THE BREAD OF LIFE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9434, 4 June 1896, Page 3

THE BREAD OF LIFE.

"Weekly P.ess aud Referee" (May 28tl>. Seritos PKEAcasn is St. Stephen's Chcp.ch, ASHBUBTO!*, Bt THE REV. T. A. Ha_„.T«S, OK THE FoCETH SUNDAY IS LENT, AL&.ECH 15th, 1596. Deut. viii. f 3.—" Man doth not live by bread only, bat by even* word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord " St. John vi., 34.—"Lord evermore jive us this bread." The tests combined form a warning and a prayer. The first is taken from a chapter which speaks of God's dealings with the children of Israel, His withholding of blessings that they should be humbled, and realise more fully their dependence upon Him. The same warning is needed in this nineteenth century, when men are living out their lives in a mad, selfish race for material wealth and comforts. Charles Kingsley, in his sermon on " National Wealth," speaks of Moses as being "the greatest lawgiver and politician of any age." If we ask him the question, •* What makes a nation pros-

perous ?" he answers, " Good government according to the laws of God," and wise men accept this answer, but the unwise answer and say, " Wealth makes a nation great," forgetting that riches may be either a blessing or a curse.

A disastrous harvest season (when the hurricane scatters the grain, or rain spoils with damp aud mildew) calls for the utmost sympathy with the farmers, who are the direct sufferers; but collectively, as a nation, a hard lesson has to be learnt, viz., that righteousness, not riches, exalteth a nation.

I.—Bodily Hunger.—Well fed and satisfied we sit and listen complacently to the story o* Joseph's brethren, and tbe farmer in Canaan, and but few realise what it is to go even a day without food. There is always room for thankfulness when the harvest suffices even for our necessities, and the "wolf is kept from the door." We read to-day of the great famine in Canaan and the wonderful provision made by Joseph in the country of Egypt, so that we may learn a lesson that a greater Joseph has *' corn in Egypt " for those who will come for it. The sin of the men of Nineveh is described »3 proceeding from

fulness of bread," and because of this luxury, 1 &c, crept in, and finally " violence wa9 found - in their hands." Bread is the " staff of life," - and the majority of mankind are bound to ' work by sweat of brain, heart or brow to - obtain the necessaries of life; but need, com- ■ petence, luxury, selfishness, forgetfulness of God, the Giver, are stages, alas, only too easily passed. But do not forget this—Jesus ' of Nazareth chose a life of hardness—toiled ' as a working man ; for Him the merest necessities of life sufficed, and He " had not where to lay His head "—no lordly acres nor grand mansion. Yet we, His followers, sigh if we are cut off from luxuries and dainties. We forget continually that in a large part of the world, especially in great cities, famine and want and hunger are only too common. If we have bread enough we must spare of our superfluity for the starving and homeless and famine stricken. Want of bread is at the root of all disputes between labour and capital, and here the selfishness of men (greedy for wealth) prevents that just disposition of things which would give every man a due proportion of the necessaries of life. Each must "look on the things of others" and sacrifice himself somewhat. The dull cold earth gives itself to the seed and thereby becomes transformed with glory of flowers and trees and waving crops; the seed, in its turn, gives itself to animal life, and animal life ministers to man; and man, in his turn, should minister to God. If we give up the lower and merely physical view of life, we shall find it hereafter in God's presence, untouched by sin or sorrow. "He that loseth his life shall save it." The temptation to get on in the world by making money quickly in doubtful ways is rebuked by the words " Man doth not live by bread alone," &c. Thus our Lord foiled the tempter, and we, too, should wait God's time and not try to make *'short cuts" to prosperity. But the needs of the body are really the least essential of man's needs—His soul—His spirit must expand and grow and live for evermore. The body perishes, but the spirit is immortal. Besides bodily hunger there is also: — ll.—Mental Hunger, or the natural craving for knowledge which i 3 inherent in man. The pursuit of knowledge is excellent, and tends to ameliorate the condition of mankind, by making men more intelligent citizens. But mere knowledge, unless guided by the higher motive of religious principle, ia absolutely worthless and even harmful. An education, devoid of religious teaching and daily spiritual food (as regularly supplied as the daily bread), results in nothing else than the turning out of clever rogues, unscrupulous bedause unprincipled. To educate the mental faculties without any code of morals, or standard of right and j wrong to appeal to, is like fitting out a ship with masts and sails and stores and forgetting to "ship the rudder," by which the course can alone be steered over "the waves of this troublesome world." We are seeking to restore the " standard " by the introduction of the -'Scripture Text Book" into our public schools. I have taught in our schools both before and after .the Act of 1877 and know that the reading of God's Word is a distinct help to any maater in preserving order and discipline, and I know also from an old parishioner of mine—one of the framers of the present Act—that it was not the intention of the promoters of the present system that Bible reading should be left out; in fact, there was in the original bill a clause providing for it. Let us strive together to restore the Bible, or, what is better, selected portions of it suitable for the- immature ages of children, and pray that Bible teaching may be once again a" part of the curriculum of bur State schools. Mental endowments, in themselves,' are, no guarantee that the possessor is able to control and restrain his passions and propensities. Crichton was surnamed the -'Admirable," and excited the wonder of the age in which he lived. Before the age of twenty he spoke ten different languages, and was a master of sciences and music; but in spite of his intellectual superiority he perished miserably in a drunken brawl in the , streets of Mantua, because he lacked moral virtue. What i 3 the use of intellectual power undirected by spiritual power ? Contrast, for example, the lives of Voltaire, Hume and Paine with those of Newton, Butler, Perm and Wilberforce! The former flooding the world with profanity, impiety, debauchery, sensuality, fraud and injustice, and the latter bestowing science, religion and philanthropy and morality on millions. Religion is the foundation, the rule, the motive of every life which ia worthy of the name of a true life. Man has a body which may feel the pangs of hunger, a mind which needs food also, and in

