tances, hid himself from his brethren.

With this thought in our minds, surely we seem to see a new and further
meaning still, in the narrative before us. Christ spoke of buying
bread, when He intended to create or make bread; but did He not, in
that bread which He made, intend further that Heavenly bread which is
the salvation of our souls?--for He goes on to say, "Labour not for the
meat" or food "which perisheth, but for that food which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you." Yes,
surely the wilderness is the world, and the Apostles are His priests,
and the multitudes are His people; and that feast, so suddenly, so
unexpectedly provided, is the Holy Communion. He alone is the same.
He the provider of the loaves then, of the heavenly manna now. All
other things change, but He remaineth.

And what is that Heavenly Feast which we now are vouchsafed, but in its
own turn the earnest and pledge of that future feast in His Father's
kingdom, when "the marriage of the Lamb shall come, and His wife hath
made herself ready," and "holy Jerusalem cometh down from God out of
heaven," and "blessed shall they be who shall eat bread in the kingdom
of God"?

And further, since to that Feast above we do lift up our eyes, though
it will not come till the end; and as we do not make remembrance of it
once only, but continually, in the sacred rite which foreshadows it;
therefore, in like manner, not in the miracle of the loaves only,
though in that especially, but in all parts of Scripture, in history,
and in precept, and in promise, and in prophecy, is it given us to see
the Gospel Feast typified and prefigured, and that immortal and
never-failing Supper in the visible presence of the Lamb which will
follow upon it at the end. And if they are blessed who shall eat and
drink of that table in the kingdom, so too blessed are they who
meditate upon it, and hope for it now,--who read Scripture with it in
their thoughts, and endeavour to look beneath the veil of the literal
text, and to catch a sight of the gleams of heavenly light which are
behind it. "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for
they hear; for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous
men have desired to see those things which ye see, but have not seen
them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."
"Blessed are they which have not seen, and yet have believed." Blessed
they who see i