Bread Which Sustains

Topic: Character

Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as
minister of the Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of
Palestine and other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was
invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut,
Lebanon, where the student body comprised citizens of many countries and
representatives from sixteen different religions. What could one say
that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group?
This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change his
religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is
your religion doing to your character?"

This was a call to consider one of the great issues of human belief:
religion and life, Christianity and character, word and spirit. Emerson
once said, "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say."
Jesus' discourse in this whole sixth chapter of the Gospel of John had
two foci - spirit and life. "The words that I have spoken to you are
spirit and life." By this he meant that those who appropriated his
spirit, i.e., fed upon him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a
fulfillment and satisfaction no other means could give.

Donald Macleod, Know The Way, Keep The Truth, Win The Life, C.S.S.
Publishing Company, 1987.