342 HONOURING THE SACRAMENTS. 



Truly and sadly we may say to such, " This is not to eat the 

 Lord's Supper." 



Of course the only effectual remedy for such errors is faith- 

 ful scriptural teaching and an increasingly firm discipline, by 

 which, in time, the crowds of people who a few years ago 

 came into the churches before any efficient control could be 

 exercised, shall be no longer children in knowledge, or shall 

 go out from a communion which they see is only for the 

 spiritually minded. Happily this is increasingly the case in 

 all the better instructed congregations. 



Occasionally this reverence for the sacrament has been 

 manifested in a way that could hardly be blamed, although it 

 might soon degenerate into something not greatly differing 

 from the old worship of charms. Some five years ago a 

 journey was taken by two of the most intelligent students in 

 our Theological College to visit the congregations towards the 

 north-west. At a village called Ambodiamontana, not more 

 than sixty miles from the capital, they were much surprised to 

 find the following ceremonies observed by the people : — Taking 

 their own account of them and translating it literally, they 

 say : " When about to pound rice [for making the bread for 

 the sacrament] the people wash their clothes and bathe, and 

 the pestle and rice mortar are thoroughly cleaned ; then they 

 close the doors of the house while pounding and cooking 

 the rice. And again, when the sacrament is concluded, if 

 there is any bread left they take it into the Government 

 House, and there pray before eating it. So we asked them, 

 ' What is the reason of your doing these things ? What do 

 you consider the bread to be ? ' They replied, ' We act in 

 this way because we don't want the unbelievers to know 

 how it is made lest they should despise it, and therefore we 

 thus honour it.' Upon this we hardly saw what to say to 

 them, for we were both astonished and puzzled. However, 

 we ventured upon a word of caution : ' Take good care,' we 

 said, ' lest you pay a superstitious regard to these emblems, and 

 so become forgetful of Jesus Christ. What you do is proper 

 enough if intended as honouring Christ, and not the bread and 

 wine ; but if these only you honour, and do not remember 

 Christ, then you are altogether in the wrong.' " 



