Octavius Winslow
What is the one specific cry of a truly spiritually regenerated and awakened soul? Is it not for JESUS, the bread of life? Most assuredly! Go to the sinner bowed beneath the weight of the law, to the man awakened to a conviction of his sinful and lost condition, who has been brought to know the nothingness of his own righteousness, and ask him, ‘What will make you happy?’ Bid him go to his religious duties, to his sacraments, to his church, to his minister. Oh, how bitter will be his reproof - “I asked you, as a starving man, for bread, and you give me husks. I need Christ - I need to know that my sins are pardoned - that my transgressions are blotted out - that I am an accepted, forgiven child of God. And nothing short of this will meet my case. I have tried every other expedient, have come to the end of all my own doings, and I perish with hunger. I have been feeding upon ashes. I have sought to meet the cravings of my spirit with the chaff. I have been drinking in the wind. Give me Christ, or I die! None but Christ! None but Christ! Place me upon a pinnacle, and give me the world. I survey from there, still, without Christ I am undone - I starve - I perish! Lord, I fall at Thy feet. Thou only has the bread of eternal life. Here will I lie, here will I cling; and if I perish in my hunger, it shall be asking Thee, imploring Thee, crying to Thee for bread!”
Oh, thank God if the blessed Spirit has brought you to see the difference between the bread of life and the husks with which man would seek to meet your spiritual craving! Fall on your knees, and thank God if you have been taught that none but Christ - a crucified, atoning, and full Saviour - a Saviour whose blood blots out the deepest stain of guilt, and whose flowing robe of righteousness justifies the believing soul from all sin - can meet your soul’s necessity!
That Jesus is the bread of the spiritual soul, how clear and impressive is His own teaching - “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread, that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him.” “He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” Shall we not exclaim, in view of this marvelous statement, “Lord, evermore give us this bread!”
