The Miracle of the Loaves

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"They considered not the miracle of the loaves." Mark 6:52.

Let us, with deep attention, consider the miracle of the loaves lest we
fall into the same evil as that which happened to the disciples in the
text. When they saw Jesus walking on the sea, "they were sore amazed in
themselves and wondered: for they considered not the miracle of the
loaves, for their heart was hardened." Hard hearts and painful
unbeliefs spring up in the waste places where we bury our forgotten
mercies. The miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to be considered.
They are not trifles and they ought not to be passed over as if they
were the mere commonplace stories of a daily newspaper. Everything that
has to do with the Son of God is a fit subject for the deepest study
and all His sayings and works should be sought out by them that have
pleasure therein.

Neither earth nor Heaven, time nor eternity, yield choicer gems of
thought than the achievements of our Lord. Remember, since Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today and forever, what He did at one time ought
to be well considered, because it is the index of what He is prepared
to do again should the need arise. He would still sooner feed His own
sheep by a miracle than allow them to lack any good thing. His
accomplished wonders have not spent His strength–He has the dew of His
youth still upon Him. Our Samson's locks are not shorn! Our Solomon has
not lost His wisdom! Our Imman-uel has not ceased to be "God with us."

If the disciples had considered the miracle of the loaves they would
have observed that Christ is grand in emergencies. When there were
5,000 people to be fed and no towns and villages near enough to supply
them with bread and the people must faint by the way before they could
reach the markets, then Christ was ready, full-handed in time of
scarcity, prompt to dispense His liberality, able to meet the emergency
so perfectly that the people must have been very thankful that such an
emergency had arisen and, no doubt, often wished that they could have
been in such a strait, again, if they could have had the Lord near to
bring them out of it.

Had they considered the miracle of the loaves, the disciples would have
known that Christ is not only grand in emergencies, but that He
displays His power spontaneously, without need of pressing or even
prompting. Before anybody else had cared for the multitude, He began
enquiring about the state of the supplies from which the famishing must
be fed. He it was who thought of the way of feeding them–it was a
design invented and originated by Himself. His followers had looked at
their little bit of bread and fish and given up the task as hopeless.
But Jesus, altogether unembarrassed, and in no perplexity, had already
considered how He would feed the thousands and make the fainting sing
for joy. The Lord of Hosts needed no entreaty to become the Host of
Hosts of hungry men.

Remembering this, the disciples, in their new distress should have said
within themselves, "Now will He display His power. We have scarcely
need to cry to Him, for before we call He will answer! And while the
emergency is yet pressing upon our minds He will hear." But they forgot
what He had done on that occasion and, therefore, they fell into
distrust as to their new trial. Beloved, is not this a very common
fault with us? Do we not too often forget what the Lord has done for us
in times past? We sing so rightly–

"His love in time past forbids me to think He'll leave me at last in
trouble to sink. Each sweetEbenezerI ha ve in review Confirms His good
pleasure to help me quite through." But do we not forget those
Ebenezers? Do we not very frequently suffer our memory to let His
benefits go? Is not depression of spirit occasioned by the fact that we
do not well consider the miracle of the loaves or its counterpart which
has taken place in our history?

How many times have I sought the Lord in sorest trouble and He has
brought me through! What burdens have I carried to Him and found them
vanish! What needs has He not supplied? What marvels has He not worked
on my behalf? Surely, if I think of what He has done for me, I shall
not, unless my heart is hardened, permit myself to be afraid. Cannot
many of you say the same? Are there not oases in your pilgrimage
through the desert which, as you look back upon them, are to your
grateful memory very green and full of sunlight where the Lord revealed
Himself to you and worked very mightily for you? Consider, then, the
miracle of the loaves as it has transpired in your own life story and
be not afraid, whatever your present trouble may be.

At the present time I shall not consider the miracle of the loaves in
the form of a sermon, but allow our discourse to take the shape of a
little friendly talk.

