he
that cometh to me shall never hunger
I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger;
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
Your fathers did
eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living
bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live
for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world. (John
6:49-51)
Next to the French Communion hymn, Panis Angelicus, this is my second favorite
hymn for Holy Communion – and there is no reason that BOTH cannot be sung on
that occasion. The hymn was composed by Mary Artemisia Lathbury, daughter of a
Methodist preacher at Lake Chautauqua, New York. The last two stanzas were
later added by Alexander Groves. Miss Lathbury had come to be known as the Poet
Laureate of Chautauqua. She also wrote Day is Dying in the West among
many other hymns while on the shores of Lake Chautauqua at the twilight hour.
She possessed an extraordinary gift of verse and imagination that she described
as God’s gift to her. She said that God once told her: “Remember, my child,
that you have a gift of weaving fancies into verse and a gift with the pencil
of producing visions that come to your heart; consecrate these to Me as
thoroughly as you do your inmost spirit.” The hymn was first published in
1877 to the tune, Bread of Life, by William F. Sherwin.
Break
Thou the Bread Of Life
Break Thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves
beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!
Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread by
Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;
And I shall find my peace, my all in all.
Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me,
Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;
Give me to eat and live with Thee above;
Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love.
O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now
unto me,
That He may touch my eyes, and
make me see:
Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word,
And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.
The simplicity of expression of this hymn belies its deeper spiritual meaning.
Its descriptive metaphors defy the imagination for beauty and spiritual depth.
We can, in our mind’s eye, see the beauty of the peaceful shores of the
Galilean Sea along which our Lord walked, and where He called His first
disciples. Overlooking the grandeur of sea and fertile valley, the Lord did,
indeed, break the bread on the mount overlooking this placid scene. That physical
bread of grains of wheat was symbolic of the Bread of Life which He would
finally break at the inauguration of the Lord’s Supper on the night of our
Lord’s betrayal. Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me, As Thou
didst break the loaves beside the sea; Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee,
Lord; My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word! One salient point
couched in the first line is that fact that we must individually partake of
that Bread. No one else can take it for us. Deeper in God’s Word than the
printed page is the depth of His Being and Meaning to us. To superficially read
the Words without deep love, thought and meditation will miss the mark of
understanding the gems of truth buried therein. Just as the deer, harried by
the little foxes and predators of the hill country, pants for the cool,
cleansing waters of the mountain spring; so, the Christian pants for the
Fountain of Living Waters from on High that is our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Word of God is the consummation of all TRUTH. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
fullness of God’s Word personified! Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
(John 17:17)
The Word of God (truth) is like the bulb of a flashlight – it must have
batteries to light up. So the Word, read with our eyes, is made LIGHT by the
power and function of the Holy Ghost in our hearts. Bless Thou the truth,
dear Lord, to me, to me, As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee; Then shall
all bondage cease, all fetters fall; And I shall find my peace, my all in all.
So the Word received must be blessed of God to us individually for our
spiritual digestion. Just as Christ ordered the tightly-wrapped graves clothes
of Lazarus to be removed and set him free,
so are the filthy rags of our sin removed by the gracious mercy of our Lord so
that we, too, are set free from the chains of bondage, sin, and death. We need
no more than Christ for our souls, for He is our all in all. I read this phrase
on the library wall of a friend, He who has Christ and much wealth, has no more
than he who has Christ alone!
Christ is bread alone to those who come to His Table. Families eat at the
supper together. Please remember that where
two or three are gathered together, in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.
If Christ is not at the very CENTER of our worship, He is not there at all. Thou
art the bread of life, O Lord, to me, Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;
Give me to eat and live with Thee above; Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou
art love. As we partake of the Table of the Lord, we are truly
enjoying a heavenly fellowship with Him, but also with the whole company of the
Church – past, present, and future. There are bonds of sin that constrain one
to the fires of Hell; but there are also bonds of LOVE that secure our place in
Heaven. The Lord is Love to those who Love Him since His LOVE must be echoed by
us.
The Word of God is a mystery to those who are blinded by the world of sin. It
makes no sense to them. Our preaching of the Word, too, is foolishness to those
that perish. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is
the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1
Cor 1:18-21) The
words of today’s hymn clearly relate the truth of these passages from God’s
Word just as every legitimate hymn must do. O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now
unto me, That He may touch my eyes, and make me see: Show me the truth
concealed within Thy Word, And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.
The human FREE WILL – always in bondage to sin – may bar the Chamber door of
the heart’s temple; however, If God desires entry, He will break all chains and
enter in there. No devil can abide in the Temple of God which temple we are.
Though we cannot evict the devils and demons of the shanties of our hearts, God
alone can, and will, do so. And He will make anew our hearts converting them
from ‘shanties’ into immaculate Temples of Love and Righteousness.
