s in the upper room. When Christ and the twelve sat down
there, it was a family meal at which they sat. He was the head of the
household; they were members of His family. The early examples of the
rite, when the disciples 'gathered together to break bread,' obviously
preserved the same familiar character, and stand in extraordinary
contrast to the splendours of high mass in a Roman Catholic Cathedral.
The Church, as a whole, is a household, and the very form of the rite
proclaims that 'we, being many, are one bread.' The conception of a
family brings clearly into view the deepest ground of Christian unity.
It is the possession of a common life, just as men are born into an
earthly family, not of their own will, nor of their own working, and
come without any action of their own into bonds of blood relationship
with brothers and sisters. When we become sons of God and are born
again, we become brethren of all His children. That which gives us life
in Him makes us kindred with all through whose veins flows that same
life. It is the common partaking in the one bread which makes us one.
The same blood flows in the veins of all the children.

Hence, the only ground on which the Church rests is this common
possession of the life of Christ, and that ground makes, and ought to be
felt to make, Christian union a far deeper, more blessed, and more
imperative bond than can be found in any shallow similarities of aim--or
identities of opinion or feeling. The deepest fact of Christian
consciousness is the foundation fact of Christian brotherhood; each is
nearer to every Christian than to any besides. A very solemn view of
Christian duty arises from these thoughts, familiar as they are:

'No distance breaks the tie of blood,
Brothers are brothers ever more.'

and every tongue is loud in condemnation of any man who is ashamed or
afraid to recognise his brother and stand by him, whatever may be the
difference in their worldly positions. 'Every one who loveth Him that
begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.'

II. The Lord's Supper as a prophecy of the family at home above.

The prophetic character was stamped on the first institution of the
Lord's Supper by Christ's own words 'until it be fulfilled in the
kingdom of God,' and by His declaration that He appointed unto them a
kingdom, that they might eat and drink at His table in His kingdom. We
may also recall the mysterious feast spread on the shore of the lake,
whe