July 24

Spiritual Food

I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger — John 6:35

How is Christ’ bread? We understand what the bodily needs are which common bread satisfies. What in the soul corresponds to these cravings? The most intense of the soul-cravings is for pardon. All men sin, but sin satisfies no one. Nor has the world any power to give peace to a troubled conscience. We cannot forgive ourselves, and no man can really forgive us. How is Christ bread to this hunger? He was the Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world; and because He bore our sins He is able to forgive us. We remember how on earth the guilty crept to His feet when they saw Him, and looking up into His face heard the word which gave them peace.

Another craving is for holiness. The world has no art by which human souls can be restored into moral beauty. Men can restore paintings, and buildings over which the fire has swept, and they can be erected again into more than their original nobleness; but there is no human hand that can replace the glory of a ruined soul. Yet this craving Christ satisfies through the Holy Spirit, who enters the heart of every one who believes, and builds up anew the holy beauty which sin has destroyed.

Another of the soul’s cravings is for life, spiritual life here, and then everlasting life. Again, earth has no bread to meet the hunger. The searches for hope are among the most pitiable of this world’s experiences. But those who receive Christ have eternal life. He has opened the doors clear through into the glory beyond. He said, “Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die.” He is the hope of glory to every one that receives Him. Said a martyr as he was led to execution: “I have only two stiles to get over to reach my Father’s house — one, the steps up the scaffold; the other, the ladder let down from heaven.”