Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, "Rabbi, eat something." Sermons I. THE FOOD OF THE BODY. "Master, eat." 1. The body must have food. It is true that "man doth not live by bread alone," but it is quite as true that he cannot live without bread. Man's physical nature requires suitable physical support. If we wish to live, we must eat - eat to live, but. not live to eat. 2. The body must have food at stated times. "In due season." There is physical waste, there is a continual demand, and there must be a continual supply. There is a law of health and life, and should be observed. The prayer of the disciples, "Master, eat," was quite timely and natural. The meal time had passed, and he was hungry and fatigued, and their request was the natural language of propriety, want, and kindness. 3. The claims of the body are recognized by Christ: (1) In the provisions of nature. In their fulness and variety he was the Provider, and there is no way so effectual to recognize the claims of the body as to provide amply for it. (2) Under human conditions, he was thoroughly human. He knew by experience what were hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and, as such, he could sympathize with the cravings of others. He had sent his disciples unto the city to buy meat; not, perhaps, so much for his own sake as that of his disciples. In little things he was more concerned for others than for himself. (3) He was sociable and simple in his diet. There was not one table for the Lord and another for the servants; but he shared with them, and his fare was simple and homely. And this, perhaps, was better for mental and spiritual labour. Eating and drinking were secondary matters with him. Nevertheless, by example, by actions and words, he fully recognized the claims of the body. II. THE FOOD OF THE SOUL. 1. Doing the Divine will. "My meat is to do the will," etc. (1) This involves self-sacrificing service. A service devoted entirely to God. Self is altogether ignored. Jesus was rapt in the will of him that sent him. He lived in his Father, and fed on his will. (2) This service involves the whole of his Divine will. "His work." Including his will in its minutest details - the brief mission of Samaria; and also in its most comprehensive purposes - the salvation of the human family, the great scheme of redemption. (3) This service involves the carrying out the Divine will to its final and proper issues. "And to finish his work." The completion of the work inspires and supports the Worker all through. It is the wine of the spirit and the reviver of the soul. This was Jesus' meat. And it is ever the true food of the soul. 2. As soul food, many are ignorant of it. Even the disciples were so now. "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." (1) There is ignorance of its nature and origin. It is spiritual and heavenly. In the disciples as yet the material was in the ascendant. They were babes in Christ, dependent on the nurse. The soul had scarcely opened its eye, was scarcely conscious of its real wants. (2) There is ignorance of its value and effects. From the beginning the will of God is the real food of the soul; but on account of sin, materialism, animalism, and indifference, the realization of it was exceptional, and ignorance of its true value and effect was the rule. This was specially the case at the time of Christ's earthly history. Its value and effect must be known by experience. (3) It was the mission of Christ to reveal it, to introduce it, create a craving in humanity for it, and to supply them with the knowledge of its nature and value. This he did by precept and example. "My meat is to do the will," etc. His whole life and death were brilliant, but most familiar and telling illustrations of the Divine will as the only genuine food of the human soul. 3. As soul food, it is essential and perfectly adapted. (1) The soul is spiritual in its essence and wants, and must be supplied with spiritual food, else it cannot thrive and grow and be useful and happy. The will of God is adapted to supply all this. It is spiritual and Divine. (2) The soul is immortal, and must have immortal nourishment. The will of God is the imperishable meat, and calculated to satisfy the immortal cravings of the soul. Christ brought life and immortality to light. Let the soul feed. on him, and its immortal instincts will be nourished; and this is only the will of God. (3) The soul is an emanation of the Divine will. Its parentage suggests at once its only proper food. The babe feeds and thrives on its mother's milk. What but the will of God can feed the offspring of that will? (4) It is essential and addicted to the well being and final perfection of the soul. What is its well being and final perfection? Growth in its original direction, holiness, perfect love, as much God-likeness and happiness as it is capable of. To do the will of God will effect all this. As a proof, look at Christ. What made his character perfect and his manhood complete? The proper answer is in his own words: "My meat is to do the wilt of him," etc. 4. As soul food, it is delightful. "My meat." To do the will of God is