“IN THE BREAKING OF BREAD.”
By Fannie Bolton
On their journey to Emmaus, weary at heart,
The disciples were walking from others apart,
And talking together of sorrow and loss,
Of their hope, that had perished at Calvary’s cross,
When softly a Stranger drew near them and said,
“What is it ye talk as ye walk and are sad?” And they said, “Art thou only a stranger? alas!
And knowest not the things that have late come to pass,—
Of Jesus of Nazareth, mighty in word
And in deed before God and the people, our Lord
Whom we trusted should Israel redeem; but in pride
The chief priests and rulers have him crucified;
And to-day is the third day since these things were done? And certain who loved him uprose ere the sun
And went to his sepulcher, yet when they sought,
They saw two bright angels, but him they found not,
And the angels declared, so the two women said,
That our Lord was not there, but alive from the dead.” And gently the Stranger walked on, as they trod,
And expounded in wisdom the word of their God,
And showed them how Christ should have suffered and died,
And have risen again, to be heaven glorified. And their hearts burned within them with quivering hope,
As they caught a new glimpse of truth’s infinite scope.
And they heard the low voice of the Stranger who taught,
And they knew Christ was Christ, but him they knew not. And they came unto Emmaus, where they abode,
And the stranger went on in the hard, dusty road,
But the brethren constrained him to tarry content,
For the eventide hastened, the day was far spent,
And he entered and sat at the table to eat,
When, lo! he took bread, and he blessed it, and sweet
Came the voice of their Lord, and a flash of new light
Illuminated his person and made his face bright,
And the scales left their eyes, and they knew the Unknown,
And he vanished, and, lo! they were wondering alone. “In the breaking of bread” he was known, and, behold,
It is even to-day as it was once of old!
As we walk and are sad, and all hope seems to die,
Our hearts burn within us, as Jesus draws nigh,
And we hear, as did they in the first of the way,
The voice of a Stranger, but at close of the day,
When we pray for his presence, “Abide thou with me,”
And open our hearts for his entrance, we see
That the Stranger is Jesus, our Friend. Doubts are fled;
He is known unto us in the breaking of bread. And our souls have their feast of his love. They of old
Went back to Jerusalem gladly, and told
Of their meeting with Jesus. Joyous they said,
“He was known unto us in the breaking of bread.”
And hope touched the doubting, and Christ near them drew,
Saying softly and tenderly, “Peace be to you.”
And again he was known, that the gladdened might go
To announce his own coming to the soul weighed with woe. And to-day it is even as then, for we’ve sped,
When he was made known in the breaking of bread,
And sought the King’s household, and gladly have told,
“The Lord has arisen, behold him! behold!
The Lord has arisen; he’s not with the dead;
He was known unto us in the breaking of bread.” And suddenly ’tis as it was in the day
When the multitudes sat in the wilderness way,
And Christ took the bread, and gave unto his own,
And they break it again, and again he was known,
Till thousands were filled, aye, the hungry were fed,
And Jesus was known in the breaking of bread. Oh, the same Jesus lives, and he gives to his own
The bread of his love, that his love may be known.
Then break ye the bread of the Lord high and low,
Till the hungry, the weary, the sinning may know
That Jesus still lives, and still loves, till ’tis said,
“He is known unto us in the breaking of bread.”