interests arising from the investment of the royal grants above alluded to, and from other sources, amounts to somewhat more than 2500 rupees and its expenditure, including the expenses of the Metropolitan and his attendants, exceeds 4500 rupees. The excess of expenditure is borne by the Church Missionary Society. Even with this assistance, the funds of the college are by no means sufficient. The building itself requires great alterations and improvements. The commencement of a very valuable library has been made, the completion of which, will, of course, be a matter of considerable expense. No income has yet accrued from the royal grant of the property near Quilon; on the contrary, it has been a very heavy burden upon the funds of the college, and will require the laying out of a much larger sum before it can be made productive. The fourth object proposed is the erection and enlargement of churches, which includes the repairing of such as are in a state of dilapidation. Many of the churches are much fallen into decay. Among those may be reckoned the ancient church of Neranum, which tradition refers to apostolick times; the church of Omalur, lately destroyed by fire; the large church of Cadambanat, (not unlike an English cathedral in its lofty roof and lengthened chancel,) now undergoing complete repairs: the large church of Parur, capable of containing fifteen hundred persons, destroyed by Tippoo, in the year and but lately begun to be rebuilt; the churches of Ancamali, Accaparamba, the large church of Cottamangalam, Perumattam, Molucolam, Cundare, Calade, and some others. In consequence of the extensiveness of several parishes, some chapels of ease, as we should term them, are building; and the erection of others is contemplated, as soon as adequate funds can be raised. Among the former, we may reckon those of Tiruvalla and Etalott, for the extensive parish of Neranum, and Ammina, for the parish of Cotayam: the latter are required in the parishes of Kotaracare, Mamalacheri, Cunipampatti, and some others. The average expense of building a church, according to the plan usually adopted by the Syrians, including the apartments for the priests, &c. &c. cannot be estimated at lower than five thousand rupees. Having thus, sir, laid before you, in as brief a manner as the nature of the subject would adınit, the plans already commenced, and the further ones in contemplation for the improvement of this remarkable people, permit us to indulge the hope, that they will appear to your mind in some measure worthy of that patronage and encouragement which is necessary to give them efficiency. A residence of nearly five years in the midst of them, in the habit of the most familiar and uninterrupted intercourse with the dignitaries of their church, the whole body of the clergy, and the society at large, emboldens us in expressing the full conviction of our minds, that they will not prove unworthy of your favour, nor fail in answering any degree of culture which may be bestowed on them. Members of a church, venerable for her great antiquity, and who retains, as her language, the very dialect of our Lord and his apostles, using a version of the scriptures, made by apostolical men, miraculously preserved during a succession of ages, in the very midst of a heathen population, and in spite of all the violent and unceasing attacks of the Romish hierarchy, a monument of the truth of Christianity, and of the protecting care of the Most High; they seem, in a peculiar manner, to call for the sympathy and assistance of a Christian and Protestant nation. And we cannot but consider all these claims as coming with a peculiar force on the members of the Anglican church; a church, which, retaining, as no other Protestant communion has retained, those features of primitive custom and discipline, that unite her with all the unreformed churches of apostolical original, in the east and west, has, at the same time, suffered equally with any from the antichristian domination of the court of Rome; and, having escaped pure from that infection, and that persecution, is best prepared to feel for those who are yet groaning under the effect of both. And these circumstances of common interest with our Protestant Episcopal Church, are not wholly unknown, nor unfelt, by our Syrian brethren. To carry on the plans abovementioned, funds, to a very considerable amount are required. Those appropriated to the object by the Church Missionary Society, though amounting to many thousand rupees, annually, are not adequate to the purpose. On this account are we induced to submit these facts to your notice; and feel greatly obliged and encouraged by the wish you so condescendingly made known, of being informed of the particulars of our mission, and the nature of the assistance required. We beg leave to observe, that applications have been made for that literary help, which the college so imperiously demands; and that considerable hope is