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)
SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
Christ Your Viaticum.
" Arise and eat, for thou hast a great way to go." (3 Kings, xix. 7.)
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
