Thirdly, we believe in the fact of Christ's presence with us in the
Holy Communion. Regarding the fact there is unity of belief amongst
all Anglicans, I might go further and say amongst all Christian people.
It is only when men proceed to define the mode that differences arise.
Some would regard his presence as due to a Sacramental change in the
elements, or to a new relationship established between the elements and
the Body and Blood of Christ. Others prefer to connect it with His
promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am
I in the midst of them," and to lay stress upon the fact that if ever
there be an occasion when two or three are gathered together in
Christ's name it is when in obedience to His Command they assemble to
break the bread and bless the cup.
This fact of the real spiritual presence of Christ in the Holy
Communion has ever been the belief of the Church Catholic and of the
Anglican Church as a part thereof. Bishop Andrewes in the seventeenth
century, writing in reply to Roman Controversalists, at a time when the
Church in England had at length settled down after the upheaval and
conflict of the Reformation period, asserted the belief of the Anglican
Church as to the fact but also her refusal to dogmatize as to the mode
of the Saviour's presence. "The Presence we believe no less truly than
you to be real. Concerning the mode of the Presence, we define nothing
rashly, nor, I add, do we curiously enquire."
True to the teaching and to the Spirit of the early Church the Church
of England devoutly accepts her Lord's words, neither attempting to
explain them or to explain them away, but leaving them where He has
left them a holy mystery not requiring and therefore not receiving
definition. Not as attempting to define, but as a safeguard against
errors which have at various times been prominent in the Church,
representative writers of the Anglican Communion have been accustomed
to speak of Our Lord's presence as being at once real and spiritual.
To understand the full significance of this language it is necessary
that we dismiss forever from our minds the idea that there is any
opposition between that which is real and that which is spiritual. On
the contrary, we must grasp the fact, which all are coming to recognize
more and more, that the spiritual is the real, and the real is the
spiritual. I do not think that it would be possible to have this truth
concerning the Sacramental Presence of Our Lord expressed more clearly,
more beautifully, or more truly than it has been by Dr. Hall, the
present Bishop of Vermont, who says that "Christ's presence in the
Baptized is as real as His presence in the Eucharist, His presence in
the Eucharist as spiritual as His presence in the Baptized". Moreover,
the presence of Christ in the Eucharist cannot be said to differ in
kind or in degree from His presence in and with His people at other
times and in other Sacramental ordinances, but it does differ in
purpose.
Our Lord is present with us in the Eucharist for certain very definite
and specific purposes and we must now proceed to enquire what those
purposes are. We shall be on safe ground if we say that Our Lord as
the great Head is present with the members of the Church which is His
Body to do those things which He did or commanded to be done at the
last supper.
Why then did Our Lord at the Last Supper institute and ordain the
Sacrament of the Holy Communion and command it to be celebrated and
observed by His Church until His coming again?