CHAPTER XXVI.

Jesus, after sending the disciples away, passes the night in the hill country.—The Storm.—Jesus walks upon the Sea.-Peter goes to meet Him.—Jesus stills the Tempest.-Its hidden meaning.

Read St. Matt. xiv. 22-36; St. Mark vi. 45-56; St. John vi. 16—21.

HE people were astonished at the miracle of feeding such a multitude of men, women, and children with five loaves and two small fishes, and they would gladly have made Jesus their King; but the cross must come before the crown. Jesus must suffer for us and for our salvation before He can reign. He must redeem the world before He can be its King; and at this, His first coming into the world, He must be a man of sorrows, and be led like a lamb to the slaughter; His only crown will be the crown of thorns.

Jesus wanted now to be alone; so He told His disciples to go back in the boat to the other side of the lake, and then, after He had sent the mul

titude away, He went up to the hill country, and passed the night in prayer to God.

With early morning came one of those sudden storms that begin amongst the hills and then sweep down over the plains. To be on the lake in one of these storms was dangerous, and Jesus knew that His disciples could not have got to land before the tempest broke upon them. He wished then to go to them and help them; but there were no boats crossing from this eastern side of the lake, and what boat could put to sea in such a storm? How then could Jesus get to His disciples? And what had become of the disciples and their boat?

The boat is in the middle of the lake, and all night long the disciples have been struggling with the tempest, and they are very weary. It is now between three and six o'clock in the morning, but they have only got a little more, perhaps, than half way across the Sea of Galilee. But now something happens that fills them with terror. They see a man walking towards them on the water! They say it is a spirit, and cry out with fear; but a voice they know answers them and says, "It is I; be not afraid."

Then the disciples were glad when they knew it was the Lord, and St. Peter asked Jesus if he might go to Him on the water. Jesus bade him come, and Peter did walk on the water a little way, but then he looked at the stormy sea and the boisterous waves. He forgot that Jesus was close to him, and so he began to sink, and cried out, "Lord, save me!" Jesus caught him by the hand and gently reproved him, saying, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

All this has a hidden meaning.

Do we not often walk on a sea of trouble? and then, instead of looking to Jesus and praying to Him, we look at the trouble, and we are afraid. But Jesus is near all the time, and says to each of us, "It is I; be not afraid;""O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

When Jesus and Peter got into the boat the storm ceased, and the boat came to the place where they would land.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Jesus the Bread from Heaven.

Read St. John vi. 22-58.

HE people soon found out that Jesus had returned to Capernaum, and when the

news reached the men on the other side of the lake the men whom Jesus had fed the evening before they crossed over to Capernaum in boats that had come over from the western side and were returning. They were astonished to find Jesus at Capernaum, for they knew He did not go away in the boat with His disciples, and they could not tell how He had crossed the lake.

Jesus did not satisfy their curiosity; but He told them that they followed Him for the loaves and the fishes, and because they had been fed, and not for the sake of His teaching.

Jesus bade them work for the everlasting Bread -for the Bread from heaven-and not only for the bread that perishes.

They asked Him what work it was they were to do to get that Bread.

Our Lord replied: "Believe in Me; believe that I am sent from God. So shall ye gain the bread from heaven."

They answered: "Show us that Thou art from God. Moses was sent by God, and he gave us manna; that was bread from heaven. The bread Thou gavest us yesterday was from earth only." Jesus said: "Manna was not the true Bread from heaven. The true heavenly Bread is the Bread which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world."

Then they asked Jesus to give them this Bread which came down from heaven; but they thought only of some wonderful bread that might be better for their bodies than common bread.

Jesus then said: "I am the Bread of Life."

This offended them. Had Jesus then come down. from heaven? Could He be bread? Could He be the heavenly Bread?

Jesus did not explain to them what He meant. He answered them only by repeating the hard saying, and He made it harder and not easier every time.

He said again: "I am the Bread from heaven;"