And then, last of all, dear brethren, of course, remember this is what we call experimental theology, or the internal testimony which God gives to His children. It comes not from without. It is God's gift to the soul. It is the Spirit speaking to your spirit, and it is God talking to His children. It is the Saviour's secret word to His own.

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When you go to Confession, what would it not be if you felt you had touched the Master, and He felt virtue had gone out of Him, and He said to you, Thy faith hath made thee whole?" What would it be when you went to Communion, if, kneeling down there, you felt that when the Host is put into your mouth, you and He have met, and He knows and you know? The secret of the Lord is among them that fear Him." Oh, how beautiful would be your prayers if, when you said your prayers, you felt you had touched the Master, and that the dear Saviour knew that virtue had gone out of Him to you! Oh, for this He made you; for this He died for you; for this He regenerated you with His Holy Spirit, that there might be the inter-communion between the Master and the servant, the Beloved and the one loved. Why, it is the joy of the morning, it is the glory of the noontide, it is the repose of the evening. You put out your hand so your hand-put out your hand, and try to touch the Master at Mass. You love this service. You love the Church-aye-and love the music. You say, There is no Church to me like that Church. In that Church I met the Master. I touched Him, and virtue went out of Him to me." Don't forget the text: "She felt that she was healed."

"He said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand? S. Mark viii. 21.

AFTER the miracle in the Gospel for to-day, the disciples embarked with our Lord in a ship on the Lake of Galilee, and they had forgotten to take bread with them. It was a mere accident; but when our Lord spoke to them, warning them of the leaven of the Pharisees, they thought He was chiding them because they had not taken bread-as if He wanted them to have a store of bread with them in the boat! And then it was our Lord said unto them, Why do ye not understand? He was not thinking about bread. He had fed the five thousand in the wilderness. Both the miracles had been wrought before them, and they ought to have considered them, and not been thinking of the necessity of having a little bread in the boat, when five thousand men had been fed in the wilderness. Moses of old fed the people in the wilderness with bread that came down from heaven, and the Lord Himself filled the people in the wilderness with bread which multiplied in His own hand as He brake it: "How is it that ye do not understand?

And our Lord having said that, I only want to make a few reflections on the Gospel which is placed before us to-day, which I feel we ought to think about.

First, then, because we are always wanting in consideration-we will not consider. If they only considered the two miracles they had perceived, they would have felt quite happy with our Lord in the boat on the lake. Why will we not consider? We will not go back in the past, and see in the sanctuary of the past the earnest of the future. He that spared not His only-begotten Son! There, there is the miracle of Calvary! "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? If you really are a believer in Christ, that He died for you, how can you ever suspect His intentions for you concerning the future? Has He not gone to prepare a place for you, that where He is you may be with Him? So He died for you. We will not consider! Out in the night you look up and see the stars twinkling as if they consider the creation of God. Why do not we go up with the stars and consider—as the Latin word says, considerare, con with, and sidus a star -be with the stars, and consider God's goodness over this world in having come down and died for our salvation?

And then we lose so much because we do not remember the things that are past, how that God has ever been mindful of us, and He will bless us. I know I cannot look into your diaries and see what you have placed there concerning God's dealings with you all through your life; but I know this, that God has held you up ever since you were born, and your praise should be always of Him-He Who gave you your breath, and gives you the breath you breathe at this moment. Look back into the past, and just

remember how faithful and true God has been to you all your life. When we look at our past experiences, and hold them, so to speak, in the sieve, we seem to let all the corn fall through, and only keep the chaff. Oh, why do we not understand? Why do ye not consider? and why do ye not understand? Why did God make you? Why did God die for you? Why did God regenerate you into eternal life? Answer

me.

Well, in the miracle before us here, the whole difficulty was our Lord's own creation, and He saved the situation entirely. It was His creation. They had come up from all parts into the desert to see Him and to hear Him preach. He was the attraction. He drew them from all the corners-out they all went! They had been three days in the wilderness. He had kept them three days, and all their little store was gone, and they had nothing to eat. What an attraction He must have been to keep all that multitude for three days! Never was there such an attraction in all the world as the great Master! And there they had been for three days, and had nothing to eat. And the situation was of His making, and He would not send them away, lest they should faint by the way altogether. They could not buy provisions. And He Himself was the solution of the situation. He fed them Himself. He Who made the situation fed them.

I know, dear brethren, very often things seem very difficult indeed; but we forget this-the Providence of God over all things. I remember myself once, in the agonies of questionings which often come, going to the old Dean of St. Paul's and saying, " Is it possible

to be a Catholic in the Establishment?" and telling him what I felt. And he said, "If you have the necessities of life there, you did not make the situation. You came into it. You had better make the best you can of it, and try and improve it as far as you can yourself." That was his advice. Our Lord made the situation all round about us. He has placed us under the circumstances in which we live, and we had better make the very best of it. It is no good saying we can do nothing, and dropping feeble hands beside us. "Make the men sit down." Get to work. And when the difficulties of practical Christianity come before you in the world in which you live, it is no good saying we cannot help it. Get to work, men! Get to work! "Make the men sit down." Do the good you can. You did not make the situation, but you are placed in it. Thank God, and do all the good you can. Then, of course, there is the reflection: they all had plenty to eat. Their appetites gave out, but not the bread. And when it was all over, they had more than they had begun with. When our Lord made the wine in Cana of Galilee, it was the best wine ever made: "Thou hast kept the good wine until now." When the Blessed Master made the bread in the wilderness, it must have been very sweet bread. Men do not generally eat bread till they are filled. They ate of this bread till they were filled. It was very sweet bread that came from His hand. Never was

sweeter bread ever given to men than was given to the starving multitude in the wilderness. They ate till they were filled. There was more over when they had done than when they came. It is so like the Master! So like the dear Master! If He is kind,