I. Come, let us think a little, first, about THE GUESTS who gathered
around our Lord when He worked the miracle of the loaves. And we are
struck, first, with their great number. Jesus had His feast days, when
He kept open house and entertained His guests in unusual crowds. Twice,
especially, He held very remarkable feasts and His banquets were
distinguished for the number that came to them. Here were 5,000 men
and, on another occasion, some 4,000 men, besides women and
children–and I should think that is a very large "besides," for the
women and children may possibly have outnumbered the men–at least they
often do so in our congregations nowadays.

This was feasting on an imperial scale! In the present instance 5,000
gathered together and all were as easily provided for as if there had
been but five. Should we not consider this point and argue from it that
the Lord Jesus will feed our hungry souls if we come to Him? Should we
not, each one of us, say, then, "If I am a soul needing His love and
mercy, surely He can bless me? Are there a great many saved already?
Are hundreds pressing to the Savior at this very hour? Then why should
I be shut out? He who could feed 5,000 could certainly feed five
thousand and one! One, more or less, could make no difference at so
great a feast. No, I am quite certain Jesus can supply me, for He had
12 baskets left after He had fed all the host. Come, my Soul, if you
are hungering after Christ, do not stand back as though you would be
one too many! The more the merrier! The more that come to His Gospel
banquet, the more pleased Jesus is."

Some religionists are in raptures with the text, "strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way, and few there are that find it." They dwell upon
the words, "few there are that find it," with an evident gusto and
self-appreciation, something like the old conservative voter when he
denounced household suffrage and gloried in his own monopoly! Such
thoughts are not according to the mind of Christ! He did not say, "I
will feed 500 out of these people and the rest may starve." But in the
mighty bounty of His heart, the greatness of their number and the
direness of their need moved Him to come forward and supply them all!

Had there been 50, they might have gone home as on other occasions, for
50 might possibly have found food in the villages. But the needs of
5,000 required a Divine supply. The greatness of the number of sinners
seems both to encourage our Lord to act in mercy and to make it
Divinely fit that He should act, for by His knowledge shall He justify
many and bring many sons unto Glory. Let no sinner ever be troubled
with the dread that he would be one too many at the banquet of Mercy!
Neither let him fear that he will be an intruder. Christ's banqueting
hall was an open field–there were no walls or doors, or persons
guarding the entrance–thus free is His feast of Love at this moment.
Whoever will, let him come!

We note, next, the strange character of His guests. We do not know what
sort of people they were, but this we do know, He did not exempt one
because of any flaw in his character! They were a nondescript
multitude. Little good could be said of them except that they had an
ear to hear Jesus preach and were especially glad if the sermon was the
first course, with loaves and fishes for the second. They were a carnal
people and had nothing about them that deserved our Lord's
consideration. But when did Jesus Christ wait until men deserved it
before He blessed them? When we give alms we think it right to make
enquiries about the deserving characters of those who apply to us for
relief. And I suppose we must do so, or we shall do mischief.

But our heavenly Father sends his rain both upon the just and upon the
unjust and, even so, our Lord Jesus Christ feeds these people, though
many of them were mere loafers and hangers on. Bad or good, the
generous Savior fed them. It could not hurt them to have a bit of bread
and fish to eat. A gift of food which people eat before our eyes is
generally safe charity, and so the Master fed them. Let me, then, say
to myself, I may be very unworthy and am. And my character may have
nothing about it to commend it to the Lord Jesus Christ. But why should
He not feed me with the food that is neces-

sary for my soul? Has He not come into the world to save sinners? Did
He not visit this world as a Physician to heal the sick? Let not my
unworthiness keep me back!

Need of merit did not exclude one person from the miracle of the loaves
and it need not exclude me, for He bids me come. Unworthy as I am, He
invites me freely, repeatedly, earnestly–yes–He commands me to come.
Why, then, should I hesitate? If there are many, I will be one among
them. And if they are of all kinds, I may the more freely join them.
These guests had one thing in common which, I have no doubt, will be
found among us, also–they were all hungry and they were all poor. They
could not supply one single dish for the table. Not one of them had a
loaf to contribute nor a fish to give to the Master of the feast. They
were all hungry but not one could produce a crust. And the Lord neither
asked them to contribute nor repelled them because of their poverty.

