The late innovation introduced in worship at the communion on Lord’s days will eventually result in a bitter division. There is not a scintilla of Scripture for the use of a plurality of cups in the worship. In every place in the original the Greek word translated "cup" is singular. You will never hear the advocates of the cups contending for a "thus saith the Lord." The loyal brethren will in time rise up in revolt against this late innovation and boldly condemn it, and the sooner the better.

The college preachers and some of our religious editors (not quite all of them) are taking the lead in this innovation, so be careful what papers you take and what preachers you call to do your preaching. Take warning before it is too late !

Dr. W. W. Stone, Christian Leader, May 2, 1933

I am glad to pass on to you this short article from our departed brother, written just before he went to his rest and reward. Brother Stone was a pioneer in gospel work in Texas and other western states,. and it was very kind and thoughtful of him to get this warning before so many brethren before his departure. Truly, the cups innovation was, as he says, a "late innovation"— certainly one of the very latest. The following quotations from the early Christian writers show clearly that the primitive churches were what is now called "one-cup" churches.

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, born A. D. 30 and martyred A. D. 107, writing to the church at Philadelphia in Asia, says: "There is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the unity (Gr., henooses, "uniting") of His blood" (Apocr .N.T.). "One cup is distributed among them all" (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 81).

Justin Martyr, born A. D. 100, and martyred A. D. 165, says: "There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water" (Ibid, p. 185). He says: "The Eucharist of the Bread and of the Cup are offered by Christians in all places throughout the world" (Trypho, c. 177).

Irenaeus ("the Peaceable"), a native of Smyrna, in his youth acquainted with Polycarp, a student of the Apostle John, wrote his "Against Heresies" about the year A. D. 185, and in that work he speaks of "the Bread and the Cup" as "the pure sacrifice" offered by Christians in his day. He speaks of "the bread and the mingled cup’ ("a cup of wine mingled with water"—Justin Martyr), in his argument against the heretical Marcionites.

Cyprian, martyred about A. D. 258, reasoning with one who had used water instead of wine, says: "Since Christ says, ‘I am the true vine,’ the blood of Christ is not, therefore, water, but wine; nor can His blood appear to be in the cup ... when the wine is absent from the chalice" (Ad Caecihum Dominici Calicis, Ep. 63). He speaks of "the wine in the chalice" (Cypr. Ep. 62)

Ambrose (A. D. 340 to 397), the most renowned of the early Christian writers, says: "We, receiving of one loaf and of one cup, are receivers and partakers of the body of Christ." Again: "Wine is put into the cup—the cup of precious blood" (On the Sacraments, L. IV., ch. 4; Theo. Hist. Eccl. v. 17).

Chrysostom, the peerless commentator and exegete of his day~ (A. D. 347 to 407), a bishop of Constantinople, says: "One body (compare 1 Cor. 10:17 —J. D. P.) is now (in the Christian age, as distinguished from the Jewish) available for all, and one cup" (Liturgy of Antioch, Hammond’s translation). What does he mean by "one cup"? The wine only? No, for he says: "That which is in the cup is that which flowed from His side" (1 Cor. Homily 24).

Augustine, admittedly the greatest of the four "Latin Fathers," says: "Received in the cup that which flowed from Christ’s side." (He was born A. D. 354 and died A. D. 430)

Gelasius (A. D. 492), a bishop of Rome, shows that one cup was used in his day, even though the church was being led off into the Romish heresy of transubstantiation, for he says: "We find that some, having received a portion of the holy body (bread) only, do abstain from the cup of the holy blood (wine), who, doubtless (because they are bound by I know not what superstition)~ should receive the whole sacrament, or be driven from the whole; for the dividing of one and the same mystery can not be done without sacrilege" (Gelas. in Corp. Juris Canon, Decret. Grat., ii chap., col. 1,168)

From this, and a lot of other evidence, it is clear that the early churches used one cup, as did the disciples when our Lord instituted the communion (Mt. 26:26-28; Lk. 22:17-20, etc.), and as Paul bound it on the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:23-28).

Truly, then, the cups innovation is a late one, as our departed brother has told us. Adult-sprinkling, baby-sprinkling, instrumental music, the lighting of candles, auricular confession, the papacy—these and dozens of other innovations are older than the use of a plurality of cups in the communion! The cups innovation, like all others, is a "plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted," and will, therefore, "be rooted up" (Matt. 15:13). Will we never learn to stay well within "that which is written" (1 Cor. 4:6), brethren? Let us get back to "the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein" (Jer. 6:16).