entertained, that it will eventually be under the immediate guidance of men of regular academical habits, and of acknowledged reputation for learning, in our English universities. Permit us, in conclusion, to apologize for the length of this communication, and to assure you with how much respect, we subscribe ourselves, sir, your most obedient servants, Cotayam, Jan. 1822. (Signed) B. BAILEY. H. BAKER. POSTSCRIPT. Ar a special ordination, held in St. Michael's church, Bristol, on the first instant, being the festival of the Circumcision, the Right Rev. the Bishop of the Eastern Diocese admitted Mr. Lot Jones to the holy order of Deacons. Divine service was performed by the Reverend Professor Adams, and an address, suitable to the occasion, delivered by the Bishop. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Several communications are omitted for want of room. THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. No. 26.] FEBRUARY, 1823. [No. 2. Vol. III. THEOLOGICAL. [We insert the following communication, from an unknown correspondent, with great pleasure, on account of the learning and research which it displays; though we cannot accord with him as to the expediency of reviving the Agapæ. The fact of the general abolition of the practice is, to us, a sufficient evidence of its tendency to abuse; and even the few sects, who, of late years, have revived it, under the idea of its being scriptural, are beginning to find that it opens a door for disorderly conduct, incompatible with the Christian character. It may be remarked that our church retains all that was really useful in the Agapæ, in the alms and oblations which are offered at the communion. If any of our pious readers have been deterred from coming to the Lord's table by a mistaken construction of St. Paul's reproof to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. xi.) it will be a relief to them to learn, from the following essay, that the disorders, which the apostle censured, arose from an abuse of the Agapæ, or love-feasts immediately preceding the sacrament.] TH TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. ON THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN AGAPE. HE Agapæ, or love-feasts, of the primitive Christians, were frugal and friendly repasts, provided at the expense of the rich, and instituted for the promotion of Christian charity and mutual kindness. From these common tables, the wants of the poor, the fatherless, the widow, the stranger, and the sick, were supplied The most detailed account of the manner in which these feasts, so honourable to the Christian character, were celebrated, is afforded us by Tertullian. " Our supper," says he," which you accuse of luxury, shows its reason in its very name; for it is called ayan, which among the Greeks signifies love. By it we relieve and refresh the poor. Nothing vile or immodest is committed in it; for we do not sit down before we have first offered up prayer to God; we eat only what is necessary to satisfy hunger, and drink so much only as becomes modest persons. We fill ourselves in such a manner as to remember at the same time, that we are to worship God by night. We discourse as in the presence of God, knowing that he hears us. Then, after we have washed our hands, and lights are brought in, every one is moved to sing some hymn to God, either extempore [*] or out of the scriptures. And by this we dis [* Our correspondent has here taken a liberty with his author, which we conceive to be unjustifiable. There is no evidence that the ancient Christians either prayed GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. III. 6 cover whether the rules of temperance in drinking have been violated. After again uniting in prayer, we depart, not to give up ourselves to lascivious pastime; but to pursue the same course of modesty and chastity, as men who have fed at a supper of philosophy and discipline, rather than a corporeal feast." Tertul. op. Apol. c. 39. The apostate Julian is supposed to have alluded to them in his Frag. Orat. and to have taken occasion from them to enforce liberality upon the Pagans by the example of the Christians, whom he reproachfully calls Galileans. "The impious Galileans," says he, having he," observed that our priests neglected the poor, set about relieving them. And as they who design to kidnap children in order to sell them, allure them by giving them cakes; so these have thrown the true worshippers into atheism by first winning them over with charity, hospitality, and the service of tables.” Αγαπης και υποδοχης και διακονίας. That these hospitable repasts were coeval with Christianity itself, is obvious, not only from the declarations of the ancient fathers and bistorians; but also from the holy scriptures themselves. The word ayana in the plural number occurs only in the epistle of St. Jude, where it must be understood of the primitive love-feasts. These (men) are spots in your love-feasts, ev tais ayañais. 