thoughts to our minds. The honour put upon that humble disciple, the 'lad,' whose loaves and fishes were to furnish provision for such a multitude; the fraternity and equality, words with a deep true meaning, though of late years so fearfully abused, of these ranks, seated alike on the grass, alike helpless and fainting, alike to be honoured by a special interposition of providence in their behalf; the proof He gave that He was absolute Lord of all His creatures, both of the earth and the sea; and the humble food, considered more the food of beasts than of men, which our Lord used for His miracle-these facts are each one of them the starting-point of a long train of ideas on which I cannot dwell now."

"I remember being struck before," said Cecilia, "with seeing that after this great miracle the food produced was only barley bread. I am sure it ought to be a lesson to us to be contented with simple food."

"With rare exceptions, such as the 'Marriage of Cana,' God's miracles give His people necessaries, and nothing more; life, and enough to sustain life, are all that we are promised, and every comfort or luxury demands our special and additional thanks."

"Papa," said May, "wonderful as this miracle is, I hardly think it is a greater miracle than we see every year, when the seed corn grows up and produces an abundant harvest; so that there is enough for us all to eat for that year, and enough left to sow next year again.”

"The word 'miracle' only applies to an extraordinary manifestation of God's power on a special occasion, not to those events which happen according to the laws of nature —that is to say, which God in His mercy causes to happen always and without variation, so that we may learn to depend upon them, and to shape our lives accordingly. But you are right in what you mean; the annual harvest is an act not less wonderful, and one of far greater mercy -far greater mercy," he repeated emphatically, as he saw

May's look of wonder and incredulity; "this fed five thousand once, but the harvest has fed millions for thousands of years. But it happens annually, we reckon upon it, and we have not exhausted all our store before it arrives, so we do not fully value it. Can you tell me," continued Mr Dalton, "the spiritual meaning of this miracle?"

There was a long pause, broken at length, by May saying timidly, "Is it a type of the Lord's Supper?"

"I believe it is," he said; "both of the Lord's Supper itself and of that spiritual feeding by faith on the sacrifice of Christ, without which the sacrament will avail us nothing. I think our Lord's own words plainly point to this spiritual meaning; when the wayward, fickle Jews reproached Him with inferiority to Moses, because Moses had given them heavenly food, while He only multiplied earthly bread, He first reminds them that the manna was not the gift of Moses, and then tells them that, though they might deem the loaves He had multiplied inferior to the manna, the Father had given them in Him a far greater blessing—the bread of God which should give life to the world. We can hardly wonder that these mystical words, impossible for them to understand, should drive away all but the few who felt that, while they were sure that He was the Christ, it was better to be with Him in any perplexities than to leave Him."

"I suppose the first meaning of that command, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost,' is to teach us not to waste."

"Yes; if He who could create any quantity of food would allow no fragment to be wasted, we who are fed by His bounty, should not be less careful of His gifts. This collecting of the fragments shows us besides, that more food was left at the end than at the beginning."

"But there is also a spiritual meaning belonging to it," said Mrs Dalton.

66

Yes; I wonder how many sermons I have heard

preached on that text, on the last Sunday after Trinity; one of the best I know is one of Vaughan's four sermons. I cannot tell you now all that he says, but the simple meaning of the words is, I think, sufficiently obvious."

"To make the most of all spiritual blessings," said May.

“To profit to the utmost by all means of grace, whether they be opportunities of devotion, as in public or private prayer, or occasions of serving God in our words or deeds, not neglecting or slighting them, because they are so numerous, nor despising them, because they are small and insignificant, but remembering that, however many great occasions we may have, the smallest are to be grasped as those small fragments of bread were saved."

"I was looking at the two mentions of Bethsaida in St Mark and St Luke," said Cecilia, " and I do not understand them. St Luke says, that He took His disciples to Bethsaida before the miracle of the loaves, and St Mark says, that when it was over He sent them away to Bethsaida, on the other side of the lake."

"There were two Bethsaidas, one a city called Julius Bethsaida, built by Philip the Tetrarch, on the north-eastern end of the lake, just where the Jordan runs into it; and near this the miracle took place. The other Bethsaida was a smaller place on the western shores, not far from Chorazin and Capernaum. Jesus, as you know, sailed across the sea with His disciples, the multitude went on foot, round the head of the lake, crossed the Jordan, and reached the district of Julius Bethsaida, before the boat arrived there."

66

Is there any bridge across the Jordan there?" asked Cecilia.

"There is none now, and I do not read of any remains ; but Robinson speaks of the river as a shallow, sluggish stream at this place, and says that his party forded it. We may be sure that every means of communication would be kept up at a time when the whole place was teeming

with population, as in our Saviour's day. I should be inclined to suppose that there was a ford kept in such order that the inhabitants would easily pass over it, and probably a ferry-boat."

"Is there not something curious about the word used for basket here," said Mrs Dalton; "I forget what it is.” "The word here used is Kophinos, and it is always used in speaking of this miracle; another word is used in the miracle of the four thousand, and the two are never confused. Kophinos is the word used by the Septuagint in Judges vi. 19, as the basket in which the flesh which Gideon offered to the angel was put. Juvenal uses the corresponding Latin word, speaking of the poor Jew, who went about with his basket."

REFERENCES.

Trench; Ellicot; Chrysostom; Matthew Henry; Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences; Dictionary of the Bible, arts. "Basket" and "Bethsaida; " Robinson, "Bethsaida," Sect. xv., June 28th.

"I cannot find the miracle of the four thousand in St Luke," said Ellen.

66

No; it is not recorded by him.

There is a great gap

here in St Luke's history; the next event, as you see, that he relates, is the transfiguration, and, immediately preceding it, the confession of Jesus' divinity by the apostles, likewise related by the other two Evangelists. The miracle of the five thousand is in the middle of Matt. xiv., near the end of Mark vi.; the transfiguration comes in the beginning of Matt. xvii. and the beginning of Mark ix."

66

Up to this time, as you know, St Mark and St Luke have, with very trifling exceptions, followed the same order of events, while St Matthew has arranged those he records quite differently, so that it is impossible at times to reconcile his arrangement with the other two. From this time St Matthew and St Mark agree exactly in order of time, and St Luke occasionally joins them, but after the transfiguration his narrative is much fuller than either of the

other two, and from chapters ix. to xviii. is occupied with events and discourses which they either do not relate at all, or record in such a different connection, that it is difficult to suppose they are identical.”

"Turn to Matt. xiv. and Mark vi., and tell me the events that occur between the feeding of the five thousand and the transfiguration."

"There is the walking on the sea."

"Yes; as the disciples returned to the western side of the lake."

"Then we have the account of the Syrophenician, and the healing of great multitudes, and of the deaf man to whom He said Ephphatha, and after that the feeding of the four thousand, and subsequently the cure of the blind man, who saw men as trees walking.'

6

"This is, I believe, the only instance of gradual restoration to sight or hearing, it was effected by our Lord's putting His hands on him."

ST LUKE IX. 18-27; ST MATTHEW XVI. 13-28;
ST MARK VIII. 27-38.

"After the feeding of the five thousand, St Luke gives us Christ's question to His disciples, and the remarkable answer which proved them to be, in spite of infirmity, errors, and slowness of apprehension, fit to be entrusted with the great work of preaching His gospel. Peter, speaking for them all, distinctly declared that they believed Him to be not only the Christ, but the Son of the living God."

"Why did Jesus forbid them to tell any man that He was the Christ?"

'The popular idea of the Messiah was such a false one, that it would only have made the people more anxious to force upon Him that glory and honour which He would not yet assume, and would have given him more trouble in