I hunger and I thirst

I hunger and I thirst. John Samuel Bewley Monsell* (1811-1875). This is from Monsell’s Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church’s Year (Second Edition, 1866), and then included in The Parish Hymnal after the Order of The Book of Common Prayer (1873). It is designated for Septuagesima. It is a deceptively simple hymn, with a fine use of biblical typology in stanza 1 (from 1 Corinthians 10: 4, depending on Exodus 17: 1-6; and from Exodus 16: 12-18): I hunger and I thirst, Jesus, my manna be;Ye living waters burst Out of the rock for me. The other stanzas use the imagery of Christ as the true vine (John 15: 1), as the bread of life (John 6: 31-48) and as living water (John 4: 10-14). It was...