Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 -- Criticism and interpretation
3. Now, upon the feasting-day He feasted them with all manner of
outlandish food--food that grew not in all the fields of Mansoul; it was
food that came down with His Father's court. The fields of Mansoul
yielded their own proper fruits, and fruits that were not to be despised.
But they were not the proper fruits for that day, neither could they be
placed upon that table. They are good enough fruits for their purpose,
and as far as they go, and for so long as they last and are in their
season. But our souls are such that they outlive their own best fruits;
their hunger and their thirst outlast all that can be harvested in from
their own fields. And thus it is that He who made Mansoul at first, and
who has since redeemed her, has out of His own great goodness provided
food convenient for her. He knows with what an outlandish life He has
quickened Mansoul, and it is only the part of a faithful Creator to
provide for His creature her proper nourishment. What is it? asked the
children of Israel at one another when they saw a small round thing, as
small as hoarfrost, upon the ground. For they wist not what it was. And
Moses said, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for
every man, according to the number of your persons. And the house of
Israel called the name thereof Manna, and the taste of it was like wafers
made with honey. He gave them of the corn of heaven to eat, and man did
eat in the wilderness angels' food. Your fathers did eat manna in the
wilderness, and are dead; but this is the bread of which if any man eat
he shall not die. And the bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I
will give for the life of the world. And so outlandish, so supernatural,
and so full of heavenly wonder and heavenly mystery was that bread, that
the Jews strove among themselves over it, and could not understand it.
But, by His goodness and His truth to us this day, we have again, to our
spiritual nourishment and growth in grace, eaten the Flesh and drunk the
Blood of the Son of God; a meat that, as He who Himself is that meat has
said of it, is meat indeed and drink indeed--as, indeed, we have the
witness in ourselves this day that it is. They drank also of the water
that was made wine, and were very merry with Him all that day at His
table. And all their mirth was the high mirth of heaven; it was a mirth
and a gladness without sin, without satiety, and without remorse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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