ings of the old covenant; so the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is not only a constant memorial of the death of Christ, but also a pledge or earnest to the communicant of the benefits promised by the new covenant. As the pa over was instituted the night before the actual deliverance of the Israeli tes, so the Lord’s Supper was instituted the night before the redemption of man was accomplished by the crucifixion of the ble ed Jesus. It is to be partaken of by all who look for remi ion of sins by the death of Christ; we are not only to cherish that trust in our minds, and expre it in our devotions, but we are to give an outward proof of our reliance upon the merits of his pa ion as the means of our salvation, by eating that bread, and drinking that wine, which are typical representations of the body and blood of Christ, who by his one oblation of himself once offered, made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” See Sacraments . LOT, the son of Haran, and nephew to Abraham. He accompanied his uncle from Ur to Haran, and from thence to Canaan; a proof of their mutual attachment, and similarity of principles respecting the true religion. With Abraham he descended into Egypt, and afterward returned with him into Canaan: but the multiplicity of their flocks, and still more the quarrels of their servants, rendered a friendly separation nece ary. When God destroyed the cities of the plain with fire and brimstone, he delivered just Lot” from the conflagration, according to the account of the divine historian. The whole time that Lot resided there was twenty-three years. During all this period he had been a preacher of righteousne among this degenerate people. In him they had before their eyes an illustrious example of the exercise of genuine piety, supported by unsullied justice and benevolent actions. And doubtle it was for these purposes that Divine Providence placed him for a time in that city. The lo es which Lot sustained on this melancholy occasion were very great; his wife, property, and all the prospects of the future settlement of his family blasted. Pity must therefore draw a friendly veil over the closing scene of this man of affliction; and let him that think eth he standeth, take heed lest he fall into deeds more reprehensible than those of Lot, without having equal trials and sufferings to plead in his favour. Respecting his wife, whether grieving for the lo of her property, or inwardly censuring the severity of the divine dispensation, or whether moved by unbelief or curiosity, cannot now be known; but, looking back, she became a pillar of salt, Gen. xix, 26. It would be endle to present the reader with all the opinions on this subject. Some contend that nothing more is meant than that she was suffocated: others, that a column or monument of metallic salt was erected upon her grave: others affirm that she became encrusted with the sulphur, insomuch that she appeared like an Egyptian mummy, which is embalmed with salt. Our Lord warns his disciples to remember Lot’s wife in their flight from Jerusalem, and not to imitate her tardine , Luke xvii, 32. 2. Lot, any thing cast or drawn in order to determine any matter in question, Proverbs xviii, 18. We see the use of lots among the Hebrews in many places of Scripture: God commands, for example, that lots should be cast upon the two goats which were offered for the sins of the people, upon the solemn day of expiation, to know which of the two should be sacrificed, and which liberated, Lev. xvi, 8–10. He required also that the land of promise should be divided by lot as soon as it was conquered; which command Joshua accordingly executed, Num. xxvi, 55, 56; xxxiii, 54; xxxiv, 13, Joshua xiv-xvi; hence the term lot” is used for an inheritance, Thou maintain est my lot;” and figuratively for a happy state or condition. The priests and Levites had their cities appointed by lot. Lastly, in the time of David, the four and twenty cla es of the priests and Levites were they should wait in the temple, 1 Chron. vi, 54, 61; xxiv, 5; xxv, 8. In the division of the spoil, after victory, lots were likewise cast, to give every man his portion, Obadiah 11; Nahum iii, 10, . In the New Testament, after the death of Judas, lots were cast to decide who should occupy the place of the traitor, Acts i, 26. From the above instances, it is clear that when men have recourse to this method, the matter ought to be of the greatest importance, and no other apparent way left to determine it; and the manner of making the appeal should be solemn and grave, if we would escape the guilt of taking the name of God in vain. It unquestionably implies a solemn appeal to the Most High to interpose by his decision; and so every thinking man will be very careful that he has a true and religious ground for so serious a proceeding; and few if any cases can now occur in which it can have any justification. The ancient manner of casting lots, was either in some person’s lap,” or fold of the robe; into a helmet, or urn, or other ve el, in which they might be shaken before they were drawn or cast. LOVE-FEASTS. It is Godwin’s opinion, that the agapæ , or love-feasts, of the primitive Christians, were derived from the חגים or feasts upon the sacrifices, at which the Jews entertained their friends, and fed the poor; Deut. xii, 18; xxvi, 12. There were also feasts of much the same kind in use among the Greeks and Romans. The former were wont to offer certain sacrifices to their