and miserable, and>poor, and blind, and naked. (Kev. iii. \17.) There is but a step between us and everlasting death.
What do these loaves and fishes represent, apparently so inadequate to meet the necessities of the case, but by miracle made sufficient to feed ten thousand people ? They are an emblem of tJie doctrine of Christ crucified for sinners, as their vicarious substitute, and making atonement by His death for the sin of the world. That doctrine seems to the natural man weakness itself. Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. (lCor.i.23.) And yet Christ crucified has proved the bread of God which cometh down from heaven, anr» • - h life to the world. (John vi. 33.) The stor^ -, jSs has amply met the spiritual wants of
-xo. wherever it has been preached. Thousands of every rank, .age, and nation, are witnesses that it is " the wisdom of God, and the power of God.'' TLcy have eaten of it and been "filled." They have loiu^ it " meat indeed and drink indeed."
Let us ponder these things well. There are great depths in all our Lord Jesus Christ's recorded dealings upon earth, which no one has ever fully fathomed. There are mines of rich instruction in all His words and ways, which no one has thoroughly explored. Many a passage of the Gospels is like the cloud which Elijah's servant saw. (1 Kings xviii. 44.) The more we look at it, the greater it will appear. There is an inexhaustible ful- ness in Scripture. Other writings seem comparatively threadbare when we become familiar with them. But as to Scripture, the more we read it, the richer we shall find it.
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