not a burden, but a delight; not sacrifice, but pleasure. It is like food to the hungry or water to the thirsty. It is not a mere duty, but a natural instinct and craving, a passion and the highest gratification of being. "My meat." Never a man enjoyed the daintiest dish as well as the believing soul enjoys doing the will of God. It is his meat. 5. As soul food, it is absorbingly satisfying. The claims of God and the spiritual interest of humanity are stronger than any other. They are supreme. (1) Stronger in this case than social custom. It was customary among the Jews, as among all nations, to partake of food at stated times of the day. Jesus and his disciples generally observed and provided for this. The custom was strong; but doing the will of God, to Christ, was infinitely stronger. The custom was ignored. (2) Stronger than the solicitations of friends. The disciples begged and even prayed him to eat. This was done out of pure kindness and sympathy, and Jesus was by no means unimpressive to this. Even human kindness had great influence on him, but could not prevail now. He had fed, and was even then feeding, (m a higher and more satisfying food. (3) Stronger than the cravings of nature. Jesus was fatigued and hungry when the disciples left for the city to buy meat, but meanwhile he was fed with food from the city of the great King. In a higher sense the disciples were right in surmising that some one had brought him aught to eat. God had fed him with his will, and he had partaken of food by doing his will. The success of his brief and almost accidental mission in Samaria satisfied him, and the spiritual impression on the woman and the sight of Samaritan citizens already streaming to him over the plain so filled his soul with satisfaction and joy that bodily food was forgotten, and the thought of it almost distasteful. The material was lost in the spiritual, the personal in the general, and the human in the Divine. The cravings of his own bodily wants were completely neutralized by the unspeakable delight of doing the will of God in supplying the spiritual wants of others. LESSONS. 1. The claims of the body, although important, are nothing to those of the soul. The former are represented by the disciples on this occasion, the latter by Christ. "Master, eat," they said. "Disciples, eat," he said; but pointed them to their higher nature and its true nourishment. 2. We should cultivate the spiritual appetite to feed on the will of God. For this is the proper food of the soul, adapted here and hereafter. From the altitude of spiritual satisfaction and joy earthly things appear gross, and material food becomes too distasteful for even thought, much inure for participation. This points to a state where material food will not be required, nor can it be procured. Let the soul free itself from all gross influences and from the dominion of bodily appetites and passions, and this will discipline it for the enjoyment of the purely spiritual. 3. We should feel thankful to Christ for introducing to us the true food of the soul. He made our physical nature and provided for it; he made our spiritual nature and supplied it with proper nurture - the will of God. 4. If we wish to become Christlike, we must feed on the same meat as Christ. If we wish to be God-like, we must do his will. Food has great influence on the growth of the soul. Inferior and adulterated food dwarfs it, causes it to grow downwards. Doing the will of God causes it to grow heavenwards. Holy activity whets the spiritual appetite and supplies it with nourishment. The soul feeds by doing, by activity, by the sweat of its brow. If we want to be benevolent, like Christ, we must not feed on ourselves, but the will of God - on the love of Christ and the welfare of our fellow men. - B.T.
Come see a Man which told me all things whatever I did This judgment on the claims of Christ is the verdict of common sense in contrast to that of Nicodemus, which was the verdict of scholarship. It is for learned men to study for us the question of miracles, which are the foundation of intellectual belief; but that which secures for Jesus the faith and heart of the common people is the Word of Jesus. Christ's teaching was at first a riddle to the woman, but an unexpected fact startled her into seriousness and conviction. There was another who was in the secret of her life, and this revelation by one who, humanly speaking, knew nothing of the rumours in circulation about her, prepared her for the revelation that He was the Christ.I. CHRIST'S KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN NATURE IS A SUFFICIENT WARRANT FOR OUR BELIEF IN HIS DIVINE MISSION. The teachers to whom we give the highest rank are those who teach us how to live. They stand higher than the mere scientist or philosopher. In the present day the scientist is more popular than the preacher. But that is because the question which inspires all his labours is "What is man?" and this question derives all its significance from two others — "What is man appointed to do?" "What is man destined to be?" People are therefore looking to him to evolve a new theory of life, and to become a moralist at some time. Some have already become preachers — of another gospel, which is not another. Taking one age with another, the foremost teachers have been those who have dealt with morals and character. II. WHATEVER VIEW MAY BE TAKEN OF CHRIST'S KNOWLEDGE OF MAN, NO SUBSEQUENT TEACHER HAS MADE ANY ADDITION TO IT. We know nothing that helps us to understand man's position upon earth, and the reasons that have made it what it is, which cannot be traced to Matthew 5.