gods, which were afterward given to the poor. They had likewise public feasts for certain districts, suppose for a town or a city, toward which all who could afford it, contributed, in proportion to their different abilities, and all partook of it in common. Of this sort were the συσσίτια of the Cretans; and the φιδιτία of the Lacedæmonians, instituted by Lycurgus, and so called ϖαρὰ τῆς φιλίας, (the λ being changed into δ according to their usual orthography,) as denoting that love and friendship which they were intended to promote among neighbours and fellow citizens. The Romans likewise had a feast of the same kind, called charistia ; which was a meeting only of those who were akin to each other; and the design of it was, that if any quarrel or misunderstanding had happened among any of them, they might there be reconciled. To this Ovid alludes in the second book of his Fasti:-- Proxima cognati dixere charistia car i, Et venit ad socios turba propinqua deos.      v. 617. [The feasts next in order beloved relatives called charistia , at which the kindred throng a embled under their family household gods.] In imitation either of these Jewish or Gentile love-feasts, or probably of both, the primitive Christians, in each particular church, had likewise their love-feasts, which were supplied by the contribution of the members, according to their several abilities, and partaken of by all in common. And whether they were converts from among the Jews or Gentiles, they retained their old custom with very little alteration, and as their ἀγάπαι had been commonly annexed to their sacrifices, so they were now annexed to the commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ at the Lord’s Supper; and were therefore held on the Lord’s day before or after the celebration of that ordinance. It would seem at Corinth, in the Apostles’ days, they were ordinarily held before; for when the Corinthians are blamed for unworthily receiving the Lord’s Supper, it is partly charged upon this, that some of them came drunk to that ordinance, having indulged to exce at the preceding love-feast: Every one taketh before, ϖρολαμϐανει, his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken,” 1 Cor. xi, 21. This shows, says Dr. Whitby, that this banquet, namely, the love-feast, was celebrated before the Lord’s Supper. But Chrysostom gives an account of it, as being in his time kept after it. It is commonly supposed, that when St. Jude mentions certain persons, who were spots in the feasts of charity, ἐν ταῖς ἀγάπαις, verse 12, he means in the Christian love-feasts; though Dr. Light foot and Dr. Whitby apprehend the reference in this pa age is rather a custom of the Jews, who, on the evening of their Sabbath, had their κοινωνία, or communion, when the inhabitants of the same city met in a common place to eat together. However that be, all antiquity bears testimony to the reality of the Christian ἀγάπαι, or love-feasts. The most circumstantial account, says Dr. Townley, of the manner in which the ancient agapæ were celebrated, is given by Tertullian, in his Apology,” written in the second century: Our supper,” says he, which you accuse of luxury, shows its reason in its very name, for it is called ἀγάπη, that is, love . Whatever charge we are at, it is gain to be at expense upon the account of piety. For we therewith relieve and refresh the poor. There is nothing vile or immodest committed in it. For we do not sit down before we have first offered up prayer to God. We eat only to satisfy hunger, and drink only so much as becomes modest persons. We fill ourselves in such a manner, as that we remember still that we are to worship God by night. We discourse as in the presence of God, knowing that he hears us. Then, after water to wash our hands, and lights brought in, every one is moved to sing some hymn to God, either out of Scripture, or, as he is able, of his own composing, and by this we judge whether he has observed the rules of temperance in drinking. Prayer again concludes our feast; and thence we depart, not to fight and quarrel; not to run about and abuse all we meet; not to give up ourselves to lascivious pastime; but to pursue the same care of modesty and chastity, as men that have fed at a supper of philosophy and discipline, rather than a corporeal feast.” Ignatius, in his epistle to the church of Smyrna, in the first century, affords us the additional information, that it was not lawful to baptize, or celebrate the love-feasts, without the bishop, or minister.” Lucian, the epicurean, has also a pa age which seems to refer to the agapæ . He tells us that when Peregrin us, a Christian, was in prison, you might have seen, early in the morning, old women, some widows, and orphans, waiting at the prison. Their presidents bribed the guards, and lodged in the prison with him. Afterward (that is, in the evening) various suppers (that is, suppers consisting of various dishes, and various kinds of meat, brought thither by various persons of the company) were brought in, and they held their sacred conversations, ἴεροι λογοι, or their sacred discourses were delivered.” Pliny, in his celebrated epistle to Trajan, mentions the “ cibus promiscuus et innoxius ,”--“common and harmle meal” of the Christians, which they ate together after the celebration of the eucharist. This primitive practice, though under a simpler form, and more expre ly religious, is retained in modern times, only by the Moravians, and by the Wesley an Methodists.