l--pride,
anger, selfishness, falsehood, lust. As the curse of sin is removed by
the faith which appropriates pardon, so its power is broken by the
steady personal acceptance of Christ; and our Bread and Wine are His new
humanity, given to us, until He becomes the second Father of the race,
which is begotten again in Him. An easy temper is not Christian
meekness; dislike to witness pain is not Christian love. All our
goodness must strike root deeper than in the sensibilities, must be
nourished by the communication to us of the mind which was in Christ
Jesus.

And this food is universally given, and universally suitable. The strong
and the weak, the aged chieftain and little children, ate and were
nourished. No stern decree excluded any member of the visible Church in
the wilderness from sharing the bread from heaven: they did eat the same
spiritual meat, provided only that they gathered it. Their part was to
be in earnest in accepting, and so is ours; but if we fail, whom shall
we blame except ourselves? In the mystery of its origin, in the silent
and secret mode of its descent from above, in the constancy of its
bestowal, and in its suitability for all the camp, for Moses and the
youngest child, the manna prefigured Christ.

Every day a fresh supply had to be laid up, and nothing could be held
over from the largest hoard. So it is with us: we must give ourselves to
Christ for ever, but we must ask Him daily to give Himself to us. The
richest experience, the purest aspiration, the humblest self-abandonment
that was ever felt, could not reach forward to supply the morrow. Past
graces will become loathsome if used instead of present supplies from
heaven. And the secret of many a scandalous fall is that the unhappy
soul grew self-confident: unlike St. Paul, he reckoned that he had
already attained; and thereupon the graces in which he trusted became
corrupt and vile.

The constant supply was not more needful than it was abundant. The manna
lay all around the camp: the Bread of Life is He who stands at our door
and knocks. Alas for those who murmur for grosser indulgences! Israel
demanded and obtained them; but while the flesh was in their nostrils
the angel of the Lord went forth and smote them. Is there no plague any
longer for the perverse? What are the discords that convulse families,
the uncurbed passions to which nothing is sacred, the jaded appetite and
weary discontent which hates the world even as it hates itsel