are of the household of the same faith, see Gal. 6.10; and so in order and degree to all mankind. "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it unto the dogs." It is our duty to relieve strangers. But it is not meet to relieve them at the expense of our neighbours; to the detriment of these stronger claims on our assistance. It is our duty to love all mankind. But it is not meet so to spread our affection over the world, as to dilute the strength of the regard which is due to those most near to us. Let us love as warmly, and help as readily, our nearest friends, as they do who love and help none others; whilst at the same time we both cherish a true concern for all men, and exercise also according to our ability a readiness to do all men good.

The woman "answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." Where God gives much faith, as in this woman, He tries it much. And where He tries it much, this is in order that, as we see in her, it may be strengthened, and be blest with a proportionate reward. If often He thus deal with us in our prayers for spiritual healing, if He deny us for a time the gifts of grace, let us learn so much the more highly to value them, so much the more earnestly to plead for them. Let us learn to persevere in prayer; and let us own all the while with humility, that we are unworthy so much as to gather up the crumbs that fall from our Master's table. Then will He "for this saying," if we say it honestly, if we feel it deeply, then will He bid us go our way in peace; He will give us, to our souls' health, the bread of life.

Hence, too, we may learn the duty of praying, not only for ourselves, but for each other. It was for her daughter that this woman applied. And He who from her daughter cast forth the devil, can relieve also from the possession of evil desires, from the miseries of sin and death, our parents or children, brethren or sisters, relations and friends. But He requires that we should pray for them, and that urgently. Thus would He bind us to each other by a new and spiritual relationship. Thus do the kind offices of Christian kindred extend beyond the benefits of this present world, beyond the term of this transitory life. Connected we are together by a hope of immortality. And daily should we pray for each other, above all things, that we may be saved; that, as we hope ourselves to dwell with God in heaven, it may please Him to prepare for that blessed place, and to receive into his holy company, the souls of those with whom we here abide.

God help us now to dwell together in love, that then we may dwell together in glory! God make us to be of one mind in an house, and that mind the mind which was in Christ Jesus! God grant, that by forbearance, and forgiveness of injuries, by godly counsel, by kindly help, and by fervent and effectual prayer, we may set forward the salvation of each other!

Christ healeth one that was deaf and dumb.

31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him,

Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

LECTURE 138.

How we may be made, through Christ, both to hear and to speak. Isaiah had long before set it down, among the signs of the Messiah's coming, that "the ears of the deaf should be unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Is. 35. 5, 6. Here we have these prophecies very exactly fulfilled. "They bring to our Lord one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech." "And he took him aside from the multitude." This we may conceive to have been done to prevent any confusion, any possibility of the man's being mistaken. Next He " Next He "put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue." This method our Lord used, to shew that it was He and his power that wrought this cure. He then looked "up to heaven;" as teaching whither we too ought to look in any difficulty we are beset with, in any work we undertake. "He sighed;" it may have been in the earnestness of prayer; according to what the apostle writes to the Hebrews, 5. 7, that "in the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears." Or it may be that, at the sight of this sufferer, He expresssd, by sighing, his kind compassion for the misery that is in the world through sin.

Nor is it here unworthy of our remark, that He thus might signify his concern for the many temptations to which the man was likely to be exposed, by the recovery of his speech and hearing. Better it were for the ears to be ever deaf, than that they should listen with aught of satisfaction to the communing of the wicked.

Better that the tongue were for ever tied, than that it should revile, or lie, or swear, than that by any idle word it should utter the irreverence of the heart, or make the hearer to offend. The senses and the faculties God has endued us with are a charge of fearful responsibility. According as here we use them, according to our improvement or neglect of the talent committed to our charge, we shall inherit or be shut out from eternal life. And yet with all the risk of this alternative, the ability to speak and hear, the opportunity of good, are blessings for which we are bound to be most thankful. And the being deaf or dumb, like any other disease of our mortal frame, must be counted for an evil to be deplored, an injury which an enemy has been permitted to inflict. And our Lord, though He might sigh to think how often our senses are abused, was yet, according to his custom, doing all things well, in making both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.

