of faith, to take care that no particle of the instructions contained in the Scriptures of truth be allowed to go unimproved. There is not one of the words or actions of our Lord that is there recorded, but carries with it a lesson bearing upon some point of doctrine or of duty. It is therefore incumbent on us to gather up these, even to the minutest fragment, so as not to lose one jot or one tittle of that divine instruction which is fitted to make us wise unto salvation. The present is an humble attempt to gather a few crumbs from the feast, which this portion of sacred history sets before the faithful.

We are then told, that "they took up of the fragments twelve baskets full."

It has been suggested, with some appearance of reason, that as the Apostles had distributed the viands, so they also probably collected the fragments, and that the number of baskets mentioned would seem to indicate that each apostle filled his own. This may have been the case; but as it appears probable, from other circumstances, that this miracle of feeding the five thousand specially refers to the Jewish nation, it is not unreasonable farther to conclude, that the number of the baskets has reference to the twelve tribes, and sets forth typically that, after all the multitudes now present were satisfied, there remained over an abundant

supply of spiritual food that was sufficient for every one of the descendants of Jacob.

It may even be suggested, in reference to the present state of the House of Israel, that the circumstance may be meant to intimate, that the mercies in store for that people-the spiritual food laid up for their use-by which they are in time to be brought within the power of the Gospel,-are not to be exclusively confined to the people at present known among us as Jews (the descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), but that the other ten tribes, though now mixed and amalgamized with heathen nations, are at some future time to be distinguished, and are yet destined to receive and enjoy the benefits and the privileges of the new dispensation.

If we are right in these conjectures, and if the circumstances attending the miracle of feeding the five thousand point it out as referring solely to the Jewish people, it might, if it had stood alone, have led our Lord's followers into a grievous error. It might have led them to suppose that the Gospel was only intended for the Jews, and that the Gentiles were for ever to be excluded from its benefits. But as if on purpose to prevent any such erroneous conclusion, the miracle was repeated under circumstances which seem expressly contrived to include the Gentiles.

It is necessary that we attend to some occurrences which took place in the interval between these two occasions. Our Lord had, in the course of his public teaching, repeatedly come in contact with the Scribes and Pharisees, whose jealousy was excited against him on account of the crowds that followed him to hear his instructions and see his miracles. They regarded him as an impostor, and looked upon his pretensions as a messenger of heaven as amounting to blasphemy. They attributed his power of working miracles to magic, and accused him of various offences against the strict letter of the law, inconsistent, as they thought, with the character of a saint or a prophet. Instead of succumbing to their attacks, he on various occasions withstood them to the face, replying with unanswerable force to all their captious objections-sharply rebuking their own inconsistent conduct in making the law of none effect by their traditions—and plainly, before the whole people, calling them hypocrites, and blind leaders of the blind. This, of course, exasperated their enmity to the uttermost, so that they only waited for some plausible pretext to take away his life.

"After these things," we are informed by St. John, "Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him."*

*St. John, vii.

Whether it was to remove farther from danger, or for some other reason, we are told by St. Matthew and St. Mark, "that Jesus about this time went thence (from Galilee), and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon." *

Here we are informed, that a certain woman of Canaan-a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation-came and cried unto him, beseeching him to heal her daughter who was possessed with a devil. When his disciples said, "send her away for she crieth after us," he answered, "I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

It appears that he said this only to try the woman's faith, for we are told that when she earnestly besought him, he said to her, "Let the children first be fed for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs." And she said, "true Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table."

Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is thy faith be it unto you even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour."

From this it appears, that what he had previously said of his not being sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, was not a positive exclusion, but only a postponement of the calling of the Gen

St. Matt. xv. 21. St. Mark, vii. 24.

tiles. The words, "Let the children first be fed," afford a key to the whole. The Gospel was first to be offered to the Jews, and it was not till they had rejected it, that its blessings were generally extended to the Gentiles. We are then told, that again departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee; and multitudes having followed him and brought to him their lame, maimed, blind, dumb, and many others, and cast them at his feet, he healed them.

We are here informed that "the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel."

From all this it would appear probable, that the multitudes who now accompanied Jesus, were not inhabitants of Galilee, but strangers who had followed him from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. They had followed him for three days, which indicates that they had come from a distance. The fame of the miraculous cure of the Canaanite's daughter, had probably induced them to come after him, and bring him their lame, blind, and dumb to be healed. He had already gone through all the cities of Galilee, and healed all that were brought to him; but here was a new field opened for the display of his miraculous power. The natives of Galilee had witnessed many of his miracles, and