Am I, then, tonight, an empty sinner, having no good in myself? Do I
feel that I could not contribute even one perfect thought, much less
one solitary perfect action to the stores of the Redeemer's merit?
Nevertheless, He bids me come, and I will come. He is a great Giver. I
can only be a receiver and my utter lack of all goodness fits me to
receive from Him, since the emptier the vessel the more it can receive.
If I could help Him, there would be no need for Him to work a miracle
on my account. But since I can bring nothing whatever, I need His
miraculous power. As I see Him feeding hungry souls I will join in with
the rest and partake of the fruit of His compassion. They were a
penniless, foodless people and could not help themselves, but there was
One who could help them all–and afford that help with ease! And so,
tonight, whatever our hearts' necessities may be, Jesus is here to
enrich us and to do it in a manner which will manifest the boundless
Nature of His Love and Grace.

On one of these occasions we read that there were women and children
among them. Now, I must confess, myself, I am not partial to very small
children coming into the congregation. I am glad to see their mothers
and, if they cannot come without bringing their infants, I am glad that
they should bring them. But they certainly are not an improvement to a
congregation, as a rule. Yet here they were–here were women and
children–and I suppose that some of the children were very closely
connected with the women by being carried in their arms, because they
are described as, "women and children."

They were all fed and that would stop their crying! They were all
supplied, however little they might be. And should not this be a great
encouragement to me if I am seeking Christ, that if I am no better than
a little crying child that might seem to be a nuisance in God's family,
or if I am a person so poor, so ill-clad, that I may seem to myself to
be as much out of place in a congregation as a crying babe, yet,
nevertheless, the bounties of Divine Grace are as much for me as for
others? Jesus would not have it said that He had no food for the
children! He would not have the mothers go home and say, "The big men
had their food, but we had only a few bones and broken scraps. And the
poor dear children had none at

all."

In Christ's feasts there is no complaining of the widows as in
Apostolic days. None are neglected in the general ministration when
Jesus presides. Whoever will, may come and partake of the bounties
which the King of Heaven has prepared for every hungry, thirsty soul!
So much about the guests. May these suggestions be blessed by the Holy
Spirit to induce some hungry sinner to join with the rest of the
company and feast on Free Grace.

II. The next thing we will consider in the miracle of the loaves is THE
ORDERLINESS OF THE GUESTS. There were 5,000 but they sat down in ranks
by hundreds and by fifties. I wonder how they were marshaled so well?
Oh, I remember! The Lord of Hosts was there and He knows how to marshal
armies! But how was it that they were willing to sit in ranks? People
are not always so willing to be ordered about and, when they are
hungry, they are often very disobedient. But they sat down as they were
told to do. They sat down in rows so that they were divided with little
aisles between them.

The original word used by Mark represents them as divided like beds of
flowers, with walks between, so that as a gardener can go up and down
and water all the plants, so the waiters at the feast could
conveniently give every man his share of bread and his piece of fish
without confusion. They sat down in ranks by fifties and by hundreds.
Things do not look so orderly now, do they, as we see Christ, through
His Church, feeding the multitudes? There is a good work going on in
the north of England. There is a revival in Scotland. There is an
awakening in Ireland and there is a stir in the midland counties. But
does it not look very much like a scramble? Do we not seem to tumble
over one another instead of doing our work in soldierly order?

A good work springs up in one place all of a sudden, while religion is
dying out in other quarters. The people are satiated yonder and are
starving only a little way off. We do not get at the masses as a whole,
or see the Church progress in all places. Let us not, however, judge
too hastily, for Jesus makes His order out of our disorder. We see a
piece of the puzzle, but when the whole shall be put together and we
shall see the end from the beginning, I guarantee you we shall see that
Christ's great feast of Mercy, with its myriads of guests, has been
conducted on a principle of order as mathematically accurate as that
which guides the spheres in their courses!

