Scripture Verse

Give us day by day our daily bread. Luke 11:3

Introduction

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John B. Calkin (1827–1905)

Words: Jo­si­ah Con­der, 1836.

Music: Mu­nus John B. Cal­kin, 1872 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Cal­kin (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

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Josiah Conder (1789–1855)

Anecdote

The pu­pils of Rab­bi Ben Jo­chai once asked him with re­gard to the man­na sent to the Is­rael­ite host in the wil­der­ness: Why did not the Lord fur­nish enough man­na to Is­ra­el for a year all at one time?

I will an­swer you with a pa­ra­ble, res­pond­ed the teach­er. Once there was a king who had a son to whom he gave a year­ly al­low­ance, pay­ing him the en­tire sum on a fixed day. It soon hap­pened that the day on which the al­low­ance was giv­en was the on­ly day in the year when the fa­ther ev­er saw his son.

So the king changed his plan and gave his son day by day that which suf­ficed for the day. And now the son vis­it­ed his fa­ther ev­ery morn­ing. Thus God dealt with Is­ra­el.

Quoted in Nutter, p. 230

Lyrics

Day by day the man­na fell;
O to learn this les­son well!
Still by con­stant mer­cy fed,
Give me Lord, my dai­ly bread.

Day by day, the pro­mise reads,
Daily strength for dai­ly needs;
Cast fore­bod­ing fears away;
Take the man­na of to­day.

Lord! my times are in Thy hand;
All my san­guine hopes have planned,
To Thy wis­dom I re­sign,
And would make Thy pur­pose mine.

Thou my dai­ly task shalt give;
Day by day to Thee I live;
So shall add­ed years ful­fill,
Not my own, my Fa­ther’s will.

Fond am­bi­tion, whis­per not;
Happy is my hum­ble lot.
Anxious, bu­sy cares away;
I’m pro­vid­ed for to­day.

Oh, to live ex­empt from care
By the en­er­gy of pray­er:
Strong in faith, with mind sub­dued,
Yet elate with gra­ti­tude!