weakness-in-strength by at last boldly confessing his
inability and the Lord's ability,--by saying, We have neither meat nor
money, but we have Thee. But Philip, like many another, missed his
opportunity, and, wholly oblivious of the resources of Jesus, casts His
eye rapidly over the crowd and estimates that "two hundred
pennyworth"[22] of bread would scarcely suffice to give each enough to
stay immediate cravings. Philip's friend Andrew as little as himself
divines the intention of Jesus, and naively suggests that the whole
provision he can hear of in the crowd is a little boy's five loaves and
two fishes. These helpless, meagrely furnished and meagrely conceiving
disciples, meagre in food and meagre in faith, are set in contrast to
the calm faith and infinite resource of Jesus.

The moral ground being thus prepared for the miracle in the confessed
inability of the disciples and of the crowd, Jesus takes the matter in
hand. With that air of authority and calm purpose which must have
impressed the onlookers at all His miracles, He says, "Make the men sit
down." And there where they happened to be, and without further
preparation, on a grassy spot near the left bank of the Jordan, and
just where the river flows into the lake of Galilee, with the evening
sun sinking behind the hills on the western shore and the shadows lying
across the darkened lake, the multitude break up into groups of hundreds
and fifties, and seat themselves in perfect confidence that somehow food
is to be furnished. They seat themselves as those who expect a full
meal, and not a mere snack they could eat standing, though where the
full meal was to come from who could tell? This expectation must have
deepened into faith as the thousands listened to their Host _giving
thanks_ over the scanty provision. One would fain have heard the words
in which Jesus addressed the Father, and by which He caused all to feel
how near to each was infinite resource. And then, as He proceeded to
distribute the ever-multiplying food, the first awe-struck silence of
the multitude gave way to exclamations of surprise and to excited and
delighted comments. The little lad, as he watched with widening eyes his
two fishes doing the work of two thousand, would feel himself a person
of consequence, and that he had a story to tell when he went back to his
home on the beach. And ever and anon, as our Lord stood with a smile on
His face enjoying the congenial scene, the children from