River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-05-12
THE BREAD
FROM HEAVEN
By HENRY F. COPE
Chicago

0s1l.
In the prayer that men of almost
every creed and those of none can
join in praying we ask for the gift
of daily bread Does this mean that
any are SO foolish as to suppose that
by miraculous Intervention in answer
to that petition our tables will be
spread and our natural appetities sat
isfied? Perhaps it has this childish
meaning to some
But to those who enter into the uni
versal significance of this petition it
has finer, greater content. 1t
stands for that of which we are al
ways conscious when we come into
the presence of the infinite and find
ourselves in the light of truth, and
that is that we are never sufficient
for any day without the bread that
must be given to us, the food that
strengthens the inner life.
Intellectually and spiritually we
have not grown much beyond the high
chair If our life has no deeper and
more constant needs than those of
meat and drink, if we have not come
to know that man does not live by
bread alone, if we have not come to
feel that, no matter how great the
abundance of things may be, unless
we are nourished and supplied within
we are in miserable poverty and fam
inc.
That is the bitter tragedy of many
lives, that they never come to know
hunger not satisfied by the delights
of the flesh; they live and die in a
world circumscribed by things.-Neith-
er this nor any other prayer can have
any reality to them, because their
hands can grasp all their hearts seem
to need. They may use the phrases
of another life, but they are wholly
limited to this one.
The meaning of this prayer may
we'll be the measure Of man. If 1t
means but bread what is he more
than a digesting animal? But if 1t
means longing after truth, hunger for
love, the passion for perfection, the
desire for the presence of great
thoughts, then he has in him Godlike
capacities. Then to him prayer be-
comes not simply a possibility but a
necessity which compels the habit of
aspiration.
This Is the prayer that humanity
has been breathing in all its art, its
music and poetry; this has been the
root of religion, the sense of the IN
satisfied life and the unceasing en-
deavor to find that which meets those
needs not catalogued in our physiol-
ogies nor met by our markets. Be-
cause man is a spirit he cries aloud
for the life and light that lie beyond
the dust and clay.
The reason so many even protested
Iy religious people live such british
lives is because they are crushing
down this longing; they are too busy
with the trif1es and tools of living to
provide for the needs of life itself, or
they foolishly hope to satisfy and
nourish their souls by weekly, pre-
digested meals.
No man makes a greater mistake
than he who neglects the appetites of
his heart, who perhaps thinks to him.
self, / am a practical man; I have no
time to waste in moonshine, in poetic
or idealistic dreamings. The most
impractical lives are those that have
no time for dreams and the emptiest
those whose hands are so full they
have no time for their hearts.
When you get back to the secret of
all great lives you will find this al
ways true: That their roots struck
deep; from far below the surface they
were daily securing strength, endu-
rance, courage to attempt high things
and faith born of sense of the things
that do not change-the eternal veri-
| ties.
We must find tire to nourish the
affections, feed the flame of high
faith, satisfy lifes inner longings for
food that never was on table nor on
board or we shall die at the roots,
and, while maintaining all the other
forms of life, shall be but walking
forms from which the soul has fed.
We need to pray "Give us this day
our daily bread" to reach out our
hands to the infinite, to believe that
in some way the great Fathe. of spir-
it's knows our spirit, can speak with
us; that the life beyond, that larger,
completer life for which we were
born, may be seen at times; it's fair
fruits may sometimes be our portion
and in the strength of that food we
may live our days as those who live
| forever.