27.-Q. With reference to W. Y. H.'s first question in the September number of Words of Faith, in connection with a child absenting himself " from the Lord's Table because of his parent's orders not to go there," is not " This do in remembrance of me " the Lord's request rather than His command As bearing on this subject, I append the following extract from the writings of another: " If I were a child or a wife in a worldly family, I would be in complete subjection to the father or husband. That is, I would surrender my liberty to any extent but my conscience to no extent. If he said, You are not to go
out of this house any Sunday, I could say, Very well, you shall be implicitly obeyed; but if he said, you must go to such a place on the Lord's day-one which would compromise my allegiance to Christ, I reply, No, that involves my conscience, and that is for God; that you cannot govern. You can have the right over trite to any extent, but over my conscience, Never. I could not go there. You can surrender your liberty to any extent, but your conscience to no extent.
G. E. W.
A.-We quite admit that "This do in remembrance of me" is the Lord's request-a question of privilege, not of command; and the same is true as to baptism-it is privilege and not command, but both involve the integrity of Christian profession and devotedness to Christ in a way that admits of no compromise. The rights and claims of Christ are in question, if not His commands. Suppose a heathen father or husband forbad child or wife to be baptized under pain, say, of death, or being turned out of house, would it be right under the plea of obedience to father or husband, to forego baptism? It would be to deny Christ, and refuse to take Christian ground-really that which involves salvation. If a father or a husband, in the same way, forbid child or wife to go to the Lord's table, and thus decline to show forth His death till He come, is it right to forego the " This do in remembrance of me," under the plea that there is no command to do this? It is to deny the rights and claims of Christ over His own; to fail in what is due to Himself and His dying love, not to speak of surrendering the testimony to Christ as present in the midst of the assembly, and to His Headship of the body, and with this, practically to renounce our place as members of His body. Christ is Head of His body and He has an assembly on earth; He is in the midst of those gathered to His name, and He has said to them, as so gathered, " This do in remembrance of me," and we believe no authority of father or husband can be allowed to interfere with these claims of Christ. To give them up, in obedience to either father or husband, is not to "surrender my liberty," but to fail in devotedness and subjection to Christ. " The church is subject to Christ," and this goes a deal further than mere obedience to a command. We do not think that the teaching of the extract given traverses anything we have written, or is meant to weaken the obligation of the believer with reference to the Lord's table and all that this involves; with the general principle enforced, we heartily agree.—c. w.