JESUS' EXAMPLE FOR SUCH WORK 143 



hope in his heart. Blessed is he who does the common 

 task unto God. 



III. In the prayer Jesus taught His disciples there is 

 one petition that for a long time I regarded as a lower- 

 ing of the standard. On each side of it, petitions of 

 highest ethical and spiritual aspiration, what an appar- 

 ent ''come down" in tone, ''Give us this day our daily 

 bread.*' How material and mundane it seems at first. 

 Yet let us try to leave it out and ignore what it stands 

 for, and see how much we lose. Jesus was familiar with 

 farming operations. He so often in his conversation 

 drew upon His agricultural knowledge for illustration. 

 So here again He talks as one having authority. ' ' Give 

 us," not me, alone, but us; the great, wide family of 

 mankind, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, people of 

 every color and tongue under heaven and all men every- 

 where are included in my petition. I must think of 

 them when I pray. I cannot be indifferent to the famine- 

 cursed anywhere on earth. If I hear of hunger and need, 

 if I really pray this prayer I will do all in my power to 

 answer it, and help the hungry everywhere. "Our 

 daily bread." We depend daily upon God for life. We 

 recognize God as the Giver of all good ; but we are part- 

 ners with Him. He gave the soil, the life in the seed, 

 the temperature, the rain, the sunshine, the increase: 

 man prepared the ground, plowed, and harrowed it, 

 sowed the seed, watched and protected it while growing, 

 reaped and stored the harvest against the day men 

 needed it. If God had failed in any part of His share, 

 no harvest. Just as true, if man fails in any part of 

 his, no harvest. We are therefore co-workers together 

 with God. Man is likest to God when he is doing things 



