Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-08-23
Science and the Holy Communion.

ion cups introduced into two churches
at Rochester, the one Baptist and the
other Presbyterian, has received COM
paratively little attention from the
specifically and professionally religi-
Gus papers of those and other Protes-
tant denominations They seem to
avoid the subject, hesitating to express
any decided opinion as to it. Its dis
cussion has been confined chiefly to
the medical papers and to individual
Church members who write to the
journals called secular.
The individual wine cups were sub
stituted for the common chalice in the
Rochester churches at the suggestion
and Oh the urgent advice of the regu-
lar medical society of the town, which
repeated warnings against its use that
had been uttered by many other medic
al authorities. The grounds for the
change, as explained by the pastors of
those churches on the occasion on
which it was made, are of kind to
provoke among Protestant communi-
cants anxious questioning which can
not be suppressed by merely ignoring
the subject. They are that the use of
a common wine cup by many people
On the celebration of the Eucharist is
both offensive to cleanliness and dam
gerous to health, subjecting them to
the chances of receiving the germs of
disease. At least one of these pastors
declared that already the number of
the members of his church partaking
of the Holy Communion had decreased
because of prejudices against the COM
mon chalice induced by fastidiousness
and fear of contagion. and that to save
the ordinance from falling into more
general disuse it was necessary to heed
these objections, for they were sustain
ed by scientific medical opinion and
demonstration. Since the Innovation
of the individual cups was made, more
over. journals in different parts of the
Union have been getting many letters
approving of it as requisite safeguard
of health, some of them even going so
far as to declare that their writers
would absolutely refuse to partake OF
the wine of the Eucharist if the COM
mon chalice continued to be used in
their churches.
A correspondent of the Tribune,
whose letter was printed the other
day, is the only one, so far as we have
seen, who treats such fears as ground
less and derides them. Il believe"
he says, .that God will care for all
those who eat and drink at His table
worthily;" and he contends that there
has been no "well-authenticated case
of contagion brought about by the old
CUSTOM" Moreover, If people should
avoid the common chalice from fear OF
disease, why, he asks, should they not
also refrain from the use of drinking
cups at public fountains, and from the
kissing which expresses the love and
affection that give beauty to life? But
if there be poisson in the communion
cup will it not be as noxiOus there as
anywhere else? The natural laws of
the universe express the will of God.
Instances where contagion has been
reasonably attributed to the common
chalice are undoubtedly on record,
and they were referred to by the Roch-
ester pastors of whom we have spoken.
Medical authorities unite in warning
people of the danger of using public
drinking cups, and family physicians
are now cautioning parents against al
lowing their children to be kissed 9TH
erwise than on the cheek. That dis
ease may be communicated by the
kisses of lovers has been proved indis-
putably and lamentably. Devoted
mothers have received the poisonous
germs of fatal disease by kissing their
suffering infants. The communicable
ity of consumption by such contact is
now recognized as demonstrated fact,
and public health boards warn the peo-
pie of the danger OF it, thus spreading
abroad the very fears that have caused
the disuse of the common chal1ce in
in these Rochester churches and not
few others that have followed their
example. Probably such alarm would
be justified by most physicians con-
suited as to the matter. They might
say that the danger is slight, but they
would not venture to say that it does
not exist. The whole theory of the
generation of disease, as established
by modern science, unquestionably af-
fords reason for it. 1t cannot be dis
missed as silly fear, but is supported
by the highest and most advanced
medical opinion.
Hence the discussion of the necessi-
ty, or at least ACCESSIBILITY, of doing
away with the common chalice in the
communion of both kinds is sure to go
on, with consequences that may be-
come of great religious Importance.