that death, is able to meet the hearts and satisfy the con- sciences of all nations, and peoples, and kindreds, and tongues. Carried by faithful messengers, it feeds and sup- plies all ranks and classes. " The preaching of tlie cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." (1 Cor. i. 18.) Five barley loaves and two small fishes seemed scanty provision for a hungry crowd. But blessed by Christ, and distributed by His disciples, they were more than sufficient.
Let us never doubt for a moment, that the preaching of Christ crucified, — the old story of His blood, and right- eousness, and substitution, — is enough for all the spiritual necessities of all mankind. It is not worn out. It is not obsolete. It has not lost its power. We want nothing new, — nothing more broad and kind, — nothing more intellectual, — nothing more efficacious. We want nothing but the true bread of life which Christ bestows, distributed faithfully among starving souls. Let men sneer or ridicule as they will, Nothing else can do good in this sinful world. No other teaching can fill hungry consciences, and give them peace. We are all in a wilderness. We must feed on Christ crucified, and the atonement made by His death, or we shall die in our sins.
Notes. John YI. 1 — 14.
1. — {After these things.'] The remark made in chapter v., 1st verse,
applies here. The expression denotes an interval of time having elapsed between the end of the fifth chapter and the beginning of the sixth. John pa?ses over all the events which happened at the conclusion of our Lord's defence of Himself at Jerusalem. In fact, if the feast spoken of at the beginning of the fifth chapter was really the passover, almost an entire year of our Lord's ministry is unnoticed by John.
The events in this chapter, we should remark, are the only events in our Lord's ministry in G-aliTee described by St, John, except- ing the miracle of turning the water into wine at Cana, and the heaUng of the ruler's son. (Chapter ii. and iv.)
[Went over the sea of Galilee.... Tiherias.] This sea so-called
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was a fresh- water lake in Galilee, througli which the Jordan runs.
According to Thomson, one of the most recent and accurate travellers in the Holy Land, it is about fourteen miles long, and nine wide, at the widest part. It lies no less than six hundred feet below the level of the sea, and is often agitated by sudden and violent storms.
Tiberias was a town on the west side of the lake, built by Herod about the time of our Lord's birth, and comparatively a modern place in our Lord's time. In the days of Josephus, forty years after our Lord's crucifixion, Tiberias had become an important city. It was spared by the Romans, when Vespasian's army destroyed almost every other city in Galilee, for its adherence to the Roman cause, and was made capital of the province.
John is the only Gospel-writer who calls the lake the " sea of Tiberias." His doing so is an incidental confirmation of the opinion that he wrote much later than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and after the taking of Jerusalem. He naturally used the name by which the lake was best known when he wrote, and most familiar to the Gentile readers whom he had especially in view.
The reason of our Lord going over the sea would appear to be His desire to withdraw Himself from public notice (Mark vi. 31), and perhaps from the persecution of Herod's party, after the death of John the Baptist. Comparing John's account with that of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it seems most hkely that he " went over the sea " from the west coast, and landed on the north-east side of the lake, not far from Bethsaida. Luke tells us distinctly that the miracle which John here records, was wrought in " a desert place, belonging to the city, called Bethsaida." (Luke ix. 10.) Add to this the fact that no less than three of our Lord's disciples were inhabitants of Bethsaida, viz., Philip, Andrew, and Peter, and our Lord's retirement to this neighbourhood seems natural and reasonable. — The notion held by many that there were two Bethsaidas, one in Galilee, where Andrew, Peter, and Philip lived, and one in Gaulanitis, where this miracle of feeding the multitude was wrought, seems both groundless and needless. Bethsaida was at the head of the lake, in GaUIee, near the point where the river Jordan entered the lake, and the district belong- ing to it extended most probably beyond the river into Gaulanitis. Thomson shows this satisfactorily.
— [A great multitude followed.. ..diseased.] There seems no reason to suppose that this multitude followed our Lord for any but low motives. They "saw His miracles:" that was all. Some few, perhaps, were in doubt and suspense, wondering whether He who wrought such miracles could possibly be the Messiah. The great majority probably " followed " from that vague, idle curiosity