South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-08-23
K X x = X X X X X X X i: X
Z SEVEN MINUTE SERMON =
Z; =
x ON THE GOLDEN TEXT !:
: BY OUR OWN PREACHER !
x x X X X !; X X X X X !

= = y = = = y = x - y = y
AUGUST 81. 1918.
Jesus said unto them, L am the
bread of Iife.-John 6:35.
CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE
/. Christ to the soul is what bread
Is TO the boy. Bread is a staple arti-
Gle Of food; it is nourishing. it gives
Us strength, il really stands in the
place Of life, or becomes life 10 us as
without il we should soon cease TO
live. This is precisely what Christ is
to US, or at least it is a faint Tepresen-
tatiOn Of what he is TO our souls
Without him we have no spiritual life
and. if we had. we could not sustain it
without constantly feeding upon him
who is the bread Of life. Whatever
spiritual strength we may have be-
comes weakness except we constantly
feed upon Christ in our hearts by
faith. Just as God has conditioned
the perpetuation of our physical life
and strength on partaking of food,
just so our perpetual life and strength
are only perpetuated by feeding con-
stantly on the Son Of God. We must
keep in constant fellowship with Je-
sus. commune with him, love him,
realize our dependence upon him, and
thus we shall have the strength of
giant and the wisdom Of the ages. We
shall then be enabled to perform the
work of life and successfully solve its
problems.
III. We must eat bread i'm order to
be nOurished with il. Bread which
is not eaten in Intellectual and of no
practical service TO us. 1t is only
when we partake of bread that Its
strength is impaired TO us. If there
fore, we will but satisfy our natural
hunger by feeding upon bread. God,
through his wonderful processes OF
nature, Will do the rest. He will
transmute the bread into blood, mus
Gle, nerves and flesh and all the
strength of the staff of life becomes
human energy In like manner we
must feed upon Christ by faith so thai
he may be transmitted into our spirit
ual natures Only by feeding upon
him can we take on his nature, his
love. his goodness, his wisdom, and
his strength, for all these are ours
when we constantly feed upon him.
Our physical tissues partake more or
less OF the nature OF the food which
we eat and this isprecisely the case
with our spiritual life; if we feed up
on any spiritual food other than
Christ our spiritual strength becomes
weak, even when we do not lose il al
together. Jesus is the only bread
suited TO us, if we feed upon him, we
have soul health, we take on moral
strength, we have spiritual eXaltatiOn
and we become unselfish. We are able
to accomplish our work and mission
in life only as we feed upon Jesus the
bread of life.
III. We all need Bread Daily with
every meal. There is no other article
OF food so useful, containing so much
nourishment, or which is more neces-
sary than bread. 1t is about the only
thing, in the way of food, that is
found upon every table at every meal.
When we get off our appetite and can
eat nothing else, bread generally ap-
peals to us; when we are hungry and
crave food, there is nothing which we
more enjoy. and which does us more
good than bread. There is no other
article of human diet which Jesus
could have so appropriately used TO
represent himself and the relation
which he bears to the sustenance Of
our immortal spirits. We need Christ
at every stage of life. When we are
Apply our joy is increased by having
m share it with us; when we are
sad We never fail to get out of the
experience more gladness than sad
ness, when Christ is in our hearts
When we have plenty of friends Christ
help which we receive from such
companionship. but when we are
friendless and surrounded by enemies,
II we have Christ, no wea pom that
may be formed against us can hurt us
We need Christ in our homes, in our
workshops and offices, we need him
In our pleasures. we need him in all
our thinking and doing, and by con-
stantly depending upon him we never
lack any good thing.
". Christ is the bread OF life. So to
speak we have no spiritual life until
we have fed upon Jesus. He said to
his disciples. my flesh is meat in
deed. and my blood is drink. indeed. :"
At this saying many were offended
and left him. but what he said Is as
literally true as any material figure of
speech can be when used to illustrate
spiritual truth. The illustration of
the flesh and blood of Jesus was used
by him to convey the thought that as
flesh and blood is essential to physical
life. so he is essential to spiritual life.
1t is by believing in him that our souls
are first saN)d. IT IS stated that there
is no other name given under
heaven or among men whereby
we can be saved. Jesus is
I the only mediator between God and
man; he is the at-One-ment between
/ Him and us; he connects man and
his Maker; draws them together.
causes them to clasp each others
hand and recOnciles the son TO his
/ loving Father. II is in this sense that
Jesus is the bread of life; it is only
through him that we can receive spir-
ttual life, and by him our spiritual
/ life is continued.
FATHER PUTS END TO