around the head of the lake and “out-went them,” and when He stepped from the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering thousands, waiting for Him.  Did some feeling of impatience break out among the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure?  Very likely, for they were so much like us.  But He was “moved with compassion” and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in teaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the bodily cravings of as many as five thousand.

There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and all centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat.  Literally tens of thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry.  So here.  At once it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of this wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke.  Certainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely successful, they thought.  Does this not rank with Satan’s suggestion in the wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of the Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering?  It was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him.  With the over-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the movement, “constrained"[44] the disciples to go by boat before Him to the other side while He dismissed the throng.  “And after He had taken leave of them”—­what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His irrevocable decision—­“He went up in the mountain to pray,” and “continued in prayer” until the morning watch.  A second night spent in prayer!  Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing habit of getting off alone to pray. Time alone to pray; more time to pray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, and all needs.  How much more there must have been in prayer as He understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know.

Deepening Shadows.

We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the final break.  The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across His path.  The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser.  The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put.  The inability of the crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked.  Many followers go back.  He seeks to get more time for intercourse with the twelve.  He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the outside,