these days is well supplied by a teeming press with papers, magazine, &c, but man is a spirit (which is the divinest part and the controlling force) and needs to be fed by direct communion with God if it is ever to find rest in Him and real satisfaction. Even all teachers will acknowledge that you cannot undertake to train the lowest part of a child's nature without an appeal to the higher aspiration and instincts. You cannot train the bodies of your chil-

dren without temperance, soberness, and chastity, which come from faith alone. Intellectual faculties must be absolutely surrendered before the Cross of Jesus if they are to be used rightly for the glory of God and tlw so_Lq_Jßl» .Wtow men. Without wiy

teaching about God or the gospel of hope and 1 love, we may, under the present system, make ' men mere working and thinking maohines; t but we cannot save them from misery and J degradation on earth and apprehension of i the unknown beyond the grave. Science has ; no message for lll.—The Hungering Sour.—Science— | biology—cannot impart life, though it may tell us somewhat of its history—cannot give ease from sin and suffering. Social reformers have planned in a hundred ways to ease their fellow men from suffering and pain and want, but none has ever attempted to abolish death. In the book of the Revelation of St John the Divine we read of a time when there shall be " new heavens and new earth," and here suffering and sorrow shall be eliminated. But on what condition? That God shall be with men "and dwell among them." So we cannot ameliorate our condition here unless we place God and religion first. The Cross of Christ gives the only true answer to all the pangs of spiritual hunger felt by the weary and fainting soul. "I am the bread jof life; he that eateth of the bread that I ■ shall give him shall never hunger." You all know what " heart hunger " is, how you have longed for a sight of some dear face, or sighed for a message of love. You remember in 1870 in the dreadful siege of Paris how people in London sent messages to their friends in Paris. People who wanted to communicate with their friends sent their notes, like short telegrams, to the Times office in London, where they were all printed like advertisements on one sheei of paper and then reduced, and the photograph was so small that you could only see six little grey stripes on a morsel of paper. It was put into a quill and carried to Paris by a carrier pigeon, and then introduced into a camera and the little grey patch magnified and thrown on to a sheet so that clerks could copy down the paragraphs and send them all over Paris. This is a good illustration of God's messages of love and blessing to us in His word. In order to find Christ for our soul's sustenance we need the illumination of God's holy spirit to light up the page aud flash the message into our hearts. Here are messages from your truest Friend. Come to the church and receive His message, but also put forth your hand and claim your share o* the Bread of Life. You will carve the loaf for your hungering children presently around the table—each little one asks for and receives his share—askjyour Heavenly Father for the Bread of Life and you shall receive. He sees our needs —we need only claim and we shall have. Some people, like Dr. Tanner and Sucoi, the tasters, or Professor Tyndall, of Los Angelos, who intends to bury himself alive for a period, starve themselves, try to see how little of Bread of Life they can manage to exist upon, and call themselves j " Christian (?)," and then in the evening of j life, when death draws near, they are "starved to death." j When the people of Rome were starving under the rule of the cruel Nero—when their j fast was day after day, while that king steeped himself in luxury and vice—there j was a fleet of Roman vessels set out for 1 Egypt, the granary of the world. They watched the sails sinking beneath the horizon, and the poor people thought, only one thing can come from Alexandria—"Put down the rebellion, say no more hard things about i the Emperor; has he not sent for grain?'' Haggard and weary and famished, men and i women and children watch for the return of ■ the ships. They heave in Bight; all hasten , to the beach and gaze in the, opened hatohes. What was it—yellow corn ? What was it — loaves of bread ? No; it was only sand for , his circuses. You despatch from your soul r many a gallant fleet of emotions and desires i and energies ; but on what errand—what has , the devil ordered you to send for ? Bread for 5 your soul ? No! -sand that you can't eat; , sand instead of corn for eternity. But it is [ corn that Jesus sands you—bread for the I spirit, the bread that cometh down from j heaven. " Blessed are they that hunger and ) thirst after righteousness, for they shall be , filled." 3 Heed, then, the warning—"Man doth not i live by bread only, but by every word that 1 proceedeth out of the mouth of God," and t pray, " Lord evermore give us this bread." r Guide mc, O Thou great Redeemer, Pilgrim through this barren land, I am weak, but Thou art mighty, ? Hold mc with Thy powerful Hand. Bread of Heaven. J Feed mc now and evermore. Amen.