Print this pageA DINNER THAT IS BEST
Elder David P. Bridgman (deceased) From "Good Will" Mar. 1956
"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." Prov. 15:17.
God inspired the wisest man that ever lived to pen down the above words for our learning, that we might benefit there from, and should it be the will of God for me to write a few words upon this great subject that will glorify His great name, I trust the reader may understand just how little and unworthy I feel to even attempt to write on any subject, to say nothing of such an important one.
Let us consider this lesson in a natural sense for a moment. When a little family gathers around the table in an humble home, and the Mother only has a dinner of herbs from the garden, or the most simple vegetables, if every member of the family has a heart filled with love for every other member and there is no fussing among the children, there is a great joy in the sweet home. If there is a home next door that serves stalled ox, the very choicest of meats, together with other good foods, and should there be hatred in the hearts of the members, with each one desiring to push his brother aside and partake for himself, this would not be nearly so good a home as the one where love abounded, even though they only had herbs for dinner. We can all see that this is true in nature, but, my dear kindred in Christ, the real lesson Solomon had under consideration here was a spiritual one, and as Christ used natural things to illustrate spiritual things so does His inspired writers in Holy Writ.
Christ set up His kingdom while here in the world, and in that kingdom He placed a table at which His children may eat of the spiritual food and drink of spiritual drink, that their souls may be fat therewith. And while Christ gives us everything of His Spirit that we will ever possess, He never gives us anything of the spirit of the flesh that we may possess. Now when we meet in the kingdom of God to have a dinner, we meet in love if we have put a way all the evil spirits mentioned by Paul in the 5th chapter of Galatians, verses 19-21, in which hatred is named.
When we think of it from one angle, it hardly seems possible that God's children should ever be possessed with hatred, but it is true that all down through the ages of time they have possessed this spirit from time to time, and have sometimes allowed it to bear fruit. And when they meet with hatred in their hearts for one another, it does not matter how ably the preacher may preach, or how well they may sing, it is not a sweet place to be. The preacher may preach ever so loud, he may clap his hands and shout with all his might, he may dig into the hidden things of the Scripture, yet if his heart is not filled with the love of God the dinner is not nearly as good as at some other place where they meet in the most simple way, and where the preacher gets up and in a plain and simple way says a few words from the Great Book with his heart overflowing with love. How much better the dinner here is than in the church house filled with fine looking folks, but where love is not manifest. The house may be modern and the preacher may be among the best, but the dinner here is not nearly so sweet as at the place where the congregation is so simple, and the preacher is far from being called a big preacher. What a difference between the place where love is and the place where it is not! I had always rather have the dinner of herbs, with them all seasoned with love, than to have the stalled ox and it be seasoned with bitter herbs. Let us all examine our dinners to see if they are seasoned with love and not with hatred. We do this by examining ourselves, and if our own hearts are filled with love, I feel that we will enjoy the dinner much better.