-7. There were illustrious teachers before Christ, but there is a great gulf between the obscurities and uncertain foundations of their teaching on man and the clear, authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ. Pagan teachers — 1. Were ignorant of the origin of man. 2. Were at a loss to account for moral evil. These problems defied their reason, and therefore they remitted them to the imagination of the poets, and with the poets they found very eloquent expression in the mythologies. III. THERE ARE MEN WHO REJECT THE WORDS OF CHRIST ON THESE SUBJECTS, BUT WHO EXPRESS THE HIGHEST ADMIRATION OF HIS CHARACTER AND WISDOM. Now it is essentially unscientific to affirm arbitrarily that while Christ was right on one subject, He was wrong in another. He was right in every doctrine, and the very men who object to receive all He said, by the pre-eminence which they give to Christ say He is above their criticism. Bring to the examination of His life and teaching every new method of analysis and research; bring the latest discovery on the antiquity of man, and the last speculation of the evolutionist and the metaphysician, and you leave the Redeemer where the Jews, and where you found Him. There He is, and you cannot touch Him. IV. THERE ARE TWO MODERN MOVEMENTS RESPECTING CHRIST equally vigorous and conspicuous. 1. An anti-Christian scepticism. This is undeniable, but its power may be exaggerated. The ungodliness of our age happens to assume a sceptical guise, but it will assume another by and by. It must not be imagined that it represents the intelligence and judgment of society. There is a religion in the heart of the masses of the people waiting to be evoked. 2. A growing belief in Jesus, not so much fostered by the literature of the Church as by the words of Jesus. Thousands are studying the New Testament outside all churches. The Stranger that met the woman is silting on other wells all over the world, and looking for thirsty souls. Conclusion: It is the duty and vocation of churches to plant themselves upon the highways of thought and life and look out for thirsty travellers and offer them the water of life freely, (E. E. Jenkins, M. A.) I. THE WOMAN'S FAITH AND HOW IT WAS TO BE TESTED.1. She was a most unlikely subject. A Samaritan scorning the Jews, having her own notion of the Messiah. 2. Christ was most unlikely to strike her as the Messiah. A Jew; a suppliant for water. 3. Yet she was thoroughly convinced, for she leaves her water-pot and carries with enthusiasm the joyful news into the city. 4. This is what has happened ever since. It is not those who are in a most favourable position for believing who are readiest to believe. There are thousands of young people who have been trained in Christianity who never dream of loving Christ, whilst there are thousands for many years utterly untouched by Christian influences who find in themselves a strange power to lay hold of Christ. Beware of the subtle influence of familiarity with Divine things. II. HOW THIS WOMAN GOT HER FAITH. 1. Not by miracles. A miracle suggests omnipotence, but does not prove it. 2. There is a much higher thing than power — knowledge. She felt herself in the presence of omniscience. 3. Upon this knowledge of bar secret life she based her belief in the Messiah (ver. 25, cf ver. 29). III. WHAT THIS WOMAN DID WITH HER FAITH. She put it into her proclamation of Jesus. (G. W. Conder.) Huber, the great naturalist, tells us, that if a single wasp discovers a deposit of honey or other food, he will return to his nest, and impart the good news to his companions, who will sally forth in great numbers to partake of the fare which has been discovered for them. Shall we who have found honey in the rock Christ Jesus, be less considerate of our fellow-men than wasps are of their fellow-insects? Ought we not rather like the Samaritan woman to hasten to tell the good news? Common humanity should prevent one of us from concealing the great discovery which grace has enabled us to make.