The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 77

fever stayed by n word, palsy and paralysis cured, a blind eye, a deaf ear, a dumb tonaua re-ener<1it.ed, and even water converted into wine, 11,re wonders of power more cas/ to track thnn tha.t e. solitary loaf of bread find another at its side by an absolute fresh act of creation in a moment and by a word. This once seen through, the multiplication may seem to follow moro easily on the level of some other miracles. But thiR is not to be "once seen through." Notice, again, of this miracle, thnt it was neither rne of the absolute ueceesity of the heart of mercy allied with the hand of might, nor one of snch very secondary character of kindness and goodness (it is said with all perfect reverence) as when for the purposes of a marriage feast water was made wine. Christ divinely anrl humanly pitied the fainting hunger of the men who had long lingered around him, and of their women and children; but when he made the water into wine we cannot say it was similar pity. .Agavn, we are not told at what point the miraculous multi- plication of the bread took effect-under the" blessing," and at the " breaking" of the five loaves and two fishes in the hand5 of Christ, or a.a the disciples distributed, or as the people ate. Though we are not told it, this is one of the untold things that we can scarcely find difficulty in supplying; and this without charge, or any self-charge even, of presumptuousness. We need not suppose unnecessary wonders, such as that the little:original store and stock of material could be handled by those who distributed, when parted into several thousand minute portions. Even this would point to the increase as taking place in the blessing and nnder the manual acts of Christ. .Again, we are not told of any expression either of surprise or of any other kind upon this subject, as made by any of the multitude either at the time or snbsequently, or by any disciple, such as might give us a suggestion, or throw light upon it. .Again, we are not told what time it took, or what sort of difficulty, if any, the disciples encountered in their work of distributing to some hundred companies of those set down, in parties of fifty each. That the large multitude were thus arranged speaks design of itself, and we can see the disciples threading their way with their distributing baskets, by aid of the passages, and, so to say, the aisles left. There were some eight,hnndred to be ministered to by each of the twelve disciples. Nor have we any statement as to how and where . the "women and children" got tlielr portions; the suggestion of our vers. 19-21, nevertheless, would leave us in no practical doubt that they were grouped in the com- panies of the fifties and hundreds (St. Mark). With all these things untold, the miracle itself stands confessed in its simplest grandeur, in its irrefragable evidence, and for its welcome satisfyingness-some through it to acknowledge " that Prophet that should come into the world ; " some to show to-morrow that they were thankless for the moral feast, even if they had eagerly partaken of the literal one ; but some also, we cannot doubt it, and we know not how many, to remember it for days and years to come, and to speak of it far and wide with grateful heart and tongue. III. '!'HE MULTIFORM PARABLE THAT IS INCORPORATE WITH THIS }IILIACLE, 1. lt is a parable of Christ feeding the wide world. 2. It is a parable of Christ feeding that world by the human instrumentality of his servants, his disciples, his apostles, those some certain called from the mass, and called by him, :i.nd "sent forth" by him. 3. It is a parable of what effect Christ's "blessing" can have and shall have on his own appointments, his own appointed provision, his own appointed "means of grace," his own appointed methods of distribution, and his own ordering of his Church and its ministers. 4, To devout, thoughtful, reverent faith, surely it constitutes itself, it welcomely forces itself, into a parable of a sa.cra.ment--the sacrament in "one kind" for the fulness of time was not yet come-the sacrament of the food of the blessed body of the Lord himself! How many a time has the individna.1, humble, and praying believer lighted on what should seem some small morsel of Divine truth, aud of the Divine Word, and as he meditated, how it opened, how it refreshed his fainting state, how it filled his eye, and feasted his highest powers of feeling and of imagination! And how many a. time have the true mioisters of Christ, the bishops and pastors of the flock of God, begun to think and begun to speak upon what seemed a. word, a sentence, a verse, but it has increased under meditation, under prayer, under the familiar, common, sometimes despised "preaching" of Christ's last charge and commission, and under the ree.lizo.tion of the priceless" blessing" of his last promise, while multitudes have listened, been divinely fed, learned to love and to adore e.nd to live a new life, and the hnman feeder e.nd the fed all been satisfied 1-B.  80 THE GOSPEL A(ICORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [cm, xiv.1-36.