Scripture Verse

My Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven. John 6:32

Introduction

portrait
Edward J. Hopkins (1818–1901)

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, se­cond ser­ies (Lon­don: James Nis­bet, 1861), pag­es 55–56.

Music: Ell­ers Ed­ward J. Hop­kins, in the Sup­ple­ment­al Tune-Book, by Ro­bert Brown-Borth­wick, 1869 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Lyrics

True bread of life, in pitying mercy giv’n,
Long famished souls to strengthen and to feed;
Christ Je­sus, Son of God, true bread of Heav’n,
Thy flesh is meat, Thy blood is drink indeed.

I cannot famish, though this earth should fail,
Tho’ life through all its fields should pine and die;
Though the sweet verdure should forsake each vale,
And every stream of every land run dry.

True tree of life! Of Thee I eat and live,
Who eateth of Thy fruit shall ne­ver die;
’Tis Thine the ev­er­last­ing health to give,
The youth and bloom of immortality.

Feeding on Thee, all weakness turns to power,
This sickly soul revives, like earth in spring;
Strength floweth on, and in each buoyant hour,
This being seems all energy, all wing.

Jesus, our dying, buried, ris­en head,
Thy Church’s life and Lord, Immanuel!
At Thy dear cross we find th’eter­nal bread,
And in Thy empty tomb the living well.