The Sustenance of the Spirit
“Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them, and with. heldest not Thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.” — NEH., ix. 20.
GOD is said to have sustained Israel by the Spirit first and by the manna afterwards. We should have looked for the reverse order. We should have thought that the care of the Heavenly Father would have begun by strengthening the gates and then proceeded to strengthen the citadel. But the Heavenly Father knows better what is 7” man. He knows that no amount of manna will permanently quell hunger as long as there is a hunger of the spirit. It is in vain to provide a couch of down if there is an unrest within the heart. It is in vain to supply strains of music if there is a discord in the soul. It is in vain to spread the banquet if there is a burden on the spirit. But if the heart be already rested it will find peace everywhere, if the soul be already tuned it will find music everywhere, if Cc the spirit be already fed, it will find a banquet everywhere. Israel’s own glory. was not her manna but her mind; it was her mind that sustained her in the poverty of her manna. Not without cause does the prophet thank God for this, that His first boon to Israel was the gift of the good Spirit.
O Thou who hast taught us to seek first Thy kingdom and its righteousness, teach me to say “Thy will be done” before I say “give me my daily bread.” Teach me to accept Thy will as the foundation of my happiness, and other things as only its superstructure. Teach me that the mandate that says to my soul “thy sins be forgiven thee” is a more abiding miracle than the mandate which says to my body “arise and walk.” I am often disappointed that Thou promisest so much more to the spirit than to the flesh. JI am more afraid of the hunger of the body than of the hunger of the spirit, more anxious for the strength of the outer man than for the health of the heart. Convince me that it would not profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul. Show me that it is only the possession of my soul that makes the possession of the world any gain. Impress me with the truth that no thing can give me joy if I myself am not already joyful. Inspire me with the knowledge that the issues of life are not from without but from within. Guide me into the discovery that the pleasures at Thy right hand are the only things that are “pleasures for evermore.” He that tasteth the earthly manna shall hunger again, but he that has received Thy bread of life shall subsist even amidst its failure. In Thy new creation that must be first which is spiritual, afterward that which is natural. Before Thou sendest the manna give me Thy good Spirit.