(C. H. Spurgeon.) According to Christ's law, every Christian is to be active in spreading the faith, which was delivered, not to the ministers, but to the saints, to every one of them, that they might maintain it, and spread it according to the gift which the Spirit has given them. Shall I venture a parable? A certain band of warlike knights had been exceedingly victorious in all their conflicts. They were men of valour and of indomitable courage; they had carried everything before them, and subdued province after province for their king. But on a sudden they said in the council-chamber, "We have at our head a most valiant warrior, one whose arm is stout enough to smite down fifty of his adversaries; would it not be better if, leaving a few such as he to go out to the fight, the mere men-at-arms, who make up the ordinary ranks, were to rest at home? We should be much more at our ease; our horses would not so often be covered with foam, nor our armour be bruised, the many would enjoy abundant leisure, and great things would be done by the valiant few." Now, the foremost champions, with fear and trembling, undertook the task and went to the conflict, and they fought well, as the rolls of fame can testify; to the best of their ability they unhorsed their foes and performed great exploits. But still, from the very hour in which that scheme was planned and carried out no city was taken, no province was conquered. If we are to subdue the earth, every one of us must join in the fight. We must not exempt a single soldier of the Cross, neither man nor woman, rich or poor. We shall see great things when we all agree to this, and put it in practice.(C. H. Spurgeon.) No sooner do you pass the brow of the St. Gothard pass, on your way to Italy, than you perceive that, beyond all question, you are on the sunny side of the Alps. The snow lying there is nothing in comparison to the vast accumulation upon the Swiss side of the summit, the wind ceases to be sharp and cutting, and a very few minutes' ride brings you into a balmy air which makes you forget that you are so greatly elevated above the sea level. There is a very manifest difference between the southern side and the bleak northern aspect. He who climbs above the cares of the world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life. The world's side of the hill is chill and freezing to a spiritual mind, but the Lord's presence gives a warmth of joy .which turns winter into summer. Some pilgrims to heaven appear never to have passed the summit of religious difficulty; they are still toiling over the Devil's Bridge, or loitering at Andermatt, or plunging into the deep snowdrifts of their own personal unworthiness, ever learning, but never coming to a full knowledge of the truth; they have not attained to comfortable perception of the glory, preciousness, and all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus, and therefore abide amid the winter of their doubts and fears. If they had but faith to surmount their spiritual impediments, how changed would everything become! It is fair travelling with a sunny land smiling before your eyes, especially when you retain a grateful remembrance of the bleak and wintry road which you have traversed; but it is sorry work to be always stopping on the Swiss side of the mountain. How is it that so many do this?(C. H. Spurgeon.) Weak means may, by God's blessing, work great matters. He can make the words of Naaman's servant greater in operation than the words of great Elisha, and by a poor captive girl bring him to the prophet.(J. Trapp.) No address is so powerful as that which comes in private from heart to heart, with all the living power of a lip warm with love. God is more likely to bless this form of address than any other. There is no escaping from the directness of such an appeal, and it is hard to resist its pleading power. "Come, George, and walk down the road with me!" was the call of an earnest preacher to one of his hearers. In the course of that walk the preacher's private word had by God's blessing accomplished in George what all his 'former teachings had failed to do. George yielded himself to Christ, and declared that the personal talking while going along the street was the means of his decision. It is a great delight to the pastor of the Tabernacle frequently to see certain elders in the corners of the building after service conversing with individuals. Are we backward in such labours? Do we altogether neglect them? How shall we answer for it at the last great day?(C. H. Spurgeon.) At the first invitation to penitents to come forward, only half a dozen responded to the call; but as soon as these stood up rejoicing in God, another company came forward. No sooner was the joy of pardon received into the mourners' hearts, than they hastened to seek after others. One young man, about twenty years of age, was overheard praying, immediately after he felt relieved of his guilty load, "Please, Lord, let me tell somebody, or I shall die." Upon receiving permission he gladly stood up, and related what God had just done for his soul.(W. Booth.) In travelling across the arid desert, scouts upon camels and dromedaries are sent off in every direction to scour the country and look for springs of water. When these are discovered the finder immediately calls aloud of the nearest, "Come!" and this one repeats the word "Come!" to the next, and so this word passes from one to another until all hear and are gathered at the well. Now those of us who are Christians must do the same. We have heard the good news that Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. We have found the well of living waters, and we must raise the cry, "Come!"New Cyclopaedia. A woman came to a minister one day, carrying a bundle of wet sand. "Do you see what this is, sir?" said she. "Yes," was the reply, "it is wet sand." "But do you know what it means?" "I do not know exactly what you mean by it; what is it?" "Ah, sir," she said, "that's me, and the number of my sins they cannot be counted." And then she exclaimed, "Oh wretched creature that I am! how can a wretch as I ever be saved? Where did you get the sand?" asked the minister. "At the Beacon." "Go back then to the Beacon; take a spade with you; dig, dig, and raise a great mound; shovel it up as high as ever you can, then leave it there; take your stand by the sea-shore, and watch the effect of the waves upon the heap of sand." "Ah, sir," she exclaimed, "I see what you mean — the blood, the blood, the blood of Christ; it would wash it all away."