THE KING’S BUSINESS
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6:31). But He did not thus escape them, they “ followed Him.” And how did He feel about it; vexed? Annoyed? N o; “ He welcomed them” (Luke 9:11, R. V .). Oh, wonderful love! His own need sinks out o f sight as He beholds theirs.' The desire and need o f rest is forgotten and the whole day is spent in preaching and healing (Luke 9:11, 12). Jesus was interested in and solic itous about the multitude. They were never to Him “the common herd,” or~“ the rab ble,” they were “ sheep not having a shep herd,” and He Himself shepherded them. He. ever sought the crowds, for it was the crowds that: needed Him. I f He were really the acknowledged head o f the church today, the church would not seek the bou- - levards where the Jew rich live to the neg lect o f the alleys , where the many, poor swarm. Tuesday, May 16. - John 6:5-9. It was several hours, as we learn by a comparison o f the four accounts, before this crowd would need feeding, but Jesus considers their coming need at once and sets His disciples to considering it. He takes it for granted that they are to eat with Him, so He puts to Philip the ques tion, “Whence are we to buy bread that- these may eat?” It is to test Philip, not to solve any perplexity o f His own, that He asked the question. Will Philip rise to the occasion and say, “Master, there is no difficulty at all about that, because you are here, Thy hand is quite sufficient for the emergency.” Philip might well have done that for he ha'd seen the water become wine in another emergency, and he had seen other manifestations o f the fullness o f divine power that there was in Jesus, But alas! Philip was like us, slow o f Spiritual perception and slow o f faith, and just as Moses in the wilderness was utterly at a loss to know how God could provide flesh for six hundred thousand „ footmen, so Philip is at a loss to see how Jesus can provide bread for five thousand (cf. Num. 11:21-23; Ps. 78:19). How often we are aghast at the seemingly colossal work
Sunday, May 14. 1 John 5:41-47,
While the Jews would not receive Jesus who was so abundantly attested as the true Messiah and Son o f God, there is another one coming whom they will receive, though He comes in His own name and not in the name o f the Father. That Coming One whom they will receive is the Anti-Christ. The whole secret o f Jewish unbelief and o f modern unbelief, as well, is laid bare in Jesus’ question in verse 44: it is because men seek the glory that comes from men rather than seeking the glory that comes from God only. In this connection our Lord gives a clear and ringing testimony to the Mosaic authorship o f the Pentateuch, and to the importance o f believing what is therein contained (vs. 45-47). He says those who do not believe Moses’ writings cannot believe Jesus’ own words. Belief in the Pentateuch was much more vital according to. Jesus’ way o f thinking than it is according to the' thinking o f many modern theologians. They tell us it matters not what we think about, the Pentateuch. Jesus says it matters everything; for the same frame o f mind that leads one to reject what Moses said therein will lead one inev- the Pentateuch and leads one to disbelieve itably to reject Jesus’ own words, and this has been the exact outcome o f the destruc tive criticism, it began by rejecting what Moses said, and it is ending by rejecting Our Lord had made a journey to an un frequented spot to be alone with His dis ciples for much needed rest and counsel, but He did not get the rest He sought. He lived continually , in a crowd (Matt. 4:24, 25; 8 :1 ; 12:15; 13:2; 14:14; 15:30, 31). There is nothing more wearisome than a crowd unless the heart is very full o f love. But when we grow so tired o f the crowd let us remember how the Master’s Jife was spent. It was the incessant “com ing and going” o f the crowd that had driven Jesus to seek this seclusion (Mark what Jesus says. Monday, May 15. John 6:1-4.
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