felt to be brethren and fellow-communicants; and to our eye the very desert will rejoice, and the wilderness blossom as the rose. These are not the mere conjectures of human minds, but the express decrees and purposes of God. He is hastening on this blessed consummation, and in the meantime he gives at intervals earnests and foretastes,—sometimes as sunny spots in individual hearts, and at other times as green and fragrant patches on the bosom of the earth.

Blessed Lord, who hast given all Scripture for our learning, give us grace to read, mark, and inwardly digest it, that it may nourish our souls for eternal life, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

NOTE.-The modern German interpreters assume the identity of this miracle with that narrated in chap. xiv. 14. If this be so, then our evangelists must have forged (!) the speech attributed to our Lord in ch. xvi. 9, 10. But, as Ebrad justly remarks, (Evangelien Kritik, p. 532,) every circumstance which could vary, does vary in the two accounts. The situation in the wilderness, the kind of food at hand, the blessing and breaking, and distributing by means of the disciples, these are common to the two accounts, and likely to be so; but here the matter is introduced by our Lord himself, with an expression of pity for the multitudes who had continued with him three days: here, also, the provision is greater, the numbers are less than on the former occasion. But there is one small token of authenticity which marks these two accounts as referring to two distinct events, even had we not such direct testimony as that of ch. xvi. 9, 10.

It is, that whereas the baskets in which the fragments were collected on the other occasion are called by all four Evangelists Kópivo, those used for that purpose after this miracle are, in both Matthew and Mark, σrupides. And when our Lord refers to the two miracles, the same distinction is observed; a particularity which could not have arisen but as pointing to a matter of fact, that, whatever the distinction be, which is uncertain, different kinds of baskets were used on the two occasions.-Alford.

CHAPTER XVI.

DISSATISFACTION OF THE SADDUCEES-A SIGN FROM HEAVEN-SIGNS OF THE TIMES-HEART AND CREED-CARNAL MISINTERPRETA

TIONS INDIVIDUALITY OF GOSPEL-PETER AND HIS SUCCESSORSSELF-DENIAL-THE SOUL'S WORTH.

NOTWITHSTANDING the fact, which we have read in previous parts of this Gospel, that Jesus worked many most convincing miracles, the Sadducees and Pharisees were not satisfied, because insatiable, but demanded still a sign from heaven. They would not be satisfied with seeing the dead live, the sick healed, the blind seeing; for these appeared to be signs only from the earth what they wanted was something like a brilliant coruscation, that should startle the senses of all beholders, and prove to them that there was the presence of One who had descended from God, or was God.

Now, the real truth is, if they had seen all the signs that omnipotent power could furnish, they would not have been persuaded. It was not argument they really needed, but honesty or grace. They were bigoted and prejudiced, and determined to find reasons for rejecting Jesus; and therefore their request of a new and startling miracle was a hypocritical cover for their own obstinate rejection and intended betrayal of the Son of man.

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Jesus therefore said unto them, "Ye hypocrites,”knowing quite well that it was not more power that they wished to see, but that their demand was a covert only for the hardness of their hearts,-"ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" It was probably eventide: the sun was retiring to the west, and the clouds gorgeously gilded by his retreating beams; and as these clouds appeared in the west, and the sun dipped towards the horizon, Jesus said, “You are quite competent to determine the state of the weather by the face of the sky; and, if you were teachers of the truth, you would be able to pronounce upon the age of the world at which we are arrived, and the facts that are before you, from signs that are as unequivocal and decisive as those that relate to the foul or the fair weather.” At this very period the seventy weeks of Daniel were run out; the forerunner of Jesus, in the person of the Baptist, had appeared. The signs were so irresistible that the Messiah was come, that unprejudiced persons at once received him; and only the hard-hearted, prejudiced, and passionate Scribes and Pharisees invented, where they could not find, reasons for rejecting him. He therefore assured them that no sign should be given them but one, and that sign "the sign of the prophet Jonas." What was that? He explained it in a previous chapter -that the Son of man should be three days and nights in the earth, and then rise again. But that sign they would not receive; for "neither will they believe, though one should rise from the dead." The fact is, our earts have a great deal to do with our creeds. A creed ght to be based on evidence-it ought to have a root the convictions of the intellect; but very often what

we feel convenient to believe to be true, imagination is most prolific in starting reasons, real or imaginary, for so believing. When men are determined to reject a testimony, they are prepared previously to trample on every proof and evidence that can be produced, and to reject it, just because they do not like it.

Then Jesus, addressing his disciples, said, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Doctrine in Scripture is compared to leaven-sound as well as corrupt doctrine-because of its silent and growing progress. Leaven is gradually penetrating and assimilating. So it is with truth, and still more, in a fallen world, with error.

But notice how the disciples misunderstood him: they interpreted carnally what he preached spiritually. And this very feature in the conduct of the disciples will explain some of those passages which have been the subjects of misinterpretation. When Jesus said, "Ye must be born again," Nicodemus interpreted it carnally. Again, when Jesus told them, "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed," they said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" and then Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." And so here the disciples thought that he spoke of literal bread; but Jesus again explained it to them, as he had done before, and showed that he spoke of a doctrinal influence, not of a material and carnal nutriment. We have, therefore, in this a light by analogy cast upon other passages of Scripture, which the disciples misinterpreted, and which some who ought to know better now, since Pentecost, persist in misinterpreting, asserting that baptism is regeneration, and that the bread and wine on the communion