[Many valuable lessons does it suggest to us. We may here learn contentment : for, when our blessed Lord would feast this whole multitude, he did it not by spreading before them a luxurious entertainment, but by giving them only such provisions as were suited to a laborious fisherman, some barley bread and some cold dried fish. Shall it then be a matter of any concern to us, if we are constrained to subsist on coarser fare, whilst people in higher life are fed with dainties ? I am persuaded that this meal was to their taste far sweeter, yes, and in their eyes, more splendid too, than the feast of King Ahasuerus to the heads of his one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. In fact, it is a small matter whether our tables be strewed with delicacies, or we have merely the food that is con- venient and necessary for us. " Having food and raiment, though of the coarsest kind, we may well therewith be content;" and may say, as Paul, when his necessities were thus supplied, " I have all, and abounda.'!
And surely we may well learn from hence liberality also : for when our Lord proposed to his Disciples to give to the distressed multitude all the food which they had, the answer made, was not, ' Lord, what then shall we have left for our- selves?' but simply, ' Lord, for so great a multitude our little store will be of no use whatever :' and when our Lord gave the order to distribute it all, the order was obeyed without the smallest hesitation or delay. This kind of liberality would be but little approved by the Christian world in general. But it is highly approved in the Holy Scriptures; and the poor widow, who gave her whole substance for the use of the temple, was commended for it. In truth, there is no luxury under heaven that can be purchased with money, that is equal to the luxury of doing good. If only we give as unto the Lord, we shall never repent of having given too much : for " what we so give to the poor, we lend unto the Lord ;" and at no distant period " he will repay us again."
Methinks, too, we may here learn affiance also. Our Lord suffered these his followers to come into great straits, and then supplied their wants. And us also he may permit to be encompassed with difficulties for a season : but he will only make them an occasion of manifesting his own watchful care over us, and of magnifying his mercy towards us. True, we are not to expect miracles to be wrought in our behalf: but he has ten thousand ways of providing for his people ; and he will do it in the time and manner that he shall see to be best for us : for he has said, " Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all needful things shall be added unto youb." Let him give us ever so much, we are to suffer no
a Phil. iv. 18. b Matt. vi. 33.