God has laid down, in the book of His everlasting purposes, written by
Him of old, everything that shall occur in the great economy of His
Grace–and from that He never swerves. His purposes ripen at the proper
time and His plans are carried out according to the wisest method.
Providence, which so often looks wild and blustering, is not so by any
means–it is working in harmony with Grace for the salvation of as many
as Christ has bought with His most precious blood–and for the
accomplishment of the grand intentions of electing love. The raising up
of this minister and of that. The building of this House of Prayer and
that. Even the bringing of a certain number of people at one time to
listen and the bringing of such-and-such persons rather than
others–and the moving of the preacher's heart to speak in this way and
not in that and to dwell upon that subject and not upon the other–all
these things are so ordered that, when the story of the Lord's great
Grace Banquet shall be told, we shall say to ourselves, "It could not
have been better. He has done all things well."

While we shall have to admire the grandeur of the works of Grace as
seen in the number of the saved, we shall also admire the orderliness
of it in the way in which these saved ones were separated to Jesus by
the right means, at the right time and in the right place in such a way
as to bring the utmost possible glory to God. I like to think this over
sometimes, not that we may quiet ourselves when we do not see numbers
saved, nor that we may ever grow indifferent to the great multitudes
who remain unconverted, but that we may rest assured that our God is
not disappointed–that His plans are not frustrated and that, after
all, the Gospel is not preached in vain!

You must not think, dear Brother, because for a little while you have
been preaching the Gospel apparently without success, that there will
be a deficit somewhere in God's account at the end of the chapter! You
must not dream that because in certain countries the Gospel light burns
dimly, God is foiled and defeated! When the book of God's purposes
shall be all unfolded in actual history there will be found no blots,
mistakes, or blunders there. He knows the end from the beginning and
His purposes shall be fulfilled in every jot and tittle–in nothing
shall the Glory of God be marred!

Though Satan may be laughing, now, and every now and then the men of
the world may boast against the people of God, it shall not be so in
the close of the affair! It shall be said of the entire matter, "It was
a grand banquet of mercy and it was ordered well. And Christ, the great
Head of the house, made a Divine display of His munificent mercy in
causing the multitude to taste of His Grace." Our duty, I believe, is
to urge the people to sit down and receive the Word of God. And the
duty of the sinner is, especially when he comes to hear the Gospel
preached, to sit in the attitude of expectancy, desiring to obtain the
blessing.

I like the thought of those people all sitting down, although I wonder
some of them did not say, "I shall not sit down. Pooh! Feed me with two
fishes and five loaves? I could eat the whole thing! Feed all this
multitude that way? I shall not sit down. Preposterous! Ridiculous!"
One is surprised that somebody or other did not get up and say, "No,
no, no, we are not to be made fools of after this fashion. Show us the
table and show us something on it to sit down to, and then we will sit
down, but not before." Let us be always confident that when God
inclines the people's hearts to come expecting a blessing and to wait
upon Him for it, it is then that the blessing comes.

I could not imagine the 5,000 sitting there waiting to be fed and
Christ not feeding them. Could you conceive such a thing? Their sitting
down in expectancy laid a sacred compulsion upon the Divine Compassion
to which it gladly yielded. Oh, Soul, if you sit down in your hunger
before Christ, and say, "Lord, I know You can feed me. By faith I open
my mouth wide that I may eat of Your flesh and drink of Your
blood"–then assuredly you shall be fed! Never was such a soul sent
empty away. If you believe in Him so as to accept of Him, you have Him!
Rejoice in Him! Enough, then, about the order of the feast.

III. And now a little about THEIR FARE. They had bread and fish. Jesus
seems to have made that His standing bill of fare whenever He spread a
banquet–bread and fish. They once gave Him a piece of honeycomb, but
He seems always to have given them bread and fish. Bread was enough,
was it not? Yes, enough. But not enough for Him to give, for He

loves to supply a little more than enough. He would give a delicacy as
well as a staple–there was bread and fish. When Jesus Christ makes
feasts for souls He gives them a staple–bread, all that they can need,
all the necessities for their souls'

life.

