f'C\n8ists 0f fivr, l0aves 1md two fishes: shnll we go &nd buy meat for all the people?" Oh, it is the unbelief, the slow-he:ute<lness of man, which thus speaks out. "Can God furnish a tnhle in the wilderness?" Does not faith need to be reminded that the little br0ui".l'.t_ki C_hrist is multiplied a ~,undredfold? "Not by might, nor by power, but by m:, Spmt, sRith the Lord of hosts. 2. Notice the order or method of the work. Christ is al ""ays orderly. He sent th~ twelve, and the seventy, two by two, giving them their r11l:s <;_I procedure. Her~, ngam (ver. 14), "Make the men sit down in companies of fifues. . Dr. Farrar reminds_ us of the expression of Mark, "reclined in parterres, like a multitude of flower-beds m some well-cultivated garden." Organization is thus implied. And yet the life, the strength, is not in the organization. It is" the blessing or the Lord that maketh rich" (ver. 16). The outstretched arm, the food helq up to heaven, the look, the blessing, the breaking, the giving to the Church, and, through the Church, to the world,-every part of the action is sacramental, every part ia expressive of some aspect of the truth as to the dispensation of the Bread of life. And then note, in ver. 17, the care as to the fragments-the teaching of thrift even in the midst of abundance. 'l'he transaction, from beginning to end, is inlaid with sug- gestions which admit of endless applications to the changillg circumstances and the varying conditions of the world and the Chureh. III. Finally (in vers. 18-22) we have THE RECORD OP A PRIVATE INSTRUOTION- one g-iven "as he was alone, praying, his disciples with him "-To THOSE weou THE Lonn HAD CALLED INTO HIS mNISTRY. It is the instruction which gives the third of our lessons-that a.s to the confession of Christ which is demanded of the disciple. Observe: 1. There is the confession (vers. 18-21) which is a. secret between the soul a.nd the Lord himself-that which is apart from a.11 that men say, which is the expres- sion of the personal loyalty a.nd devotion. "Whom sa.y the people that I a.m ? " "Whom say ye that I am?" Pa.rent, teacher, worker, pastor, is thy Jabour, is thy life, built on Peter's noble testimony," The Christ of God"? 2. There is the living oul qf that inward life-the bold and fearless testimony for that preference a.s dominating all the action (vers. 22, 23). The Master Jays a cross on the back of his disciple, a.nd bids him carry that cross daily, in token of his being grafted into a. suffering, sacrificed Son of man. Solemn and searching are the words about the willing to come after him, a1,d all which this involves. May our hearts answer, 11 Amen I "-"a.men" to the daily following," a.men" to the losing of life for Christ's sake," amen" to the sturdy witnessing for him in the midst of the crooked and perverse nation ; our" a.men," rising upwards to receive hie when he shall come "ill bis own glory, and ill the Father's, and of the holy angels." •
Vere. 25-37.-The parab'le of the good Samaritan. The second of the parables peculiar to St. Luke, and one of the loveliest and most sugge~tive of the matchless pictures of him who" spake a.s never man spake." Notice- I. ITS OCCASION. Our Lord is in Judma, not, as we infer from what follows, a.t a great distance from Bethany. He and his disciples, we ma)'. suppo_se, are resting, when a lawyer--i.e. a person who made the Law both oral and written his study-proposes a question with which, or its likeuess, we meet at six different times in the ministry of Jesus. "Tempting him" is the phrase descripti~e of the m~tive for the questio!1; probably the phrase means nothi~g more t~n puttmg th~ R~bb1 to the ~roo~, submit- ting a question, the answer to which would, ID t~e _lawy~r s view, settle hie nght to be heard as a. Teacher from God. Jesus meets his mterviewer as one not far from the kinadom of Guci, yet in a way which proved that, in regard to the issue presented, mere dial~ctics were of little avail. "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 'l'he mind is at once referred to the underlying reality of the Law. "What is written therein? thou who dost profess to know, how readest thou 1 That which thou hast read, that which thou dost find there-the love, in its two great aspects, upward and outward- that is the eternal life." Ah I this is not quite according to the jurist's expectation. "He came to catechize Christ tha.t he might know him, but Christ will catechize him, and make him know himself." Seeking to parry the thrust, there comes forth the next question (ver. 29), "Who_ is my neighbour?''. . This 9ue~tion. is the,, oc~~sion of the parable. Note, before passmg, the clause, "wi\hng to Justify hunsel!,, lhe true heart casLa ilself on the Lord, "Lord, save, help I lighten my darkness I The );lWUd Oil ll, 1-42.] TIIE GOSPEL ACOJRDING TO BT. LUKE. 283