EUCHARIST

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) Signifying properly giving of thanks, but generally used in theological language to denote the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The celebration of this rite is derived from the account given by the Evangelists of the action of our Lord in offering to the apostles bread and wine, saying at the same time, " Take and eat, this is my body;" and " Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remi ion of sins;" and adding at the same time, " Do this as oft as ye shall do it in remembrance of me." This commemoration is spoken of in the N. T. and by the Fathers as a sacrament and a mystery; it must be supposed, therefore, that there is an mtcrior signification conveyed under our Saviour's words — a further effect to be derived from the communion in the bread and wine besides that which is obvious and external. Under the head of Than substantiation will be found the solution which the Koman Catholics discover for this mystery. Consubstantiation, or the simultaneous presence of the body and blood with the bread and wine, is the attempt made by Luther to explain the operation of a divine mystery according to the literal interpretation of Scripture. According to the doctrine of the Anglican church, there is an inward and spiritual grace conveyed in the Eucharist to those who partake of it; and it is in this that our church differs from many Protestant communities, who conceive the communion to be nothing more than an outward act of obedience enjoined upon us as a commemorative ceremony, and only instrumental to our salvation in the same way as any other act of obedience. See Sacrament. It is common in the Fathers to meet with the term sacrifice applied to the Eucharist, and this has been considered by the Romanists as favouring their view of its nature. They appeal also to the prophecy of Malachi, which alludes to a pure offering or an unbloody sacrifice, which shall be offered up to the Lord from the rising to the setting of the sun; and maintain, therefore, that the consecrated elements are offerings made to God for the sins of the people, in the same sense as the expiatory sacrifices of the Jewish law, and not merely commemorative tokens. From hence follows t^he supposed nece ity of the sacrifice of tlie Ma , and its efficacy for the absent, or even dead, and the mediatorial character attributed in the Romish church to the priest. The Protestants, however, while they do not deny the applicability of the word sacrifice to the Eucharist, restrict it to one of the senses which it bears in the Hebrew phraseology; and consider the pure offering prophesied by Malachi tio be an offering of prayer and thanksgiving, such as is constantly referred to by the Psalmist; as, CXL I. 2., "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the rising up of my hands as the evening sacrifice; " LI. 17., "The sacrifices of God are 3 broken spirit," . The seventh chapter of Hebrews is considered decisive against the mediatorial character of the Christian priest; and the Eucharist is held by the church of England to be not a propitiatory but a commemorative sacrifice — a federal act of profe ing our belief in the death of Christ, and of renewing our baptismal covenant with him; and endued with virtue to confer grace upon those who partake of it sincerely and devoutly. [s. 435]