Giving a sufficiency He also gives excellency–He gives fish, there
shall be savor and delight and peace with God. You shall not say, "He
has given me workhouse fare–He doles out by half-ounces exactly what I
need, but He helps me to no sweet morsels, no fat things full of
marrow." No, you shall have more than you actually need! You shall find
in your dish a secret something which will sweeten all and many other
precious things of which you shall sing, "He satisfies my mouth with
good things." Jesus might have called some of the people close to Him
and given them bread and fish, and then have fed the next row with
bread only, but He did not do so.

He gave bread and fish all round–and it is very sweet to think that
all souls that come to Christ get the same spiritual food–and if they
do not eat in the same measure it is their own fault, not His, for
every promise that is in the Word of God is for every soul that
believes in Him, save only where some promises are reserved for
spiritual attainments, and then those spiritual attainments are to be
sought after and may be reached by all the family.

O, chief of sinners! If you come to Jesus, there is the same love in
His heart for you as for the chief of saints! O, least and weakest, and
feeblest of all who believe in Jesus! There is the same Covenant Mercy
and Covenant Blessing for you as for Paul or Peter! Bread and fish He
gave to all who came to His table, and even so, there is a uniformity
of spiritual meat for all His brethren. Jesus is the same precious
Christ to all His people. What suitable food it was! Other kinds of
food might have been either distasteful or indigestible to a
considerable number, but bread and fish would surely suit all palates
and all conditions.

They might all be satisfied with such light and yet substantial food,
and probably they all were so. And here was the beauty of it–they did
all eat and were filled. It was the right fare and a most agreeable
fare. And there was so much of it that though they ate much, as I have
no doubt they did, for they were very hungry, for they had been all day
listening to sermons–and that is hungry work–still, for all that,
there was enough for them, yes, enough and to spare! Gospel provisions
are adapted to all needs. Gospel provisions are plentiful and are
liberally given forth to all who come for them. Gospel provisions are
sweet and pleasant to those who participate in them. Gospel provisions
will satisfy the most eager appetites.

Come here, you hungry souls, you who have been to Moses and from him
obtained nothing but the stony Law! Come and eat the bread of Heaven!
Come, poor Sinner, you who have been to the pleasures of sin and found
nothing there but the husks that the swine eat. Come to Jesus, and He
will fill you to the full with a Divine meat! But we must pass on,
having noticed the guests, their order and their fare, to notice the
waiters.

IV. THE WAITERS at this feast were the disciples. Not the Apostles, I
think, merely, but the disciples–all of them. They each came and
received a portion and handed it round to the hundreds and the fifties.
What a blessed thing it is that Jesus Christ has not taken upon Himself
to call all His people, by His Grace, apart from instrumentality. He
might have done so if He had chosen. The blessed Spirit does not stand
in any need of us–it is His condescension which leads Him to employ
us. He might have sent the Bible into the world and the only part we
might have been permitted to take in it might have been the printing of
it, the giving of it away or the selling of it–and there it might have
been left.

But instead He uses the living voice, the living example and the pious
persuasions of His own quickened disciples. And what an honor this is!
What a privilege this is! I am sure I should have been very delighted
that day to help to pass round the bread and the fish–and would not
you? It is one of the greatest pleasures you can have in life to feed a
hungry man. If you have ever done it, you all know that there is a look
about his eyes and a joy in the manner of his eating which makes you
whisper to others, "I wish you would come and see him eat." It gives
you pleasure to see his pleasure! If he is very hungry, every mouthful
is sweet to him, and you feel a sympathy with his gladness as his needs
are supplied.

