tljat our Lord and His disciples reached the shore in ' the land of Genesaret," is quite reconcileable with St. John's account. The " land of Genesaret" was a plain, on the north-west coast of the Lake of Galilee, extending from Magdala at the south, to Capernaum at the north.
In leaving this passage, I call the reader's attention to tho very marked and peculiar position which the two miracles recorded by St. John in this chapter occupy. They immediately precede that wonderful discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum, in which our Lord proclaims Himself to be " the living bread which came down from heaven and giveth life to the world," and declares that " except we eat His flesh and drink His blood we have no life in us." — I believe that the two miracles were intended to prepare the minds of the disciples to receive the mighty truths which the discourse contained. Did they stumble at the announcement that He was the ''bread of God," and " gave life to the world " ? It would surely help their weak faith to remember that the very day before they liad seen Him sud- denly supply the wants of a mighty multitude with five loaves and two fishes. — Did they stumble at the doctrine, that " His flesh was meat indeed and his blood drink indeed " ? It would surely assist their feeble spiritual apprehension to remember that the very night before they had seen that body walking on the face of the sea. They had had ocular proof that there was a deep mystery about our Lord's human nature, and that although He was real and true man, there was at the same time some- thing about Him far above man. These things I believe are worth noticing. The connection between our Lord's miracles and His teaching is often far closer than at first sight appears.