THE FAMILY ALTAR
"So they did eat and were filled; and they took up of the
broken meat [pieces of bread] that was left — seven baskets."
Mark 8, 8.
With but seven loaves of bread and a few small fishes our
Lord fed a hungry multitude numbering 4,000 people, as this
chapter in Mark tells us. These people had followed Him into
the wilderness and abode with Him there three days, so eager were
they to hear His saving Gospel. In providing thus for their bodily
hunger our gracious Lord exemplifies and confirms most glori-
ously His saying: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things [namely, food and raiment]
shall be added unto you." How these attentive and unwearied
hearers of Christ's Gospel in the wilderness put so many of our
present-day Christians to shame who either neglect Gospel-preach-
ing altogether, or very rarely come to church, or when they do,
find a sermon of even twenty or thirty minutes too long, and
leave before the pastor pronounces the blessing ! These people
evidently do not seek the kingdom of God first and have no one
to blame but themselves if they cannot make ends meet in their
business or family. "Except the Lord build the house, they labor
in vain that build it!" "I have been young and now am old;
yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging
bread/' says David. (Psalm 37.) The Lord still gives His faithful
followers bread enough and to spare, if they will but abide with
Him and His Word, not squander His gifts, but "take up the
broken pieces," that is, observe pious thrift and economy, and
above all not forget to ask His blessing on their daily food. It is
a sad fact that praying at table is falling more and more into
disuse among us. But saying grace at meat is not a mere custom
we may disregard, but a Christian duty. Therefore "give thanks
unto the Lord; for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever."