12th verse. The persons to whom the apostle alludes had been guilty of gluttony and intemperance, and had thus shamefully perverted the pious and benevolent design of the ayana. He therefore pronounces them to be spots in their love-feasts, i. e. a disgrace to the church, and unworthy of admittance at those benevolent entertainments which were designed to promote reciprocal kindness and Christian affection among the primitive disciples. Dr. Lightfoot, it is true, supposes that the ayana here spoken of, were not feasts of charity, but a kind of hospitals for the entertainment of strangers, in imitation of those (Evodoxia) which the Jews had adjoining their synagogues. Gaius, who is called the host of the whole church, (Rom. xvi. 2, 3,) he supposes to have been master of such a hospital or dormitory; and that Phoebe, who is called the Saxovos of the church at Corinth, and those other women, mentioned Phil. iv. 3, were servants attending these hospitals * But since there is no satisfactory evidence of the existence of such hospitals at that time, and since this interpretation is contrary to the usus loquendi of the word among the early fathers, no commentator of much note has adopted this opinion, unless perhaps we except Whitby.t or sung extempore. The words of Tertullian are," Post aquam manualem et lumina, ut quisque de scripturis sanctis, vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medium Deo canere. Hinc probatur quomodo liherit." By what torture can he make "de proprio ingenio" to signify extempore? We should translate the whole passage thus: After water to wash our hands, and lights are introduced, each one is called upon to sing to God publickly, as well as he is able, either from the holy scriptures, or of his own composition. In this way it is proved whether he has been temperate." Every one being required either to chant a psalm, or to sing a hymn of his own composition after the feast, the rule operated as a restraint and prevented excess. Ed.] *Vid. Lightfoot's Hor. Hebraic. 1 Cor. xi. 21. † Vid. Pool's Synopsis. Hammond, Doddridge, and Gill, in loco, and Schleusner's Lex. Art. ayaπn. The formula κλασις του αρτου 66 breaking of bread,” and similar expressions in the New Testament, obviously signify, in their primary and more usual sense, the participation of a common meal; (vid. Matt. vix. 19, xv. 30, and parallel passages,) but the circumstance of our Saviour's having broken the loaf, when he instituted the Eucharist, (Matth. xxvi. 26,) led the apostle Paul to employ the expression "the bread which we break," to signify xar'egon, the sacrament of the Lord's supper. 1 Cor. x. 16. In the Acts of the Apostles, however, such phrases seem to me usually to convey a two-fold meaning, viz. the Eucharist, in which bread was broken and distributed, and the Agapæ, of which it was the customary practice of Christians in the first century, to partake at the same time. That this is no novel opinion, but sanctioned by some of the most approved commentators on the holy scriptures, will appear from a recurrence to the following passages: Acts ii. 42. "And they, (the Christian converts,) continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Rosenmueller and Grotius explain the phrase în nλασεl T8 agT8 as denoting the friendly repasts, or love-feasts of the primitive Christians, which closed with the reception of the Eucharist. It is true the Syriack translation limits the signification of the phrase in this place, and a similar one in Acts xx. 7, to the Lord's supper. But is it certain that this is all that is intended by it? Does this exegesis exhaust the meaning of the phrases ? The same formula occurs in St. Luke's gospel, xxiv. 35, where obviously it has no reference to the Eucharist. It is admitted that this ordinance is implied in the passage in question, because it was generally, if not universally, in the first century, an appendage to the Agapæ, to which, as we believe, allusion is principally intended ; but there does not appear to be any evidence from the history of the church in that age, that this was exclusively meant.* Acts ii. 46." And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.' The phrase κλωντες τε κατ' οίκον άρτον denotes, according to Rosenmueller, the equal distribution of food and bread at different houses, for the use of the poor, assembled at the common feasts, or feasts of charity. Acts xx. 11. "Here again," says Mosheim, "the celebration of the Lord's supper is associated with a feast or repast of the Christians."† 1 Cor. xi. 21, 22. « For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not ?" The Corinthian Christians are here accused by the apostle of consuming first their own supper, which they had brought with them, before they partook of the Lord's supper. *See also Grotius, Pearce, and Koppe, on Acts xx. 7. + Vid. Mosheim's Comment. on the affairs of Christians before the time of Constantine, translated by Vidall. |
