Thrice happy I am,

And my heart it doth dance

At the sound of his name.”

The heart’s hunger is removed eternally by Jesus.

Then there are vast desires in us all, and when we are quickened those desires expand and enlarge. Man feels that he is not in his element, and is not what he was intended to be. He is like a bird in the shell, he feels a life within him too great to be for ever confined within such narrow bounds. Do you not, dear friends, feel great longings? Does not your soul seethe with high ambitions? Our immortal nature frets beneath the burden of mortality, its spiritual nature is weary of the chains of materialism. That hungering will never be hushed into content till we receive Christ; but when we have him we learn that we are the sons of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, and that it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This opens up before us a splendid future of glory unfading, and bliss unbounded, and we feel that we want no more. Since we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s, all things are ours, and our hunger is over for ever. The only contented man in the whole world is he who has believed in Jesus, and he is contented just because he has obtained all that his nature needs.

“Let others stretch their arms like seas,

And grasp in all the shore,

Grant me the blessings of thy grace,

And I desire no more.”

because I could not desire more than all, and Christ is all.

My beloved, this perfect satisfying of our nature is to be found nowhere else but in Christ. Some have tried to be satisfied with themselves and their own doings. They have despised the bread of heaven, for they dreamed that they could live without bread; they would be self-contained men, they would make themselves happy with themselves; but it is a wretched failure. The poor Bushmen, when they have nothing to eat tie a girdle around them, and call it the hunger belt, and when they have gone a few days they pull it tighter still, and tighter still, in order to enable them to bear hunger: so any man who has to live upon himself, will have to draw the hunger belt very tight indeed. A soul cannot be persuaded by philosophy to content itself without its necessary food: eloquence may try all its charms to that end, but it will be in vain. Who can convince a hungry man that he needs not eat? Some have gone to Moses for bread, and, mark you, the two greatest bread-givers in the world are Moses and Christ. Moses fed the tribes in the wilderness for forty years, and Jesus always feeds his people. But Moses’ bread never satisfies, those who eat it ere long call it light bread; and if they have been satisfied with it for a time, yet there is the mournful reflection that their fathers did eat it and are dead. There is no life in the bread of the law; but he who gets Christ has a bread whereof he shall eat for ever and ever, and shall never die. I am told that there is country-I think it is Patagonia-where men in times of want eat clay in great lumps, and fill themselves with it, so as to deaden their hunger. I know that many people in England do the same. There is a kind of yellow clay which is much cried up for staying spiritual hunger; heavy stuff it is, but many have a vast appetite for it. They prefer it to the choicest dainties. When a man fills his heart with it, it presses him down to the very earth, and prevents his rising into life. Some have tried to stay their hunger by the narcotics of scepticism, and have dosed themselves into torpor; and others have endeavoured to get ease through the drugs of fatalism. Many stave off hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter, which are not hungry because they are asleep. Such persons come to the house of God asleep. They would not like to be aroused, for if they were to do so they would wake up to an awful hunger. I wish they could be awakened, for that hunger which they dread would drive them to a soul-satisfying Saviour. But, depend upon it, the only way to meet hunger is to get bread, and the only way to meet your soul’s want is to get Christ, in whom there is enough and to spare, but nowhere else.

I shall close by saying that all believers bear witness that Jesus Christ is satisfying bread to them. When do you get most satisfied on a Sunday, beloved? I do not know whom you may happen to hear, but what Sabbath days are the best to you? When your minister rides the high horse, and gives you a splendid oration, and you say, “Dear me, it is wonderful,” have you ever felt satisfied to think it over on the Monday? Have you ever felt satisfied with sermons composed of politics and morality, or very nice essays which would suit the Saturday Review if they were a little more caustic? Do you enjoy such meat? I will tell you when I enjoy a Sunday most-when I preach Christ most, or when I can sit and hear a humble village preacher exalt the Lord Jesus. It does not matter if the grammar is spoilt so long as Jesus is there. What some call platitudes are dainties to me if they glorify my Lord Jesus Christ. Anything about him is satisfying to a renewed spirit-cannot you bear witness to that? Sometimes when I have preached up Jesus Christ-and I think I generally do so, for the fact is I do not know anything but him, and I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified-I know you go away and say, “After all, that is what we want-Christ crucified, Christ the sinner’s substitutionary sacrifice, no sham Christ, no mere talk about Christ as an example, but his flesh and blood, a dying, bleeding, suffering Christ: that is what we want.” Now I have the witness of every Christian here to that! You are never satisfied with anything but that-are you? No matter how cleverly the doctrine might be analysed, or however orthodox it might be, you cannot be content with it, you must have the person of Christ, the flesh and the blood of Christ, or else you are not content.

And, beloved, those who have once eaten and drunk Christ never seek additional ground of trust beyond Christ; they never say, “I am resting upon Christ, but still I should like to be able to depend a little on my baptism.” I never heard a Christian talk in that fashion in my life. I never heard a man say, “I rest in the blood of Jesus, but still I wish that I could have a bishop’s hands put upon my head, so as to give me a confirmation of my faith.” I never heard that in my life, and I do not expect I ever shall. We are perfectly satisfied without priests, and without sacraments; Jesus Christ is the one sole foundation upon which we build. Again, I have never found those who rest in Christ wanting to shift their confidence. Those who want something new every Sunday, are those who know not the Saviour. Truly, if you have not the bread from heaven, you may well cry out for all manner of dishes, for each one will soon cloy; but if you have the bread of heaven, you want Christ on the first of January and every day till the last of December. I have never heard a Christian assert that Christ did not satisfy them in the days of sickness, and in the hour of death. I came to you this morning fresh from the sick bed of a venerable Christian man, close upon his eightieth year of age, and I said to him, “Now, dear sir, here are three or four young people around your bed: we are going forth on our pilgrimage relying on Christ, believing that he is faithful and true; you have gone a great deal further than we have; will you, therefore, kindly undeceive us if we are under a mistake. Have you found that the Lord has not fulfilled his word, have you found that he has not been true?” It was a blessed sight to see the man of God and hear him say, “Not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord God hath promised,” and then he added, “I will sing of mercy, for it has been mercy, all mercy, all the way through.” Do you feel any fear about departure?” I said to him. “Oh! dear, no,” he said; “I am willing to wait, or willing to go; but I am full of the expectation of beholding him who loved me and gave himself for me.” Ah! the bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. I can hear their trampings now as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of salvation. They come by their thousands, by their myriads, e’er since the day when Christ first entered into his glory, they come, and yet never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners, and some have come at the very last of their days, but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support, it will bear me over as it has borne them. They who have eaten Christ and drunk Christ, shall not hunger or thirst in their last hour, trying as it will be. Saints have died saying, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

God grant us grace to live upon Christ evermore. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-John 6:26-63.