for something to convince them, and fancying that if they were convinced, they would be different men in reliorion. The plain truth is, that it is want of heart, not want of evidence, that keeps people back from Christ. The Jews had signs, and evidences, and proofs of Christ's Messiahship in abundance, but they would not see them. Just so, many a professed unbeliever of our day has plenty of evidence around him, but he will neither look at it nor examine it. So true it is that " none are so blind as those that will not see."
Quesnel remarks, " The atheist is still seeking after proofs of a Deity, though he walks every day amidst apparent miracles."
We should observe that the Jews were willing enough to honour Christ as " a prophet." It was the doctrine of faith in Him that they could not receive. Christ the "teacher," is always more popular than Christ the " sacrifice and substitute."
31. — [Our fathers... .manna....iuriUen.... to eat] The intention of the Jews in saying what they do in this verse is plain. They evi- dently implied a disparaging comparison between our Lord and Moses, and our Lord's miracle of feeding the multitude, and the feeding of Israel with manna. It is as though they said, "Although Thou didst work a miracle yesterday. Thou hast done nothing greater than the thing that happened in the days when our fathers were fed with manna in the wilderness. The sign Thou hast given is not so great a sign as that which Moses gave our fathers when he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Why then should we be called on to beheve Thee ? What proof have we that Thou art a prophet greater than Moses ?"
The word " manna " would have been more correctly rendered " the manna," i. e., " the well-known and famous manna."
Let us note in this verse how prone men are to refer back at once to things done in the days of their " fathers," when saving religion is pressed home on their consciences. The woman of Samaria began talking about "our father Jacob." — "Art thou greater than our father Jacob ?" (John iv. 12.) The Pharisees "built the sepulchres of the prophets." (Luke xi. 47.) Dead teachers have always more authority than hving ones.
Let U9 mark that the miraculous feeding of Israel in the wil- derness with manna is spoken of by the Jews as a notorious historical fact. Our Lord moreover in the following verse en- tirely assumes the truth of the miracle. The modern attempts to deny or explain away the miraculous facts recorded in tl^ Old Testament, are here, as well as elsewhere, entirely irreconcile- able with the manner in which they are always spoken of in the New Testament. He that denies old Testament miracles, is a&saulting the knowledge and veracity of Christ and the Apos-