Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/351

 Ananias to  learn  His  Divine  will. Learn to  reverence and acknowledge  God  in  your  superiors  and  His  will  in theirs. Observe, also,  how  Saul  spent  three  whole  days in prayer,  without  either  eating  or  drinking,  before  he had  his  sight  restored  to  him. Fasting and  prayer  are the best  dispositions  for  the  receiving  of  spiritual  sight. Lastly, until  Ananias  had  imposed  his  hands  upon  him, "his eyes  being  open  he  saw  nothing." This represents the state  of  a  sinner,  whence  it  is  said,  "Blind  the  heart of  this  people,  that  seeing  they  may  not  see,  and  hearing they  may  not  understand." (Is. vi.  10.,  and  Luke  viii. 10)

I. It  is  recorded  in  the  gospel  of  to-day,  that  Christ fed the  multitude  that  followed  Him  into  the  desert,  by the  miraculous  multiplication  of  bread  and  fishes. " If I  send  them  away  fasting,  to  their  own  houses,"  He  said, " they  will  faint  in  the  way." (Mark viii.  3.)  We  are  all travelling through  the  desert  of  life,  to  our  own  country: "Whilst we  are  in  the  body,  we  are  absent  from  the Lord." (2 Cor.  v.  6.)  We  must,  therefore,  be  provided with necessary  food  for  our  long  journey,  lest  we  fail  in the  way,  or  linger,  through  weariness,  in  this  contemptible world, instead  of  passing  on  to  our  heavenly  country Therefore, as  the  father-in-law  said  in  the  book  of Judges,  "Taste  first  a  little  bread,  and  strengthen  thy stomach,  and  so  thou  shalt  depart." (Judges xix.  5.)

II. This strengthening  food  is   properly  the  Holy