aining that position. When the question comes to us, as in
Providence it does, "Will ye also go away?" we must have our answer
ready.

The answer of Peter clearly shows what it was that bound the faithful
few to Jesus; and in his answer three reasons for faith may be
discerned.

1. Jesus satisfied their deepest spiritual wants. They had found in Him
provision for their whole nature, and had learned the truth of His
saying, "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and He that believeth
on Me shall never thirst." They could now say, "Thou hast the words of
eternal life." His words made water into wine, and five loaves into five
thousand, but His words did what was far more to their purpose,--they
fed their spirit. His words brought them nearer to God, promised them
eternal life, and began it within them. From the lips of Jesus had
actually fallen words which quickened within them a new life--a life
which they recognised as eternal, as lifting them up into another world.
These words of His had given them new thoughts about God and about
righteousness, they had stirred hopes and feelings of an altogether new
kind. And this spiritual life was more to them than anything else. No
doubt these men, like their neighbours, had their faults, their private
ambitions, their hopes. Peter could not forget that he had left all for
his Master, and often thought of his home, his plentiful table, his
family, when wandering about with Jesus. They all, probably, had an
expectation that their abandonment of their occupations would not be
wholly without compensation in this life, and that prominent position
and worldly advantage awaited them. Still, when they discovered that
these were mistaken expectations, they did not grumble nor go back, for
such were not their chief reasons for following Jesus. It was chiefly by
His appeal to their spiritual leanings that He attracted them. It was
rather for eternal life than for present advantage they attached
themselves to Him. They found more of God in Him than elsewhere, and
listening to Him they found themselves better men than before; and
having experienced that His words were "spirit and life" (ver. 63), they
could not now abandon Him though all the world did so.

So is it always. When Christ sifts His followers those remain who have
spiritual tastes and wants. The spiritual man, the man who would rather
be like God than be rich, whose efforts after worldly advancement are
not half as earnest a