Manna in the wilderness

The Bread of Life.

(The Gospel History, Section 64)

Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Manna in the wilderness

(The Saviour of the World, Vol IV, Book I, Poem XVI)

“I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger.”

An-hungered in the waste Thy people go;
Scarce heard of men their feeble cry and low,—
“Our Father, give us bread! Remember’st not
How all that multitude rose up and got
The food they lacked spread there before their face,

And each one ate his fill, sustainéd of Thy grace!

“All holy, heavenly, undefiled, that bread
Came from above and Israel nourishéd:
Strong in that meat, they went alert and glad;
Filled with new life (late sore cast-down and sad),
The folk well-fed pursued their wilderness way:

Our Father, look on us who famished go to-day!

“We, too, in tedious wilderness tread slow,
Our brow is troubled, th’ pulse of life beats low;
Aching for meat complain we bitterly,
Yet every need—a hunger known to Thee:
The time is come,—Our Father, hear our cry,

And feed with that sole Bread of God, can satisfy!

“Not Moses or another spread that board;
‘My Father gave that bread,’—we have His word
Who came from heaven our Sustenance to be—
Sent forth of God for all men’s misery:—
‘I am that bread of God which they who eat

Shall never hunger more.’—Lord, feed us with this meat!”

St. John vi. 35.