July 16

And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.—Matthew 14:21.

HAVING previously noticed the leading particulars in this miracle, let us now attempt its profitable application. In the multitude collected in the desert, we have a striking representation of the moral condition of the human family. The whole of Adam's posterity are in a desert world, starving for the bread of life, and there is no human expedient, by which their immortal wants can be supplied. In the provision miraculously provided by Jesus, we have a beautiful exhibition of the abundance prepared for this world, in the blessed gospel. Yes, in the gospel, an abundance of the spiritual bread of life is provided. And like that bread, multiplied and bestowed upon the thousands in the desert, it is freely and gratuitously delivered through the medium of the ministers of Christ, to a dying world. In the fragments remaining, we see the all-sufficient amount of spiritual blessings, treasured up in the Saviour. Giving, cannot empoverish an infinite store; withholding, cannot enrich him, whose resources are boundless and eternal. Myriads have eaten and been filled, and myriads more may come and welcome, seeing that there

"Is enough for all, enough for each, And enough for evermore."

But there must be personal participation. We must receive the bread of life, and feed upon it by faith. To hear the gospel, and thus to be near to the Saviour, is not enough, we must possess it for ourselves. We must live by faith on the Son of God, and feel that he hath loved us, and given himself for us.

"This precious food my heart revives, What strength, what nourishment it gives; O let me evermore be fed, With this divine celestial bread."

Having felt the preciousness of the Saviour's grace ourselves, let us invite our famishing neighbours to come to Jesus, that they also may have life, and have it more abundantly.