Hence, then, let us direct our thoughts to that opening of the ears and of the mouth which is vouchsafed to ourselves in the gospel; to the opportunity we enjoy of hearing God's word, the ability we receive to speak his praise. Because we are sons, as St. Paul writes to the Galatians, and in proportion as we are obedient sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. See Gal. 4. 6. So also we may in Christ's words hear God speaking to our souls; "for he whom God hath sent speaketh," as Christ Himself tells us, "the words of God." John 3. 34. And in like manner through Christ also has the soul new sight, that faith which is the sight of things unseen, and which the Father hath given us through the Son. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." John 1. 18. These are privileges most high, things which the prophets and kings of old desired in vain to witness, blessings the possession of which entitles us to be reckoned elect of God,

predestinated according to his purpose. Let us then very carefully observe that the greater is the excellency of God's mercies, the more perilous is in us the abuse of them. Let us ask ourselves, as we rejoice in this enlightening of the spiritual sense, "How can we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Heb. 2. 3. Let us manifest our deep sense of God's goodness in these gifts, not only by the pains we take to improve them in ourselves, but by the zeal with which we publish them amongst others. For whatever privacy our Lord aimed at in his miracles; whatever silence we may observe as to our own proficiency, we should endeavour always, in spreading abroad the knowledge of salvation, to make others, however deaf, to hear; and force ourselves, however dumb, to speak.

Christ feedeth four thousand with seven loaves and a few fishes.

1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,

2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat :

3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.

4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they

said, Seven.

6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.

7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.

8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.

9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

LECTURE 139.

That we should love each other as God hath loved us.

Twice it is recorded of our Lord that He fed by miracle a hungry multitude. And the first instance of his doing so is mentioned in all four of the Gospels. This miracle then we may conclude is of more than common importance; and we ought to take more than common pains to understand it rightly, and to meditate on it frequently. In the first of the two cases, Jesus had five loaves to feed five thousand with. Here seven loaves were used for four thousand. This reminds us of what took place with the manna in the wilderness, "he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack." Exod. 16. 18. There was no sort of proportion between the means and the end, between the ability to gather and the quantity gathered, between the number of loaves used, and the number of people fed. Wherein we may the more plainly see that it was neither the five loaves which fed the five thousand, nor the seven the four thousand, but the power and goodness of that great Being, who at the first made all things of nothing, and maketh them continually to increase and multiply. Let us then in all the food we take, in every blessing we enjoy, endeavour to discern his gracious hand. Let us feel Him to be the giver of all good things, of health to the body, of strength and salvation to the soul.

Jesus had compassion on the multitude because they had nothing to eat. He considered mercifully, that " divers of them came from far." And He was willing to relieve their bodily wants as well as to minister to their spiritual necessities. Hence we learn that we are bound to give assistance to each other in both sorts. And though the more we feel the necessity of caring for the soul, the more anxiously we shall desire the eternal good of our fellowcreatures; yet are we here taught to promote also, to the utmost of our power, the improvement of their worldly condition. Indigence is herein the true title to our alms; not the merit of the sufferer, but his want. Jesus had compassion on the multitude, even on all both bad and good, because they had nothing to eat. At the same time we must always so administer our assistance as to discourage profligacy, idleness, and waste, both in those whom we relieve, and in those who witness our behaviour. And especially should we give God the glory in all that we are enabled thus to bestow; offering thanks, after the pattern of our Saviour in this miracle, for the food which we impart to others, as well as for that which we ourselves enjoy.

When the multitude were filled, our Lord " sent them away." He coveted not their thanks. He needed not their praise. And He hath taught us hereby not to seek any such return for what good we have the privilege of doing to each other. Our desire should be, not to please men, but by doing good to men, to the evil and to the good, to please, if it might be, our Father which is in heaven. Our thought should be what He will think of us, He, who dwelling in heaven, yet looketh down upon the children of men, sendeth rain, and also mercy, on the just and on the unjust, and hath taught us that we should, above all things, love one another, even as He hath loved us.

In the wilderness of this world He giveth to the sinful soul of man all food convenient for it; health, unless sickness be rather for our good; wealth, unless poverty may rather redound to our edification. In poverty He giveth contentment, cheerfulness, thankfulness. In affliction He maketh us to rejoice, that herein we may become like unto Christ, who Himself went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain, who entered not into his glory before He was first crucified. Through the cross He suffered, through the death He died, God giveth us yet more than health or wealth, even pardon for our sins, and grace to lead a holy and a Christian life. He gave for us his Son. How utterly then should we devote to his service our time, our strength, our substance, even all that we possess! How carefully should we observe, that then only will they be counted to be given unto Him, when we design, in all we do, the good of all we have to do with.