(New Cyclopaedia.) Master eat... I have meat to eat that ye know not of I. CHRIST forgets HIS EARTHLY FOOD.II. THE WOMAN forgets HER EARTHLY PITCHERS. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) I. His ZEAL.1. For His Father's house (John 2:17), purity of worship. 2. For His Father's will (John 9:4), the salvation of men. 3. For His Father's children (John 17:9), the sanctification of His Church. II. His FOOD. 1. Heavenly in origin. 2. Spiritual in character. 3. Sustaining in quality. 4. Sufficient in supply. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) I. It was a roadside conversation, an "accidental" interview. And yet in less time than an ordinary religious service HE HAS TOLD MANKIND THREE SECRETS.1. What rest or peace is for every unsatisfied heart. 2. Who it is that knows these hearts through and through. 3. What God is, and how He may be found. 4. These are secrets, because for four thousand years the loftiest intellects had been striving to find them out. Prophets and kings, Solomons and Platos, desired to see these things, and did not. II. WHERE SHOULD WE SAY THIS REVELATION WOULD BE MADE, 1. In some crowded church, advertised beforehand, with thousands of people and a popular orator? 2. In some lecture-hall with sharp-witted students stimulated by some master brain? 3. Notice that the occasion was commonplace. The teacher sat on the stones of a wayside well. The audience was one woman, not respectable. Men of the world that day were about their business. Fortunes were building and wasting. Rome was ruling. Athens was carving and painting and making orations. Jerusalem was garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous, and devouring widows' houses. But in one still spot two people were talking together of things which have helped to revolutionize the world. III. WHILE THUS ENGAGED THE TEACHER'S ATTENTION WAS DISTRACTED. The disciples came and asked Him to eat. Then were repeated instances when, at the moment He needed sympathy most, those around Him went on chattering about superficial trifles, misunderstanding His teaching and His life. But Christ's patience always triumphed. He simply announces — 1. The fact that He had meat they knew not of.(1) He does not mean that He was not in natural wants and exactly like ourselves. Honest hunger is no more disgraceful than honest riches. He knew that some of the most beneficent and beautiful impulses are associated with eating and drinking. He made both sacramental signs. Christianity is not the killing out or mutilating of any faculty; it is to use everything purely, unselfishly, faithfully, and in the name of the Lord Jesus. 2. While Christ would not sunder what God hath joined together, the hungering body and the immaterial soul, yet His mission is to bring the two into their right relation, and set the one over the other as its master. Eating and drinking are well enough in their place and time, but man shall not live by bread only. It is something higher that makes life worth living — the life and work of Christ. 3. Why should this be called meat? Food does two things.(1) It satisfies uneasy desire: so Christ satisfies a desire which is the hunger of the soul. You say many do not feel it, or they would give up their selfish way and turn to God. But (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) 4. Christ further tells us that the life of love and duty is the carrying out of God's plan. 5. Christ uplifts the ideal of a "finished" life and work. "Finished," because to the last stroke spent and the last breath drawn Christ gives it power and grace. No matter how long life is or how short if it is faithful. No matter where death is, if within us is the life of Him who liveth evermore. (Bp. Huntington.) I. THERE ARE REFRESHMENTS THAT ARE LITTLE KNOWN. "Man shall not live by bread alone." Our Lord found refreshments that were not known to His disciples, and the reason for this was — 1. That this nourishment was enjoyed on a higher plan than they had yet reached. 2. It implied a greater sinking of self than they as yet knew. In being a servant obeying the will of another, He feels Himself so much at home, that it revives Him to think of it. Not in self but in self-surrender is there fulness for the heart. 3. Christ was in fuller harmony with God than His disciples. 