Mary Artemisia Lathbury was evidently pretty inspired by the
scenery she chose for her surroundings in 1877. It was a method she’d already
used, or was about to again, when she composed words for a purpose that was not
just musical. We can be pretty sure she was reading some from holy scripture,
as her words and the direction she was given for her composition point us there
when she wrote “Break Thou the Bread of Life”. What would you read, and where would
you go if you were trying to do what she did?
Lake Chautauqua in New York state was a place and an
atmosphere that Lathbury and others used many times to teach biblical
principles. When Lathbury penned her words about ‘bread’ and ‘life’, the camp
had been around for only three years since its inception in 1874. Perhaps Lathbury’s contribution to the Chautauqua
experience in 1877 was of no small significance, as other Chautauqua-like camps
would arise, including several hundred across the United States by the 1920’s. Although
an important part of anyone’s time at a Chautauqua camp was the music, the camp’s
organizers wanted something additional in 1877. The camp’s director and the
musical director (William Sherwin), who would write the music for Lathbury’s
poem, must have had her in mind as they thought about how to motivate the camp’s
visitors to seek God in His written word. From what she wrote and how it’s been
used commonly up until today, one might gather that Lathbury was trying to
teach us something about communion in “Break Thou the Bread of Life”. But, its message was broader, perhaps drawn from
the teaching that Jesus gave beside another lake (the Sea of Galilee in the
middle of John 6). It was just two
verses that she wrote to communicate her thoughts. She must have thought that
was sufficient to tell people ‘Open your bible and learn from it’. By 1913,
another composer, Alexander Groves wrote two more verses, perhaps as he also
reflected on John 6.
Is it not ironic that we use “Break Thou the Bread of Life”
most commonly at communion—a feast, albeit a spiritual one—two millennia after Jesus
reminded his hearers of what real food was in the wake of another feast in John
6? He’d just fed thousands of hungry stomachs, including those of the 12
Apostles, the previous day, so maybe those followers couldn’t be blamed for
expecting more. Jesus admonishes them in not so many words ‘Quit thinking with
your salivary glands!’ Would He say that to me, as I vocalize “Break Thou the
Bread…” during communion? Or, would his words ring in our ears during that next
fellowship--meaning, potluck meal!--that we value as one of the pillars of
church life? Break thou the bread…am I doin’ that just at communion? Or, just
in a church bible study? Maybe only in a pew? What if I physically ate only as often
as I crack open His book? Don’t starve…go get yourself some real food!
Information on the song was obtained from the books “Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily
Devotions”, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990; and “The Complete Book of Hymns –
Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe
Petersen, 2006. Also see this site for
information about the Chautauqua movement that Lathbury helped start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua
See this site for two other
more obscure verses that Alexander Groves wrote later (in 1913) for this song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/b/t/t/bttblife.htm
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