EMBLEMATICAL CHARACTER OF OUR

LORD'S MIRACLES.

THE FEEDING OF THE 5000 AND OF THE 4000.

We have elsewhere mentioned, that the miracles of our Lord are parables exhibited in action, and are not only all fraught with general instruction, but that, in many cases, each circumstance is significant, and carries its own lesson of greater or less interest to the believer. Some, which have been intended to convey a truth of more than ordinary magnitude, are repeated; and at each repetition, some of the circumstances are varied, in a manner to which it is necessary to attend, if we would understand thoroughly the full design and object for which they have been recorded.

In another paper, we have endeavoured to illustrate one instance of an important miracle being

repeated with certain remarkable variations, and have stated what we conceive to have been the reason of the repetition, and the meaning conveyed by the change of circumstances. As a parallel in

stance to this we shall now mention another which was also performed twice; namely, that of feeding vast multitudes of people with a few small loaves and fishes-five thousand being fed at one time with five loaves and two fishes, and four thousand on another occasion with seven loaves and a few fishes.

If we consider these two miracles in their spiritual scope and meaning, we think they must have been intended to impress upon our minds a sense of the unbounded richness and preciousness of Gospel truth, and its unlimited power of supplying the wants and satisfying the desires of all who come within the range of its influence. This seems to be the general truth intended to be conveyed, and with this the particular circumstances recorded in both cases appear to us entirely to correspond.

The loaves made use of on both occasions were mere ordinary loaves, and the fishes mere ordinary fishes, no way differing from those which formed the common food of the people in the country where the transactions took place; but when our Saviour took them in his hands and blessed them, he communicated to them qualities and virtues which they did not previously possess. They acquired by this

blessing a nutritious richness, and a power of expansion which rendered them sufficient to meet the necessities of famishing multitudes. It consists entirely with the analogy of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture to hold this, as setting forth, in a lively manner, by sensible images, the nature and the efficacy of our Lord's method of teaching.

Take any instance that occurs either from the parables, or the discourses in which the Saviour has embodied his divine lessons,-nothing can be imagined more simple than the ground-work upon which they are raised, or more plain and familiar than the manner in which they are evolved and illustrated. The language made use of is the plainest human language-the images presented are the most common and obvious. Yet from these simple materials, our Lord, in a few words, and in the most natural and unforced way, deduces lessons of the most sublime and comprehensive import.

Take, for instance, the following examples from the sermon on the mount :

"Ye are the light of the world." (He is speaking to those who were afterwards to become teachers of his doctrine.) "A city that is set on an hill can

not be hid.

"Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may

see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"

"What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

"Or, if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? "If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?"

Or take the parables in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew. How simple is the ground-work of all of them.

"A sower went forth to sow."

"The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares," &c.

"The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field," &c.

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal." "The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field."

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls."

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind.”

The several simple objects here presented to us— the candle—the tree and its fruits-the father giving his son good gifts-the sower-the wheat and the tares-the grain of mustard-seed-the leaven— the treasure in the field-the goodly pearl—the draw net-appear at first sight to be matters wholly insignificant, and to contain nothing worthy of notice; but when considered more narrowly, as they are explained by our Lord, they come home to us fraught with the treasures of divine wisdom, and are found to comprehend what he himself declared to be, the "mysteries of the kingdom" of heaven. Without any laboured deduction, but just by a few impressive touches, he draws from them instruction fitted for every capacity. The most simple may find in them something they can understand; the most learned may discover by them truths of which they were previously ignorant. There is no limit to the numbers who may be refreshed by this spiritual food. One does not receive less, because thousands of others receive more.

Thus, in the miracle we were considering, the sensible objects exhibited-a few common loaves and fishes, which of themselves would not have afforded