4. Christ was sustained because He understood the art of seeing much in little. As a wise man sees a forest in an acorn so our Lord saw the vast results Of this little incident. II. THESE SECRET REFRESHMENTS SATISFIED OUR LORD. 1. He had so long hungered to be at His work. 2. When He got at His work He gave Himself wholly to it. 3. He found great joy in the work itself. 4. He forgot to eat bread because of the enthusiasm which filled Him in the pursuit of that soul. 5. He was moved greatly by the sympathy of pity. 6. He felt great joy in present success. 7. He saw the prospect of better things. III. LET US AT ONCE SEEK THIS REFRESHMENT. 1. Let us remember that we are sent of God 2. Let us find joy at once in God's work and will. 3. Let us get to work and leap into our place at once. 4. We may also anticipate the wages. (C. H. Spurgeon.) 2. In the prosecution of life we must lay our account with privations and conflicts. We do not begin in a paradise of innocence. The very first motions of real life within often take the form of conflict. 3. Under such experiences the strength of the man comes from hidden support. He has meat to eat of which others know not. This hidden meat is the food of heroes and has always nourished those who have "resisted unto blood, striving against sin." 4. When a man has no such secret support his life loses all spiritual importance and becomes a mere grovelling thing of animal enjoyment. The soul is starved and all true nobleness disappears. Now let us particularize some of the forms of this hidden support — I. A GOOD CONSCIENCE. This when rectified by the Holy Spirit is God's representative in the soul. Its approbation therefore being the reflex of the approval of God is a great source of support, even as its condemnation must always be a cause of weakness and pain. A good conscience is a continual feast, and they who have that within can do without the banquets of the world. II. A WORTHY AMBITION. If we are intent on the attainment of some fixed purpose we shall be sustained amid trials which would otherwise have overmastered us. We see that exemplified on a lower level, in the case of Warren Hastings, e.g. Let the Christian set his soul on the attainment of some good, not for Himself, but for his fellow men, then that purpose will bear him up. Christ, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, etc. This is the secret of the strength of those who have given their lives for missions, Livingstone, e.g. III. FAITH IN THE UNSEEN AND IN THE FUTURE, as in the case of Moses. What the student is doing for his scholarship, and the merchant for his wealth, the Christian is doing for his recompense of eternal reward, Both alike are walking by faith, but the Christian's faith takes in eternity. IV. DIVINE COMPANIONSHIP. "I am not alone because the Father is with Me," said Jesus. "The Lord stood by me and strengthened me," said Paul. God is "a very present help in time of trouble," not only for great emergencies, but for the common weariness of a common day. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) 1. He was profoundly submissive to that will. 2. He manifested His delight in it. 3. He felt the necessity for His work as Saviour, knowing as He did the dreadful power of sin. 4. Love was the foundation of His obedience. II. OUR LORD FOUND NOURISHMENT AND SATISFACTION IN DOING HIS FATHER'S WILL. 1. There may be entire devotion arising out of a sense of obligation. 2. Our Lord's devotion sprang from delight in it. 3. It so absorbed Him that He forgot His hunger, being spiritually fed, "He saw the travail of His soul," etc. III. THE END WHICH OUR LORD KEPT IN VIEW. "To finish His work." So at the close He was able to say "It is finished." His was a perfect life. Every part was filled in as it went on, no imperfect fragments, nothing left out or to be done over again. IV. LESSONS. 1. Every Christian should regard it as his meat to do the Father's will. "As the Father hath sent Me even so send I you." 2. All may learn what a joy it is to save the lost. (G. W. Humphries, B. A.) 1. He speaks here in His capacity of Son and Servant. In His essential nature He is one with the Father, but in the actual execution of the Divine purpose, He stands in a low place charged with a specific mission. 2. The will of the Sender is learned best by looking at the Sent. The Gift reveals the Giver's heart. The Christ sent into the world is fitted to draw men to God, not to drive them from Him. The will of the Father corresponds with the Messenger sent to execute it. God is love and Christ embodies that love. 3. The desire of God could not be carried into effect without Christ sent. 4. This work is not left half done. Creation was completed ere God rested. His next more glorious work will be finished too. The earth was complete as a habitation for man ere the children were brought to it as their home. So will heaven be. II. THE FOOD IN WHICH HE DELIGHTED. 1. It is not enough to learn what Jesus did and suffered, we must look into the secret motives of His heart. 