from no other motive than idle curiousity, and had no claim whatever to be regarded as His disciples. Yet when He saw them hungry and destitute, He pitied them : " I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat."
The feeling heart of our Lord Jesus Christ appears in these words. He has compassion even on those who are not His people — the faithless, the graceless, the followers of this world. He feels tenderly for them, though they know it not. He died for them, though they care little for what He did on the cross. He would receive them graciously, and pardon them freely, if they would only repent and believe on Him. Let us ever beware of measuring the love of Christ by any human measure. He has a special love, beyond doubt, for His own believ- ing people. But He has also a general love of compas- sion, even for the unthankful and the evil. His love " passeth knowledge." (Ephes. iii. 19.)
Let us strive to make Jesus our pattern in this, as well as in everything else. Let us be kind, and compassion- ate, and pitiful, and courteous to all men. Let us be ready to do good to all men, and not only to friends and the household of faith. Let us carry into practice our Lord's injunction, " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." (Matt. v. 44.) This is to show the mind of Christ. This is the right way to heap coals of fire on an enemy's head, and to melt foes into friends. (Kom. xii. 20.)
Let us observe, in the second place, from this passage, that with Christ nothing is impossible. The disciples said,