Chapter I.
From the miracle of the feeding of the multitude from
five barley loaves and two fishes he shows the majesty of Divine
Power.
We
read in the gospel
that when five loaves were at the Lord’s bidding brought to Him
an immense number of God’s people were fed with them. But
how
this was done it is impossible to explain, or to understand
or to imagine. So great and so incomprehensible is the might of Divine
Power, that though we are perfectly assured of the
fact
, yet we
are unable to understand the
manner
of the fact. For first one
would have to comprehend how so small a number of loaves could be
sufficient, I will not say for them to eat and be filled, but even to
be divided and set before them, when there were many more thousands of
men than there were loaves; and almost more companies than there could
be fragments of the whole number of loaves. The plentiful supply then
was the creation of the word of the Lord. The work grew in the doing of
it. And though what was visible was but little; yet what was given to
them became more than could be reckoned. There is then no room for
conjecture, for human speculation, or imagination. The only thing in
such a case is that like faithful and wise men we should acknowledge
that, however great and incomprehensible are the things which are done
by God, even if they are altogether beyond our comprehension, we must
recognize that nothing is impossible with God. But of these unspeakable
acts of Divine Power, we will, as the subject demands it, speaks more
fully later on, because it exactly corresponds to the ineffable
miracles of His Holy Nativity.