What delightful work it must have been to serve out that bread and
fish! But O, to preach the Gospel! To preach the Gospel when God is
blessing it to sinners! I have just finished 21 years of preaching to
this congregation and they have been 21 years of toil, especially as
the sermons have been printed every week. But I would not change the
work for any conceivable occupation, or the happiness of preaching the
Gospel for any happiness except that of seeing Jesus face to face! And
I really do not know that I wish for that till I have done preaching
the Gospel, for if souls are to be saved, I would far rather tarry here
to help in it than go to Heaven itself.

Oh, the joy it gives you to see men saved! Have I not seen them,
sometimes, in the vestry when I have talked with them and prayed with
them, and they have risen from their knees, and said, "I see it, Sir, I
understand it now. I never saw it before. I am a saved man, I believe
in Jesus, I know He is my Savior." If a man finds joy in having made
£10,000 in business, he may keep his joy. I would sooner have the bliss
of winning one soul for Christ! There is an intense satisfaction in
soul-winning! These are the things George Herbert would have said, that
make music in our bosoms when we lie awake at nights. These are the
things that make it sweet to live and even sweet to die, if we may feed
poor hungry souls with the bread of Heaven!

Now, I want all of you who love the Lord and have tasted of what He
provides, to busy yourselves with supplying others. I wish we had more
young men coming forward to enter into the Christian ministry, that
more would devote their strength and talents to the preaching of the
Gospel. But, at the same time, we ought to have more persons busying
themselves in the school, more talking about Jesus Christ in their
various families, more friends who would open their rooms for Prayer
Meetings, more who would, in some way or other, try to get at the
hungry world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"Well," says one, "but we must not push too much nor become intrusive."
We do not find that any disciple labored under that fear. No one
intrudes on a hungry man if he brings him bread to eat. And if the
hungry man should be so unkind as to call it intrusion, I have no doubt
that after he has been fed he will be very grieved with himself for
having said so and he whom he reproached will readily accept the
apology. Go and intrude yourselves, my Brothers and Sisters, among the
hungry, with the Bread of Heaven! Intrude yourselves between the living
and the dead, as Aaron did with his smoking censor! Intrude yourselves
in the valley of dry bones and cry aloud unto them, "Thus says the
Lord, you dry bones, live!" Intrude yourselves as Christ intruded into
a world which despised and rejected Him, to whom, after all, He is the
only Savior.

V. We are getting on with our consideration of the miracle, for we have
seen the fare and the waiters. Now let us go a step farther, namely, to
THE BLESSING. There they sit, all hungry, and the waiters are all
ready, but our Lord will not proceed till He has worshipped and
rendered thanks. There is something in His glance and gesture–He
looked up to Heaven. What did that mean? "O Father, these loaves and
fishes are Yours. You have given them to us. We thank You for them. And
now, O Father, the power to make these sufficient for the emergency
comes from Heaven. Grant it, we pray You."

Brothers and Sisters, always give that look upward before you begin
your work. Say, "Lord, here am I, a poor nobody, trying to teach others
and to bring souls to Christ. For what I am, I thank You, for I am that
by Your Grace, but if I am to be useful, You must make me so. Lord, I
look up with the hope that You will look down." After our Lord had
looked up to Heaven, we find that He blessed and then He broke the
loaves. Jesus must bless our labor or it will be fruitless. He could
bless the bread for Himself, but we must look away from ourselves for
the blessing. May Jesus bless you all, and He will, if you look up, and
say, "Lord, bless us."

Always do that on Sundays, especially, for those are great settled
feasts of the Lord. Ask the Lord to bless what the preacher is going to
say and then it will be made profitable to you. After the blessing
comes the distribution, but not till then. O, for more looking up to
God, for in Him lies our strength! O, for more praying–there can never
be too much of that! If we stopped every evangelistic service for
awhile and ceased from all teaching and preaching in order to spend a
season in crying mightily unto the Lord, it might be the quickest way
of doing the Lord's work! Pauses for prayer are not delays! Prayerless
haste makes ill speed.

