Physiologists can tell, by studying the dentition--the system of the
teeth--and the digestive apparatus of an animal, what it is meant to
live upon, whether vegetables or flesh, or a mingled diet of both. And
you can tell, if you will, by studying yourself, what, or whom, you are
meant to live upon. The poet said, 'We live by admiration, hope, and
love.' But he did not say on what these faculties, which truly nourish
man's spirit, are to fix and fasten. He tells of the appetites; he does
not tell of their food. My text does: 'In this mountain shall the Lord
make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
less well refined.' Friends, look at these hearts of yours with their
yearnings, with their passionate desires, with their clamant needs.
Will any human love--the purest, the sweetest, the most unselfish, the
most utter in its surrender--satisfy the heart-hunger of the poorest of
us? No! Look at the capacities of grasping thought and truth in our
spirits, which are ever seek, seek, seeking for absolutely certain
foundations on which we may build the whole structure of our beliefs.
You have to go deeper down than the sand of man's thinkings and
teachings before you can reach what will bear without shifting the
foundations of a life's credence and confidence. Look at these
tumultuous wills of ours that fancy they crave to be independent, and
really crave an absolute master whom it is blessedness to obey. You
will find none such beneath the stars. The very elements of our being,
our heart, will, mind, desires, passions, longings, all with one voice
proclaim that the only food for a man is God.
Jesus Christ brings the food that we need. Remember His own adaptation
of this great vision of my text in more than one parable; such as the
supper that was provided, and to which all men were invited, and, 'with
one consent,' declined the invitation. Remember His own utterance,' I
am the Bread of God which came down from heaven to give life to the
world.' Remembering such words, let me plead with you to listen to the
voice of warning as well as of invitation, which sounds from Cradle and
Cross and Throne. 'Why will ye spend your money for that which is not
bread'--you know it is not--'and your labour for that which satisfieth
not?'--you know it does not. Turn to Him, 'eat, and your souls shall
live.' 'In this mountain is prepared a feast... for all nations.'
Notice that although it does not appear on the surface, and to English
readers, this world's festival, in which every want is met, and every
appetite satisfied, is a feast on a sacrifice. That touches the deepest
need, about which I shall have a word or two to say presently. But in
the meantime let me just press this upon you, that the Christ who died
on the Cross is to be lived on by us; and that it is His sacrifice that
is to be the nourishment of our spirits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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