Chapter 20—The Loaves and Fishes
Jesus, to obtain a little season of repose, and for the benefit of his
disciples, proposed that they should go with him into a desert place and
rest awhile. There were suitable places for such retirement beyond the
sea from Capernaum, and they entered a boat to make their way thither.
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But some who were searching for Jesus saw him depart from the shore,
and the anxious people gathered together watching the slowly receding
boat. The news spread from city to city that Jesus was crossing the
sea; and many who were eager to see and hear him flocked to the place
where it was thought that his boat would land, while others followed
him over the water in boats. So when Jesus and his disciples landed
they found themselves in the midst of a multitude of people, pressing
forward on all sides to meet them.
Hundreds of the sick and maimed had been brought for Jesus to
relieve, and were disposed upon the ground in positions favorable to
arrest his attention. The crowd had awaited his coming with intense
anxiety, and their numbers were continually increasing. The Saviour
could not here find the rest he sought, for the waiting company com-
manded his attention; their needs enlisted his immediate sympathy and
aid. He could not steal away with his disciples to secure the coveted
retirement, and disappoint this expectant people. All maladies were
represented among the sick who claimed his notice. Some were burn-
ing with fever and unconscious of the anxious friends that ministered
to them. There were the deaf, the blind, the palsied, the lame, and
lunatic. In looking upon this wretched throng the heart of Jesus melted
with compassion.
He was so pressed upon by the multitude that he went a little apart
upon a grassy eminence, where he could be seen and heard by all the
people. Here he taught them through the entire day, and healed all
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the sick and afflicted that were brought to him. Those who had been
confused in their belief, and longed for some intelligent doctrine to
relieve their uncertainty, found their darkness dispelled by the beams
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