The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-25
APPLIES MIRACLE
 ID PRESENT LIE Rev. W. R. Hendrix Breaches at St. Johns Church WORK OF THE CHURCH Pastor Draws impressive Lesson From the Miracle of Christ When
 He Fed the Great
 Multitude.
WORK OF THE CHURCH

St. Johns Methodist church, preached at that church yesterday on the miracle performed by Christ when he fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes.
 The speaker made applications from the following text. They need not depart give ye them to eat."-Matt. 14l6.
 He said In part:
 After a period of unusual activity dur ing which Jesus and His disciples had no leisure not so much as time to eat,' they took ship privately from capernaum, and went over to the northeastern shore of the Sea of Gallilee into a desert place to rest awhile.
 These weary men had scarcely reached their destination when they were inter eepted by d multitude of men, women and children who had left their homes and were pressing their way into the wilder ness in search of Jesus. Seeing the throng as 1t filed through the narrow plain sklrt- ing the seashore, Jesus was moved With compassion toward these shepherdless sheep, and when He had come down to them He spake many things to them con- corning the kingdom of heaven, and healed their diseased ones As the even- ing drew on the disciples of Jesus sug- gested that the multitude be sent way into the country and villages round about that they might procure food for them selves, but He said: "They need not de- part, give ye them to eat" Andrew, Sl- mon Peters brother, said, There IS lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?" After commanding the people to be seated, Jesus took the loaves and fishes and gave thanks and dis tributed to the disciples and the disciples to the multitude until all were satisfied and there remained of the fragments twelve baskets full.
 Significance of Miracle.
 We need but the second thought to sec that the miracles of Jesus are properly called signs by the author of the Fourth Gospel The profound significance of tho miracle must be found, not in the ap- peased hunger of the disciples and the multitude, but in the enlarged eoneep- ton of their relationship to Christ.
 Their hunger was scarcely satisfied be- fore they were thinking upon the higher meaning of this benevolent action. So ob- vious was it's significance that the in depreciation was unanimous in a company of more than 5000 men.
 The sympathy prompting the miracle and the power effecting it were clearly more than human Truly this Is the Mes siah. The promised Redeemer has come. So unhesitatingly did they accept this in- depreciation that they at once were ready to place a crown on the head of Great David's Greater Son"
 Doubtless the disciples saw in this ob- ject lesson a suggestion of "the greater works" they were soon to undertake Tn the name of Jesus. A new field or re- sources was opened to them and made subject to this command in every effort to minister to their fellowmen.
 With the consciousness of this new DOW CT there came inevitably an enlarged sense of obligation to serve the needy. We can never know to what extent this miracle influenced them in their trench dous undertaking to break the bread of life to a starving world.
 History and Allegory
 Here history and allegory meet In this incident of first-century history, there is an allegorical presxntation of Christi anity. Every period of Christian history has exhibited the essential features of the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
 The shepherdless flock looking for leader worthy of their confidence and sup port so enraptured with the words of Jesus that they forgot for the time ali other considerations, has had it's success sors in all generations. The preachers of His gospel have gone into every na- tion declaring His words to the people and there has alWlys been a multitude representing all grades of intelligence and every social and financial class who have heard eagerly the message and given themselves to the church.
 They find in the gospel a solace for their sorrows, strength in times of weak ness; inspiration to noble living, and the unequivocal promise of everlasting life To the gospel they give heed and to the church they look for guidance and sustenance in spiritual things
 The five loaves and two small fishes in the presence of these hungry thousands sets forth in no exaggerated terms the insuffcency of the merely human agen- cies of the church to accomplish the oyer- whelming task of leading men from sin unto righteousness; of building them upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets and making them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light"
 The unfriendly critic of the church berates the folly of the children of light. Their purpose is noble and worthy of wiser methods: but nothing Is so forlorn as the hope of bringing all men to right eousness through preaching and prayer meetings and mission societies and Sun day schools.
 Many faithful worker in the church has often surveyed his field and his equipment for doing the work and felt that the agencies employed are sadly inadequate to the task in hand. He has gone to his work with heavy heart, saying Lord what are these among so many?'
 The descent of divine power upon the inadequate food supply making it more than sufficient to meet the demand of the occasion, was an evidence of those perpetual streams of divine influence which have enabled the church for nearly nineteen hundred years to break the bread of life to the earnest souls who have worshiped around her altars.
 It was a prophecy of that divine bap- tism which makes ''the foolishness of nrea ching" the efficient instrurnenta1ity