I look upon this fact as very natural in the circumstances of
the church. The disciples lived together; they threw all their
property into a common stock; they were bound together by the memory
of Christ, and nothing could be more natural than that this eventful
evening should be affectionately remembered by them; that they, Jews
like Jesus, should adopt his expressions and his types, and
furthermore, that what was done with peculiar propriety by them, his
personal friends, with less propriety should come to be extended to
their companions also. In this way religious feasts grew up among
the early Christians. They were readily adopted by the Jewish
converts who were familiar with religious feasts, and also by the
Pagan converts whose idolatrous worship had been made up of sacred
festivals, and who very readily abused these to gross riot, as
appears from the censures of St. Paul. Many persons consider this
fact, the observance of such a memorial feast by the early disciples,
decisive of the question whether it ought to be observed by us. For
my part I see nothing to wonder at in its originating with them; all
that is surprising is that it should exist among us.
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