2. Knowing all that redemption would bring upon Himself, He longed for the work as His daily bread. In this glass we see reflected the nature and intensity of the Saviour's eagerness to save. 3. Jesus is Lord of all. The stars are His, He values them, but they do not satisfy His soul. He does not need to redeem bright worlds and unfallen angels; they cannot, therefore, appease His hunger. To seek the strayed, and save the lost — this is His meat. 4. "Blessed are they that hunger; for this they shall be filled." This He felt; and His joy will be full when all the ransomed shall reign with Him. 5. Over Jerusalem He wept for hunger. His appetite brought Him from heaven to the cradle and the cross. 6. It is difficult to reconcile Christ's desire with His omnipotence. Had he not power to accomplish His desire? Could He not have seized a whole city, as angels seized Lot, and hurried them to heaven? This would not have satisfied Him. Material acquisitions cannot sustain the spirit. Though all power is given to Him He will not satisfy His physical hunger by converting stones into bread, nor His spiritual by lifting multitudes to heaven by omnipotence. 7. With the limits of our capacity and condition the appetite of the Master may be shared by the servants. Our spiritual hunger is first a desire to get and then a desire to give salvation. In the second part of the process the disciple enters into the joy of His Lord. (W. Arnot, D. D.) I. HIS SOUL WAS IN ALL HE DID. The task was not irksome. There are men who work with such reserve and coldness that you perceive it is but the shell that acts, not the man's whole soul. But our Lord's whole Being was at work. His Father's service was His element. II. HE WAS GLAD WHEN HE SAW HIS WORK SUCCEEDING. An infallible proof of His devotedness. You know when a man's heart is in his work by the joy he feels in it. True ministers call preaching pleasure, not duty. Let Him see a penitent and the Man of Sorrows wears a smile on His sorrowful face. III. HE WAS ANGRY WHEN HIS WORK WAS OPPOSED. When good men see penitents discouraged or evil rampant they do well to be angry. IV. HE WEPT WHEN HIS WORK WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. Never otherwise. He will weep over unpenitent Jerusalem, but not on the cross. V. HE WAS NOT DISCOURAGED BY OPPOSITION. How often, when our motives are misconstrued and our efforts hampered, are we tempted to give up! But Christ went on His way apologizing for nothing, doing His work whatever men thought of it or acted against it. VI. HE ALWAYS LABOURED; never resting: intruding on sleep for prayer and helpfulness. His three years seemed like three centuries. VII. WHEN IN FULL LABOUR HE DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE FELT FATIGUE; as here, and when hungry forgot to eat bread. He seemed to get refreshed in His work, and instead of getting tired renewed His strength. This could not have happened unless His soul had been in it. VIII. OUR LORD NEVER SWERVED FROM HIS ONE OBJECT, although tempted by the devil with the world and by the Galileans with a crown. IX. HE WAS NOT DAUNTED BY THE THOUGHT OF DEATH. This thought was not before Him as a possible prospect of momentary heroism, but a certain prospect all His life through. And to this He hastened as the crowning point of His work. In conclusion — 1. Let the timid soul who thinks that Christ is unwilling to save be encouraged by all this. 2. Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus be in all Christian men. (C. H. Spurgeon.) II. IN THE LAW OF THE SERVICE. God's will. many persons think there is no joy but in doing their own will, and to walk in the plain path of duty is repulsive to them. And merely walking in the path of duty will not bring joy. There is no acceptable obedience that does not spring from love. But there is all joy in that Christ found it so. And this is not wonderful. The will of God is the outcome of His perfections, and therefore that will must be the perfection of blessedness. Can you choose so well for yourself as that will which measures all things. This holds good both with regard to the suffering and the doing of God's will. III. IN THE FIELD OF SERVICE.. Every man has his work Divinely allotted and adjusted. This work is various, and all of it must be accepted as given of God. Then satisfaction will be found in — 1. Doing the work may not have been successful, but if it has been done, we have the satisfaction of having fulfilled our task. There are those who will only work when there is human applause and visible results. 2. The effectual accomplishment of the work, and receiving the glad, "Well done." (J. Riddell.) (C. H. Spurgeon.) (Christian Treasury.) (Griffith John.) (Smiles.) (H. O. Mackey.) (R. H. Lovell.) (Dr. Goodman.) (W. Arnott, D. D.) (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) (Family Churchman.) (F. D. Maurice.) (Family Churchman.) September 18 Evening September 29 Morning May 24 Morning September 16 Morning February 1 Morning March 1 Morning April 17 Evening June 6 Morning July 5 Morning November 22 Morning October 17 Evening November 8 Evening August 30 Morning May 13 Morning February 23 Evening December 25 Morning February 1. "A Well of Water Springing Up" (John iv. 14). The Gift and the Giver The Springing Fountain The Second Miracle The Wearied Christ 'Give Me to Drink' August the Third Changing Asking into Thirsting |