Mark 5:43 And he charged them straightly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat. A GREAT THING NEVER MADE CHRIST FORGET A LITTLE THING. This is real greatness. Always as you go up to the highest, you find it more and more that the little things take a larger place. The disclosures of the microscope are quite as wonderful as the discoveries of the telescope. And if any thoughtful, religious man had to tell what had given him his highest idea of God, and made the deepest impression of His love, he would probably single out some very small event of life. It warn so wonderful, and so good, that the great God should care to notice, and superintend, and answer prayer, about such a little thing, which might have appeared so very insignificant. And, correspondingly, that is the greatest faith which is occupied about minutiae. There is many a man who believes that he is saved; but yet finds it very hard to trust God for the details of common life. GOD ALWAYS FEEDS THE LIFE HE GIVES. I see it in creation. The light and air created before vegetable life; the vegetable life before animal life; animal life before human life. To an observant eye, the whole earth is a table laid out, and amply spread for the sustenance of everything which God's hand has made. But it is not only concerning your bodily life, that you may rest secure that God will maintain the being He has made: there is the life of your intellect; and a man's mind needs food as much as his body. And has not God secured it? Are not subjects for thought, and for the exercise of our rational faculties, in every place? God's great lesson book around him, and beneath him, and above him, every moment, in all the beauties of earth, and sky, and air, and sea, teeming with their suggestive wonders and their great teaching facts? And now the great question is, "What is it which He gives us to eat, and which is the vitality of a soul? and how is it communicated?" In its strictest and truest sense, the answer to that question is only one — "Christ is the food of the soul." Never think that your Bible will be "feeding" of itself. Neither its words, nor its histories, nor its doctrines, nor its promises. You must find the Christ that is in it, before it feeds you. And the more Christ you find in the word, the more that word will feed your soul. Secondly, all spiritual acts between the soul and God feed. Meditation — adoration — prayer — secret converse. For the Holy Ghost flows through means. And he carries Christ into the very currents of your being, till Christ mingles with your very life blood. And each time that happens, it renews, it restores, it strengthens, it expands some part of the inner life; and by continual applications you have "life," and you have it more abundantly. Thirdly, that habit formed, and that communication opened to the heart, there is nothing which may not convey nutriment to a believer's soul. Everything that is beautiful — everything that is loving — everything that is wise — everything that is true — in nature, in art, in science, in history, and in Providence — everything may be an element of nutrition. It may all turn to spiritual nerve, and power, and growth. And fourthly, to a very great extent, Christian intercourse and fellowship feed. And you must remark that our Lord did not say to the damsel, "Eat," but to those before her, "Give you to her to eat." We are bound to feed one another. Whatever knowledge, or grace, or peace, or comfort, God has given you, He says, "Feed, with this, one of My lambs." But fifthly, and especially, the Holy Communion. This was ordained for this very end. It is essentially feeding. It is the feast where there is spread the richest, the sweetest, and the best! How can some of you expect your souls to live, if you neglect this great sustentation of all spiritual life? (J. Vaughan, M. A.). Parallel Verses KJV: And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat. |
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