VI. Now came the work itself–THE EATING. The disciples distributed the
bread and the fish as quickly as they could and the people began to
eat. They all ate of the provision and they were all filled. Now, what
should every soul, here, conclude, but this–if Jesus has provided
spiritual meat He has not provided it to be looked at. He has not set
it before us that we may merely hear about it. He has provided it that
it might all of it be eaten. What is there for me? Lord, I am hungry,
grant me a meal. O, Souls, if you would hear sermons with the view of
knowing what there is in them for yourselves–that you might feed upon
them–what blessed work it would be to preach to you!

But we hold up the Bread of Heaven and descant upon its excellencies,
and tell you of its sweetness, and persuade you to taste and see how
good it is–and then we have the unhappiness of seeing you turn your
backs both upon it and upon the great Lord of the feast–and you go
your way as if you cared neither for Him nor for His bounties! The
disciples had

not this sorrow to distress them. None of the multitude refused the
Lord's provision. The miracle of the loaves and fishes would have been
a poor, lame business if the crowds had not eaten of the food so
wondrously supplied. What? Jesus Christ a Savior and no sinner saved?
Christ a Physician and no sick healed! It were a sorry business.

We must have the sinners saved and the sick ones healed, or Jesus is
not honored. Ought not this to encourage all of you to lay hold upon
Christ because He is set forth on purpose to be laid hold upon? Ought
not this to encourage you to feast upon Him because He must have been
meant to be fed upon? If you put two canaries in a cage tonight, and in
the morning when they wake they see a quantity of seed in a box, what
will the birds do? Will they stop and ask what the seeds are there for?
No, but they each reason thus–"Here is a little hungry bird and there
is some seed. These two things go well together." And straightway they
eat.

Even thus, if you were in your right senses and had not been perverted
by sin, you would say, "Here is a Savior and here is a sinner–these
two things go well together. Dear Savior save me, a sinner. Here is a
feast of mercy and here is a hungry sinner. What can that feast be for
but for the hungry, and I am such. Lord, I will even lay to at this
blessed festival of Yours and, unless You come and tell me to be gone,
I will feast till I am full." Did you ever know of Jesus say to a
sinner, "You have no right here"? No! But it is written, "Him that
comes to Me I will in nowise cast out." No one was upbraided for eating
that day, or for eating too much! Neither will any sinner ever be
blamed for taking hold upon Christ, or for taking too hearty a hold
upon Him!

Come and take Him, O anxious one, and the more fully you can take Him
the more will Jesus be pleased! Why flows the river but to make glad
your fields? Why sparkles the fountain but to quench your thirst? Why
shines the sun but for your eyes to be blessed with his light? As you
breathe the air around you because you feel it must have been made for
you to breathe, so receive the full, free salvation of Jesus Christ
because it is provided and you are in need of it! No mandate of Heaven
exists to shut you out, but every sacred doctrine is an argument why
you should come and welcome, and take Jesus freely!

The crowds all ate. None were so obstinate as to decline the free food.
Did they receive the bread which perishes? I charge you, then, accept
gladly the Bread which endures to life eternal!

VII. Now, when they had all eaten there came the CLEANING UP. There
must be a cleaning up after every banquet. They went round and gathered
up the fragments that remained and found 12 baskets full. This, as has
often been remarked, teaches us economy in everything that we do for
God–not economy as to giving to Him–but as to the use of the Lord's
money. Break your alabaster boxes and pour out the sacred nard with
blessed wastefulness, for that very wastefulness is the sweetness of
the gift. But when God entrusts you with any means to use for Him, use
those means with discretion.

When we have money given to us for use in God's cause we should be more
careful with it than if it were our own. And the same rule applies to
other matters. Ministers, when God gives them a good time in their
studies and they read the Word and it opens up before them, should keep
notes of what comes to them. The wind does not always blow alike, and
it is well to grind your wheat when the mill will work. You should put
up your sails and let your boat fly along when you have a good,
favoring breeze–and this may make up for dead calms. Economically put
by the fragments that remain after you have fed next Sunday's
congregation, that there may be something for hard times when your head
aches and you are dull and heavy in pulpit preparations.

