In a subordinate sense, the true bread may be taken as meaning our own
deeds inspired by love of God and approved by conscience. They may
often be painful to do, but the pain merges into calm pleasure, and
conscience whispers a foretaste of heaven's 'Well done! good and
faithful servant.' The roll may be bitter to the lips, but, eaten,
becomes sweet as honey; whereas the world's bread is sweet at first
but bitter at last. The highest wisdom and the most exacting
conscience absolutely coincide in that which they prescribe, and
Scripture has the warrant of universal experience in proclaiming that
sin in its subtler and more refined forms, as well as in its grosser,
is a gigantic mistake, and the true wisdom and reasonable regard for
one's own interest alike point in the same direction,--to a life based
on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, as being the life which
yields the happiest results today and perpetual bliss hereafter. But
let us not forget that in the highest sense Christ Himself is the
'true bread that cometh down from heaven.' He may be bitter at first,
being eaten with tears of penitence and painful efforts at conquering
sin, but even in the first bitterness there is sweetness beyond all
the earth can give. He 'spreads a table before us in the presence of
our enemies,' and the bread which He gives tastes as the manna of old
did, like wafers made of honey. Only perverted appetites loathe this
light bread and prefer the strong-favoured leeks and garlics of Egypt.
They who sit at the table in the wilderness will finally sit at the
table prepared in the kingdom of the heavens.