The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 287

manner the ordinary process. It has been said, somewhat rhetorically, "We breathe miracles, we live by miracles, we are upheld every day miraculously, and that individual has a blind mind or a hard heart (or both) who does not see, or seeing does not recognize, the hand of our heavenly Father in all those gifts of his providence and bestowments of his bounty, by which we are sustained and surrounded." Now, to convert the rhetorical into the real, we must substitute for "miracles," each time the word occurs in the cited paragraph," marvels" or "wonders," that is, processes that are wonderful-indeed, quite marvellous, but in no strict sense miraculous; and then, with this alteration, the devoutness of the sentiments expressed commends itself to our admiration. 2. Dail,y bread, though not a mirade, is God's gift. It may be objected, that our daily bread is not so much God's gift as the fruit of man's labour. Who then, 0 man, we may well ask, has given you the hand to labour, the strength to use it, the health to employ it? Who, moreover, has given you the fruitful field to till, the former and the latter rain to refresh and ripen the growing grain? Or, going further back, who has imparted to the seed, sown or planted, the power of growth or development? Still further, who counteracts the hurtful effects of too much drought, or neutralizes the baneful conse- quences of excessive moisture, or tempers the scorching heat, or checks th~ pinching cold? Who protects the root from the worm that would injure it, or saves the ear from the blight that would taint it? Who prevents the mildew that would damage the maturing grain, or the disease that would quite destroy it? Or who rebukes the curse of barrenness that would render all efforts useless? Who watches over the various stages of the crop-first the blade, then the ear, afterwards the ripe corn in the ear, till, having weathered all the storms that endangered it, and escaped all the perils to which it was exposed, the golden grain is safely gathered at length into the garner? Who has thus blessed the labour of your hands, establishing your handiworks each one? Who but God? Who, then, is the Giver of your daily bread ? Who but God ? 'l'hus Moses said to Israel: u When thou hast eaten and a.rt full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God. ... Beware ... lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein ; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou bast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, ... and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." Who bas not admired and fallen m with the sentiments of the beautiful hymn 'i'- 0 God of Bethel, by whose hand Thy people still are fed; Who through this weary pilgrimage Hast all om fathers led ; "Our vows, Olll' prayers, we now present Before thy throne of grace; God of our fathers, be the God Of their succeeding race." IV. SPIRITUAL FOOD: ITS NATURE AND NECESSITY, 1. The necessity of spiritual food. From this miracle of feeding the multitude with bodily food, our Lord, as was his wont, took occasion, as we leam from the parallel passage of St. John, to call attention to spiritual food. From the bread wherewith he had fed their bodies, be passed naturally to that which is equally necessary and equally indispensable to support and sustain the souL He showed them that, as bread is the staff of life for the body, there is something equally essential to the life of the soul. It matters not by what name we call it- whether manna, or bread, or flesh-the thing remains the same. 2. The nature 9/ this spiritual,/<>'!'1,_. He proposes ~imself to them for _t~e purpose.specified, te!,ling them plainly and positively that he himself was that spmtual nutriment. "I, he says, "am the Bread of life." Nor does he stop with this; be proceeds to explain in some sort, or at least to extend, the sentiment to which he had given utterance, by the addi- tional statement, "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.n By this, as it appears to us, he hinted at his coming in the flesh and shedding his blood upon the cross; for how else could his blood be ~arated from his flesh but by being shed.? oJI. VI. 1-6G.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 285