The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 286

rank e.nd :file, as it were, which he here directs. Whether we are in the Church or i11 the world-that is, whether we are engaged in f,he arrangements of the one or in the affairs of the other-we shall do well to observe this law of order. "A place for everv- thing," says the old maxim," and everything in its proper place; a time for everythin"cr, and everything at its right time." Such orderly regulation of all our matters would sa;'e time; it would save trouble; it would facilitate work; it would further largely th<, success of our pursuits and plans. Here all saw the miracle, all were fed, all were satis- fied; no one was neglected, no one passed over or passed by. 5. His devotwn. Never did our Lord lose sight of the glory of God. This was the object ever prominently kept in view. Before he brake he looked up to heaven and blessed, and brake at once (1<a-r,- «Aao-E, aorist) the loaves, and was giving (i6/1io11, imperfect) bit by bit, as it were, to the disciples for distribution by them among the multitude. As Creator, he multiplied the loaves; as creature, he looked up for Heaven's blessing on them. From every gift we are to look up to the Giver; in every gift we are to recognize the Author; for every gift we are to record our grateful acknowledgments; in every bounty we are to own the grace and goodness and greatness of the heavenly Benefactor. To see God in all his works, to trace him in all his ways, to obey him in all his will, to adore him in all the outgoings of his loving-kindness towards us, and to see him in every blessing he bestows, is the lesson taught us by the example of Christ in this passage, and by the exhortation of his apostle in that other passage, " Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 6. The duty of frugality. Mighty and magnificent as the works of nature are, there is no needless expenditure of force. Many of the great agencies employed serve a variety of ends. Many re~ults often proceed from one single cause. So in the domain of miracle. He never resorts to miracle when ordinary means will suffice. Amid all that vast abundance which our Lord created on this occasion, he suffers nothing to go to loss. Here we see the same attention to the great things and the little things. He allows nothing to go to waste. " Gather up the fragments," he said. Surely this teaches us economy, surely this enjoins thrift, surely this enforces the old proverb," Waste not, want not." Surely this is condemnatory of all extrava- gance in every department, whether of food, or raiment, or place of abode, or manner of life, or course of conduct. IIL DAILY BBEAD AND ITB PROVISION. 1. The wonderful is nol necessarily miraculous. Some hold that the daily bread which God gives us, which we eat, and by which we are sustained, is a miracle as great, or greater, because a standing miracle, than the feeding of :five thousand with :five loaves and two fishes, or the feeding of four thousand with seven loaves and a few small fishes. They refer to the fact that the seed covered in the earth dies and lives again, growing up under the re.ins of the spring and the suns of the summer, and in due season ripening into the golden grain of the harvest, then made into bread, and becoming wholesome food ; and allege that in all this we have a. miracle great as the multiplying by our Lord,of the loaves and the :fishes; that omnipo- tence is as much required in the one case as in the other; but that what is rare we call miraculous, while what is common and usual we call a law or process of nature; though both alike are manifestations of the mighty power of God. This reasoning appears plausible, and has an element of truth in it, but it mistakes the real nature of miracle. It is, in fact, pretty much the view of Augustine, who, besides confounding the wonderful with the miraculous, regards miracle as simply an acceleration of a natural process; for he se.ys of the miracle at Cana that " he made wine in a wedding feast, who makes it eveiy year in the vines ; but the former we do not wonder at, because it occurs every year: by its constant recurrence it has lost, or ceased to command, admiration." The chief element of miracle is hereby overlooked. We admit that nature is an effect whose cause is God, and that omnipotence is at work in the processes of nature as well as in the really miraculous result; yet not in the same way. That which differen- tiates the one from the other is, tbe.t God in the one case produces the result by immediate efficiency, in the other by means of secondary or subordinate causes; in the one by a direct act of volitioc_ in the other by the processes of nature. To attribute a. miracle to the operation of a higher but unknown law is a gratuitous e.ssuruption, and is as unnecessary as it is unsatisfactory. To regard it as the result of an accelerated law of nature, is overlooking the flict that the really miraculous element in such a case is this very quickening into rapid result, or hastening in a forcible and extraordinary 284 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. M,lllK. [cH. v1. 1-66.