Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-10
STARVING, AND DID NOT KNOW In
The International Sunday School Lesson For March
Is, "Jesus the Bread of Life"-John 6:22-4O
BY William L. Ellis

life. Is not this the gist of the Saw
lor's great word, which is the heart
OF this lesson, Labor not for the
meat which perisheth, but for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting
lie, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you?
Easy Asking For Great Gifts
Babies cry for the moon, and we
smile at them. Grown folk pray God,
quite as ignorantly and casually. for
even greater boons, and we never
sense the tragedy of it. What would
happen in the average church If
GOD should some day suddenly an
sWer all the great petitions of the
preacher and the peoplel They are
not Intentionally insincere; merely
conventional, and, oh! so much
greater than is meant. If we analyze
our own prayers for a day we shall
be in better position to sympathize
with this crowd of Passover pilgrims
VINO lightly petitioned Jesus, Lord,
eVermore give us this bread" Little
dld they know what was involved in
that supplication; for so do our pray
ers outrun our knowledge.
These greedy ones were wrapped
up in web of misapprehension.
they were thinking on one plane, and
the Master was trying to lead them
10 another. Still engrossed in the
idea of works and wonders, they had
asked, What shall we do, that we
might work the works of God?"
"Do'-that is the old cry of man,
trying to work his way to heaven.
Ihey expected works; Jesus asked
faith. This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath
sent To inspire their faith Jesus
had wrought mighty signs; still they
aid not understand that his great
Really, the Master was hungry for
faith; He wanted an incredulous
world to believe on Him. His great
question is whether, when He comes,
He shall find faith on the earth. Ours
is day of great works. would that
our faith were equal thereto.
Something That Satisfies
Right here our study brings us
squarely up against the Great Affirm
alton of the New Testament, which is
that Jesus is very God Himself Phi
losophy has had many doubts on this
subject, which it has not been slow to
express. But Johns Gospel has no
such doubts. No honest mind can
accept this book and still question
that Jesus claims deity for Himself
Before one can deny this unique
crown to the Lord He must first tear
up this Fourth Gospel. For John
leaves the reader no other recourse
than either to accept the sublime af-
hrmations of the divine character and
mission of Jesus, or else to brand HIM
as conscious impostor, the most au-
dacious fraud of the centuries There
is no middle ground left for Jesus to
be wise teacher of beautiful char
acter. Either He is what He claims
TO be, or else He or His first disciple
is totally untrustworthy.
Clear, unequivocal, unmistakable,
is the declaration of Jesus to this mob
seeking bread: Il am the Bread of
Life" This is scarcely the place to
run through all the 81 Ans" of this
Gospel They show the Speaker as
arrogating to Himself the character
istics and qualities and rights of the
with the Father: "I and the Father
are one." For any other than Deity
to assume what Jesus assumed in this
one address alone would be prepos-
ferrous to an unthinkable degree.
Buddha never said. "I am the
Bread of Life" Neither did Confu-
cius, nor Zoroaster, nor Socrates, nor
great religious leaders of the human
race. Only Jesus claimed to be in
Himself satisfaction for the deepest
needs of the human spirit. These
other spiritual teachers offered sys-
TENS and creeds and philosophers; but
Jesus offered Himself.
Has that amazing assumption of
Jesus been verified in the experience
of the race? All, ten thousand times
ten thousand men and women, young
men and maidens, arise with smiling
faces, and some of them with martyr
crowns on their brows, to declare
that Jesus is the very sufticiency of
life to them. He is "the. fairest
among ten thousand, the one alto
gether lovely" From devastated
Armenia, from the prosecuted Chris
tians of the mission field, comes the
chorus. which has sounded through
the ages, that Jesus satisfies. He
alone is Life, and apart from Him
there is no adequate qualification for
the needs of the spirit of man. To
have the gifts of Christ is good, but
to have the Giver Himself is His Won
derful plan for all who would have
the deep hunger of their hearts met
to repletion.