the Lord commanded them to be brought to Him.

He then desired His disciples to make the crowd sit down on the grass: so they all sat down in rows, to the number of five thousand; then taking the loaves in His hands, He looked up to Heaven, and gave thanks to God, and broke them in pieces, which He gave to His disciples, who distributed them among the people: after which 'He also divided and distributed the fishes in the same way.

And although there were only five little loaves, our Saviour continued breaking and giving more and more, till all the five thousand people were satisfied.

When they had finished, He desired that the remains might be picked up, in order that nothing should be

wasted; and they actually filled twelve baskets with what was left of the five loaves and two fishes.

This was a great miracle. We must not expect to see such things in our time, for there are no miracles now; they were then performed to testify that Jesus Christ was the promised Saviour, the Son of God; but that having been proved, there is no longer need of a continuance and repetition of miracles to teach us what we already know.

We should learn from our Lord's example to return God thanks for the food with which He daily supplies us. We pray for our "daily bread;" and it is surely very ungrateful, when we have received it, to neglect to return thanks to the Bountiful Giver of it; and I hope in future you will be care

ful never to waste any thing, since you find that our Lord, who could command more whenever He wanted it, desired the remains of the bread to be picked up, in order that nothing might be lost.

The people were so convinced by this, that Christ was indeed the Saviour, and they had so long believed that when the Saviour came He would be an earthly Prince, that they prepared to take our Lord by force, and proclaim Him King. But such was not, however, the mission of the Saviour; and He sent them away, and desired His disciples to return to the other side of the sea, and promised that He would follow them. He then retired to a mountain alone to spend a part of the night in prayer to God.

Here we have another lesson, which, as you advance in life, may be profitable to you. Here you may learn to be humble, and to be contented with the situation in which it has pleased God to place you. The giddy crowd would have proclaimed Jesus King, but He chose rather to fulfil, what appeared to worldly eyes, the humble duties of his mission: and after having the temptation of ambition, and the agitation and excitement of such a scene, He sought His reward and His refreshment in communion with God, and retired from this worldly turmoil to pray in the solitude of the mountain.

"Set your affections on things "above, not on things on the earth." Colossians, iii, 2.

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XVI.

THE STORM.

OUR Saviour's disciples, as I told you, had entered the boat according to His command, and left Him on shore; and while He was alone on the mountain they were toiling across the lake with great difficulty; for the night was very dark and stormy, and the wind blowing strong against them, so that the boat was tossed about with the violence of the waves.

While they were thus employed in rowing, they perceived the figure of some one on the water approaching them; the night was however too dark