But I think the beauty of it was this, that after they had all been fed
there was something left. Did I hear a heavy heart complain–"I hear of
a great revival and a great blessing, but I was not there. I was just
gone out of the town when that blessing came. Woe's me, I am too late."
Ah, there is plenty left. No penitent sinner is too late! Sometimes
friends come in at the end of a meal and there is nothing left beyond
the bare bones. But here is quite enough for you. Here are 12 baskets
full to the brim! You are not too late! Come and welcome! Peter, bring
some of that bread and fish. You have a whole basketful, hand it out.
Let this poor, latecomer have his portion. What if the revival did miss
you, and what if the Sabbath sermon did not bless you, though it
blessed so many? Nevertheless, come along, there is something left.

And there is this to be remarked, too, that there was something left
for the waiters. The 5,000 did all eat, but there were 12 Apostles who
managed the distribution, and they have a basketful each to themselves.
That was more than they had when they began! They had each a basketful.
Many a time we, who are the waiters upon you in the Gospel feast, do
not get so much as you do. I have sometimes, on Sunday, likened myself
to a butcher who is selling his meat. This person

comes for a joint, and that customer carries away a round of beef,
while a third has a sirloin. Thus I have dealt out the meat of the
Gospel while I have been very hungry, myself.

There seemed to be nothing for me but the chopper and the block. Is it
not so occasionally with you teachers in your classes? Have you not
found it so, you preachers in the street? You tread out the corn but
are as starved as muzzled oxen. It shall not always be so. Go on
feeding the people and you shall sit down afterwards–a great basketful
will remain for you at the end. I remember a good story of one of our
young Brothers from the College. He preached one Sunday afternoon what
he thought to himself was a dull, powerless sermon. He was going away
very much discouraged when an aged minister said to him, "My dear
Brother, there are two tokens that God can give you of your being
called, and they are such as He gave to Gideon.

"He can make the fleece wet while all the barn floor around is dry, or
he can reverse the token, and He can make all the ground wet while the
fleece is dry. Now, which token would you like to have?" "Oh, Sir,"
said the young man, "I see what you are driving at. If I could but hope
that all the people were wet, this afternoon, I would not mind being
dry myself." We may well choose, my Brothers, to be dry fleeces if all
our hearers are wet with the dew of Heaven! I like the sign best to
come as a wet fleece and a wet barn floor, too, and when the Lord gives
that, it is a favor, indeed! Such was the Divine generosity in this
case. He gave the food for the 5,000, and the 12 basketfuls for those
who waited on them, so that not a grumbler went away, nor a latecomer
had to say, "There was none for me," nor a waiter missed his share!

Now, Brethren, cannot you believe that if 50,000 men had come trooping
up that hill just then–if every blade of grass on that mountain had
suddenly turned into a man. And if from among the brake, the heather,
the bushes and the stones a great multitude such as that which shall
gather on the Judgment Day, had all started up on a sudden, and they
had all come and sat round the Savior, He would have still stood there
and multiplied the loaves and the fishes right away and continued
giving to His disciples till every one was filled?

I am sure that if all London should come to Jesus, they would find
enough in Him for them! If all my fellow countrymen, yes, and all the
human race that dwell upon the face of the earth, should be moved to
come crowding around the Savior, there would be no fear of exhausting
His power to save! We should not even have to hesitate for a moment,
but just stand and preach the Gospel to every creature, still using, in
the power of the Holy Spirit, the same cry, "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved!"

Come, then, weary, hungry Sinner! You have nothing to do but to take
Christ! You have not to bake the bread, or broil the fish! The bread
and fish are broken, blessed and ready. Open your mouth and enjoy the
food! Faith to receive what Christ provides is all that is needed. Lord
grant it! Take salvation freely. Freely Jesus gives it to you. Take it
and God bless you! And if you have never had Christ before, and you get
Him tonight, you will have a happy future, after the sort that we read
of in the Bible, when, "they began to be merry." Come, for all things
are ready! Turn not away! God bless you, for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Mark6:30-56. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–488, 500, 504.