the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

Take notice that the present miracle of Healing resembles, in its method, two others: that, namely, performed on the man born blind; and that recorded in the ensuing chapters. . . . It follows,— as so often elsewhere,

And He charged them that they should 36 tell no man: but the more Ile charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

Many are the recorded examples of a similar act of disobedience; as, in St. Matthew ix. 30, 31, and in St. Mark i. 44, 45: where see the notes. Consider, however, if those whom our LORD forbad to preach Him, could not yet keep silence,-what should the zeal be of those who are sent forth with a strict command to preach!

and were beyond measure astonished, say- 37 ing, He hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

"All the works of the LORD are good," says the Son of Sirach; "so that a man cannot say, This is worse than that; for in time they shall all be well approved. And therefore praise ye the LORD with the whole heart and mouth, and bless the Name

St. John ix. 6, 7.

St. Mark viii. 23, 25.

...

of the LORD t." Doubtless there was no Work of the New Creation of which that might not with equal truth be said, which was emphatically declared of the Old: namely, that "Behold, it was very good" !"

The Prayer.

O LORD, we beseech Thee, absolve Thy people from their offences; that through Thy bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the bands of those sins, which by our frailty we have committed: grant this, O heavenly Father, for JESUS CHRIST'S sake, our Blessed LORD and SAVIOUR. Amen.

Ecclesiasticus xxxix. 33 to 35.

" Genesis i. 31.

A

PLAIN COMMENTARY

ON THE EIGHTH CHAPTER OF

St. Mark's Gospel.

1 CHRIST feedeth the people miraculously: 10 refuseth to give a sign to the Pharisees: 14 admonisheth His Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod: 22 giveth a blind man his sight: 27 acknowledgeth that He is the CHRIST, who should suffer and rise again: 34 and exhorteth to patience in persecution for the profession of the Gospel.

VIII. IN those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat,

Those were the days of our LORD's sojourn on the Eastern side of the Lake, described in the former chapter; when, (as St. Matthew informs usa,) "great multitudes came unto Him," and cast down their sick at His feet; "and He healed them." In those days it was, that,

JESUS called His disciples unto Him, and 2 saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days, and have nothing to eat :

a St. Matthew xv. 30.

It is impossible to read the statement repeated by both Evangelists", that the relief of this fainting multitude arrived on the third day, without calling to mind the mystery constantly attaching in Holy Scripture to the number three. Thus, on the third day" after he had resolved on his death, Abraham received Isaac from the dead, “in a figure" on "the third day," Pharaoh "lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief bakerd" on "the third day," the ten patriarchs were released from bondagee: in the third year, Joseph himself was released from the prisonf. Consider, too, the period of Jonah's liberation from the whale's belly; a most eminent type of the Resurrection of CHRIST on the third day. "After two days will He revive us," (it is said by the prophet Hosea ;)" in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sights."

"It is very observable," (says one,) "that our SAVIOUR had a continual care that none who followed Him, should ever wanth" As it follows,

3 and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far.

Some may have followed His blessed footsteps

b See also St. Matth. xv. 32.

c Hebr. xi. 10. Compare Genesis xxii. 4.

e Genes. xlii. 17, 18.

d Genes. xl. 20.

f Genesis xli. 1, &c.

g Hosea vi. 2. Some of these must needs be the places alluded

to by St. Paul,-1 Cor. xv. 4.

h Consider Isaiah xxxiii. 16. Ps. xxxvii. 3.

all the way from "the coasts of Tyre and Sidon," whence He had recently returned.

Our SAVIOUR'S "Compassion," (a human feeling,) immediately preceding an act of Divine power, recals a remark which has been already often made on the frequent evidence we meet with in the Gospels of two natures united in the one person of CHRIST. See the notes on St. Mark iii. 5, and on St. Luke viii. 23. But how affecting and comfortable becomes this expression of solicitude and anxiety for the bodily wants of His creatures, when it is considered that it is with the same Holy One that we also have to do!

And His Disciples answered Him, From 4 whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

Their own experience of the past ought surely to have supplied the answer to this question: for it was nearly in the same spot, only a short time before,―(as recorded in chapter vi.),—that their LORD, with five loaves, had fed as many thousands!.... On this, a very ancient writer makes a remark which is quite in the spirit of modern Criticism :-"Admire," he says, "in the Apostles their love of Truth. Though themselves are the writers, they do not conceal their own great faults; and it is no light accusation to have so soon forgotten so great a miracle."

He proceeds,-"Observe also their Wisdom in another respect; how they had overcome their