The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1886-08-25
g Eat We that Which is Good"

All realities are seen to be matched by
counterfeits, and when we hear Jesus say
ing, / am the true Bread which cometh
down from heaven" we need not be sur
prised that all the art end skill of human
wisdom will be brought out to produce
spurious limitations. For the world is
hungry-suffering the pangs of famish-
ed mmortality-and yet lacking an ap-
petite for the real food of God. Have we
not seen instances of heart hunger, and
yet heart-loathlng of true divine food
Men and women languishing for some
solid comfort, and yet revolving from the
comfort of the Scriptures when it is pre-
sented to them2 "The full soul loatheth
the honeycomb, saith the Scriptures. 1t
may be filled with the husks the swine
did eat" or it may he glutted with the
bread of idleness" and frivolity, but it has
an utter distaste for the food of life eter-
nal. Hence the kinds of bread that have
been devised to meet the cravings of the
perverted appetites that everywhere pre-
vail-bread of intellect and bread of i'm
agination; bread of art and culture and
bread of doubt and denial bread half
baked, in which gospel and science, faith
and philosophy, have been kneaded to-
gether into an impossible mixture; and
poisoned bread, which is the sheerest in
fidelity, sent forth with the stamp of some
pulpit on it. And of the two things
which are distressing to look upon to-day
one knows not which is more distressing
the great multitude which cares moth
ing for the bread of life, and the other
multitude which feeds on the bread of
death and is satisfied with it.
We are transformed by change of
food. Therefore, with the exhortation,
Be ye transformed" or TRANSPORTED, as
the words mean, is joined statement OF
method, "by the renewingof your mind"
Certain insects are TRANSPORTED, as we
know. If they are found on green leaf
they appear green; if on a brown leaf,
they appear brown. And it is said that
this change is efectt d by what they eat !;
feeding on the green leaves, they become
green; on the brown leaves, they become
brown; the food transfgures them
Now, return to the injunction of Scrip
ture, Be not conformed to this world"
If you read the books of this world, and
talk its language and subsist on its ideas,
you will assimilate to it. That is abso-
lutely certain. But there is another
world over yonder. We have not reach
ed it yet, but its literature has been
brought over into this world and trans
lated into our tongue. Read this litera-
ture, this Bible written by the pen of
Jehovah. the gospel containing those ut
terances of Jesus Christ concerning which
He says: The words which I speak I'M
to you they are spirit and they are life"
read these diligently aAG Constantly, and
you are certain to be TRANSPORTED into
fellowship with the world to come. AS
the worm that little while ago crawled
upon the earth fastened itself upon the
foliage of a tree, and feeds upon it till by
and by it bursts it's tegument and is trans.
figured into the butterfly that lives in the
air, so, o Christian, earth horn and grow
elling by nature, feed upon the leaves Of
the Tree of Life, and you will be trans
figured into the life and glory of Christ
ReU. H. j. Gordon.