the Lord upon this his word, and you will find that in it you have all that is needful for the life of your souls. After this

Verse 29. "He (Jesus) sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala."

Prayer.

O God! without thy Son to be our Saviour, this world would be a weary wilderness. The nature of all is hard as stone. There is no food for our souls, no rest for our minds, but in Christ the Lord. We are far from our heavenly home. In our own strength we never could reach it—we should but faint by the way. O holy Jesus, bless thy word unto the strengthening and refreshing of our souls, and then whensoever we die, we shall have enough for every spiritual want. Give us that calm faith that fears no evil, so that only we are thine for ever and ever. Amen.

You have heard before that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were two great parties in the Jewish nation.* They hated each other, for all their opinions were different; but they agreed in this one thing, to do all they could to hinder men from believing that Jesus was the Messiah. They hated him and his doctrine. They could not say any thing against the wonderful works He had done; but since He said, that He was the Son of God, they persisted that some sign more striking than miracles performed on earth- a sign from heaven itself-was needful to convince them. It is written

* See Vol. I. page 73, 74.

MATTHEW xvi. 1-3. "The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times ?"

In the common things of life they had no difficulty. They could tell very well the changes of the weather by the changes of the sky; if the sun set red and glowing, they knew it promised another day of fair weather; but if it rose in a red and lowering sky, they knew they must prepare for a storm. Why did they not in like manner use their sense to help them to understand the signs of the times? There could be but one reason-they were not willing. All that the prophets had foretold of the coming of the Messiah had come to pass. The very time had been marked-the place of his birth—the manner of his birth-that his mother should be a virgin of the family of David—the place wherein He should be brought up -his way of life-the wonderful works He should do-the gracious words He should speak-yes, even the very hatred of his countrymen, all had been foretold, nothing remained now but the last sign of all, his death, his burial, and his rising again on the third day. These men could tell by the face of the sky whether it would be fine or stormy weather; but they could not tell that Jesus was the Messiah, because they would not consider "the signs of the times." A storm, such as never had been from the beginning, was about to sweep over their land; and when it was past, a bright morning of hope and love, and holy knowledge, would dawn upon the world. Night was coming upon Israel, but the morning that should follow would grow brighter and brighter, till the perfect day of

God should for ever disperse the clouds and darkness of Satan's kingdom. This the Pharisees and the Sadducees knew not, because they would not consider. Therefore, our Lord " sighed deeply in his spirit," and said unto them :—

Verse 4. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."

MARK Viii. 13. "And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side." (of the sea of Galilee.) The Lord Jesus had before explained to them how the sign of the prophet Jonas was to be given them, by his body being buried out of their sight, and by his rising again on the third day.* He would not now repeat his words, but left them to recal them if they chose. Their sky was every day becoming more red and lowering. Oh! would they but, while yet they might, discern the signs of the awful time so fast coming upon them. And we too can tell the weather from the sky, why do we give less heed to the word of God? When in the sky we see a storm coming, we seek for shelter. Every thing in ourselves, in our lives-every thing that happens about us, tells us with one voice, that the Bible is true. Why then do we not all, before it be too late, believe its warnings-seek for the shelter it points out-even the pardoning mercy of Christ the Lord?

MATTHEW xvi. 5. "And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread :

MARK viii. 14. "Neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf."

MATTHEW xvi. 6-8. " Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which, when Jesus

perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?"

MARK viii. 17—21. “Have ye your hearts yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand

MATTHEW XVI. 11, 12. "That I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." We see that the apostles were not naturally more spirituallyminded than ourselves. They were slow of understanding the lessons Christ would teach them; and, in spite of all he had done for them already, they had not learnt to trust him for the time to come. When their Lord told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, it seems they thought that He was displeased with them for having provided no bread of their own, and that he meant to warn them against eating with or receiving food from his enemies. They required again and again to be taught, that the leaven of which they were to beware was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees on the one hand, and on the other the profane spirit and worldly-mindedness of the Sadducees, and of those who were named Herodians.*

* Vol. II. page 146. According to Mark the words of our Lord are, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod," meaning that party to which Herod gave his name-the Herodians-whose opinions were much the same as those of the Sadducees, in matters belonging to religion, while they were even yet more worldly-minded, inasmuch as they mixed politics with what they looked upon as their freedcm from religious prejudice. See Olshausen, Vol. II. p. 212.

VI.

MARK VIII.

When Jesus and his apostles landed on the other side of the sea of Galilee,

MARK Viii. 22-26. "He cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look `up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his own house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any man in the town."

There are many things which it will be well for us to observe in this miracle. Jesus again was come to Bethsaida, one of "those cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, but "which repented not."

Jesus had said, "Woe unto thee, Bethsaida.* He had declared, that in the awful judgment-day, the condemnation of the people who dwelt there, would be to a greater punishment, than that of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, those cities of the plain which God had destroyed for their wickedness by fire from heaven;t for Sodom and Gomorrah had never heard the voice of the Son of God calling upon them to repent and turn unto the Lord. They had never seen the mighty works, which proved that the time was come for the kingdom of Satan to be

* Matt. xi. 21. Luke ix. 10.

† Gen. xviii. 20-33. xix. 23-25.