gave it to the disciples to distribute among the people: it then became, by the Lord's blessing, all-sufficient to carry out, in fulness, his own divine will; for he had compassion on the people, therefore he fed them; and as the Divine compassion is unbounded, and appears to increase as man feels himself to be the object of it, so the food that the Lord distributed to the people, being the symbol of his love and compassion, did not diminish, but increase with the eating. The bread and the fish are the outward emblems of the good and truth by which the Lord feeds and nourishes the soul. The great multitude that were fed consisted of those who followed the Lord; and although among the whole only five barley loaves and two small fishes were found, denoting the small portion of good and truth which man possesses, as it were, in the beginning of his religious life, and these only of a low order (barley-bread and small fishes), yet if he desire more, and follow the Lord, then the little of good and truth man has at first, if brought to Jesus, will be received, and his little store, when blessed by the Universal Giver, will be abundantly increased: he will find, by his spiritual connection with the Lord, that, notwithstanding he has eaten to the full, yet a great abundance of fragments still remain.
Reader! turn thy thoughts within; know that the Lord gives to thee his love and wisdom, to nourish and strengthen thee on the way; these are signified by the bread and fish which the Lord first blessed, and then gave to the multitude. As they ate, the food increased; to instruct us, that as we receive, or grow in heavenly goodness and truth, so we more clearly
