should other people be forced upon me in my prayers? What is this 'us,' and 'our daily bread to me?" Christian brethren, you will tell me this is hard, satirical, unkind language. Yet when God pours upon us His corn and wine, when he maketh our oxen strong to labour, and our sheep to bring forth thousands in our streets, do not men often, in return for all that He has done unto them, spread before themselves the selfish table loaded with every luxury for their own dear selves, and for a few choice spirits of their own sort,—with no thought for the suffering poor, or for the sick to whom these dainties might be the turning point between death and life? Do not men sometimes lay wines and dishes on their table for a couple of hours which a ten-pound note would not cover, and grudge to put one half-crown into the alms' basin for the poor, or for God? Whether we use "me" and " my daily bread" in our prayers or no, surely there is a tendency in us to enjoy but selfishly the blessings of the Common Father of us all ; to fancy that what is sent by God to one, God meant that one to keep all to himself; instead of entering into the spirit of the words of the Psalmist, "He hath dispersed abroad and given to the poor; and his righteousness remaineth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour." No man surely can pray aright "Give us our daily bread," unless he is in the regular habit, weekly, even daily, of setting aside some portion of his livelihood as alms and offerings to his God. As the habit of fasting cures intemperance in a man, so will habitual almsgiving by God's Grace cure selfishness and covetousness— two crying sins of our times. When Thou givest us, O God, our daily bread, pardon also our trespasses in want of charity to our neighbours, and in niggardliness in our gifts to Thee! Give us day by day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins! IV. The Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. "I am the Bread of Life," says Jesus Christ. Bread nourishes our mortal bodies, and keeps them in life: but this Bread which came down from heaven will preserve both soul and body unto life eternal. We call bread the staff of life but Christ is the living Bread, not a staff, but an actual principle of life, tending unto eternal life in every Christian man. Bread-this, our harvest-is the great annual gift of God: similarly He gave once to us the Bread of Life when He sent His Son into the world at His Incarnation and Nativity. But just as the harvest is given only once a year to us by God in His appointed month, yet is stored up for us, and doled out in daily distribution through the corn merchant, the miller, the baker, and so becomes day by day our daily bread for bodies which need daily renewal to repair their daily waste; so Jesus Christ, the Living Bread, came down from heaven but once,-but once gave His flesh for the life of the world; yet does He daily-in His Holy Word, in pious earnest prayer, in the ministrations of His clergy, in the ordinances of His Church, and chiefly in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood-give Himself to us according to our daily needs, strengthening and refreshing our souls with Himself the Living Bread, uniting us ever afresh to Himself, who is the principle of eternal life to every believer in Him—"We being many are one M bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one Bread." Yet, as in raising our crops and getting in our natural harvest, men must take a hand; they must labour for that meat that perisheth, though it be the gift of God. So, although God hath given His Son to be the Bread of Life to us, yet we must still "labour for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." The labour we have to spend upon Him, our Living Bread, is described by St. Paul in one pregnant phrase, "Faith that worketh by love." Faith which apprehends Christ to be the Son of God, the Son of man, the reconciler of God and man; faith which sees in Him the Head of regenerate mankind, the living principle of restored humanity; which sees in Him the One Corn of wheat fallen into the ground, and dying, from which we all arise new born; which sees in Him the one Loaf of which all we Christians are but the constituent grains of meal; which sees in Him, the Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Lord, evermore give us this bread. our daily bread; Lord, give us Thyself. Give us day by day But this faith worketh by love. It shows itself. It not merely has an inner existence; it has an outward manifestation. It is not merely faith; it worketh moreover; and the motive principle is love. Therefore it prays, because it loves its God; therefore it comes to Holy Communion, because it loves its Redeemer; therefore it gives alms, or visits the sick or nurses them, because it loves Him who gave Himself for us; therefore it admonishes the sinful, because it loves the sinner's Friend. Brethren, do we unto eternal life? down from heaven? He has given His flesh for the life of the world,-do we not sometimes despise his Incarnation, reject his sacraments, turn our backs upon Himself? This is surely our fault, our grievous fault. We have thought light of Thee, the Bread of heaven, even though we pray for Thy presence and Thy strength. Therefore, O Lord, we pray Thee once more give us day by day Thyself to be our daily bread, and forgive us our sins towards Thee! labour for this meat which endureth Do we love the Bread which came V. But while I pray that Christ the Bread of Life may feed my own soul, I dare not forget my neighbour"Can we whose souls are lighted Give us our daily bread. Therefore, it is that we pray God to extend the means of grace to others besides ourselves, and just as while we pray God to give bread to our neighbours, we each try to relieve those neighbours' wants out of our own store; so while we pray God to give daily the Bread of Life to our neighbours, we must do what we can to bring that Bread of Life within their reach; whether by foreign or home missions, or by forwarding Church work in our own parishes. In many of our dense populations a hunger has been created; a cry goes up for bread-the Bread of Life. To pass by that cry for Bread were now a sin. Let not this sin settle upon your consciences: but, like the lad who brought the five barley loaves and two small fishes, so you will bring of such things as you have to the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask Him to do with it what seemeth Him best. Ask Him to multiply it through the help of kindred, loving hearts; ask Him—what is far better-to transmute it from treasure on earth to treasure in heaven, by making it instrumental through the ministrations of His Church in feeding the thousands of Christian souls about us with Himself, the Bread of Life, that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die ! If we have neglected to Bread, it has been a sin. make others share with us this Give us, O Lord, day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins! |