Soul-Food

Every living organism feeds on something. outside of itself. Even the trees would wither ‘, and die if they could not draw sustenance out of the air and sap out of the earth. The human

soul is a feeding creature. ‘‘ Hearken diligently

unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let

“your soul delight itself in fatness.’? A still more

remarkable expression occurs in the fifteenth

chapter of Jeremiah: ‘‘Thy words were found, and I did eat them.’’ We often employ the same figure of speech. A ship-master, hungry for tidings from home, lands at a port where he finds a letter from his wife. It is only so much paper and ink, but by a sort of magical process it not ’ only talks to him, but transports the whole home-circle before his longing eyes, and he is ii ready to say to his far-away wife, ‘‘Thy letter was found, and I devoured it.’’

So does the hungry heart of a Christian devour the words of Him who is the Bread of Life. When first awakened to a sense of sin, his mind opened its mouth and swallowed eagerly the in- — vitation, Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. The truth thus ‘taken and digested became a part of the fibre of the new man in Christ Jesus. One reason why multitudes remain impenitent and without any hope for eternity is that they revolt at unpalatable truths. When their utter — depravity is set before them, and their condemnation already before a holy God and the reality of a ‘‘ wrath to come,’’ they revolt, and say, ‘‘I cannot swallow that.’’ ‘They must take God’s bread or starve, for he will not change it to suit their sinful tastes; they must swallow pungent truths or die, for God will not sweeten a bitter medicine to please a sinful palate. We ministers or Sabbath-school teachers commit a fatal mistake when we dilute or adulterate any bitter doses which God puts into our hands as spiritual physicians. When the faithful, searching, purging truths have been swallowed and have done their blessed work, the healed heart has been ready to exclaim, ‘‘I found Thy words, and did eat them,

and they have been to mé¢ the joy and rejoicing

of my heart!’

What delicious feeding there is on the Promises! The soul delights itself with them as with marrow and fatness. There is no end to the honey-comb that distils from the fourteenth chapter of John. We can feed more than five thousand, besides the women and children, with the single big loaf — ‘‘ This is the promise which He hath promised us, even eternal life.’’ There was a great weight of Christian experience in the homely vernacular of Uncle Johnson, the veteran negro, when he said to his pastor, ‘‘I’stinking dat if de crumbs of joy dat fall from de Massa’s table in dis world am so good, what will de great loaf in glory be? I wants to get hold ob de full dish. O massa, ef you gets. home afore

I do, tell ’em to keep de table standin’, for old

Johnson is on his way and is bound to be dere.” There is a sufficient reason why so many members of our churches are so pitiably weak, either to work or to resist temptation. Starva- eation has reduced them to living skeletons. A Christian soul cannot keep fat and strong on daily newspapers or on the best of secular litera- — ture. Such self-weakening is wickedness: Food — is fuel to the body, repairing what is burnt away a by various vital processes. How cana soul be either fed or warmed that seldom touches the — Bread of Life? All the most growing Christians are large feeders on the Word of God. The breakfast which I ate this morning is * driving my pen now over this sheet of paper; 5 the same meal sent hundreds of my flock across — the ferry, and is moving hands and feet and brains for the whole day. The food put in comes — out in physical activities. In like manner a nutritious sermon may be-roast beef to a toiling and — tempted soul for the whole week; in the strength i of that strong meat he goes many days. God — only knows how many slips, how many weak —

overtaken professed Christians during the week — simply because they neglected to eat their spirit-SOUL-FOOD. B

OT

ual rations on the previous Sabbath. They lost the very truths. and the conscience-strength they

needed; their sin found th¢m out.

The words of Jesus, his whole code of duty, if eaten and digested and assimilated, come out in the daily conduct. Every act of unselfish service to others, every triumph over temptation, every

’ word spoken for the Master, every submissive endurance of heavy trial, every push upward towards a higher degree of holiness, is the outcome of Christ’s commandments and promises,

wrought into the fibre of the daily life. Paul tTealized the vital importance of this soul-food

when he exhorted his brethren to “‘ let the words of Christ dwell in you (i. e., stay in you asa strenethener) abundantly.’’ God’s people can-. not live on husks. An ill-fed army must either

flee or surrender. Blessed be the hunger that - sends our souls to Christ!

Th Saad