blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel."

Among the many who were healed was one of whom special mention is made.
He was deaf and defective in speech. The people asked the Lord to lay
His hands upon the man; but Jesus led him away from the multitude, put
His fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue; then
looking upward in prayer, and sighing the while, He uttered a word of
command in Aramaic, "Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his
ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain." The manner of effecting this cure was different again from the
usual mode of our Lord's healing ministrations. It may be that by the
finger-touch to the closed ears and to the bound tongue, the man's faith
was strengthened and his confidence in the Master's power increased. The
people were forbidden to tell abroad what they had witnessed; but the
more they were charged the more they published the news. Their
conclusion as to Jesus and His works was: "He hath done all things well:
he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."

ANOTHER MEAL IN THE DESERT; OVER FOUR THOUSAND FED.[757]

For three days the glad crowds remained with Jesus and the apostles.
Camping out at that season and in that region entailed no great hardship
incident to exposure. Their supply of food, however, had become
exhausted; and many of them were far from home. Jesus had compassion
upon the people, and was loath to send them away fasting, lest they
would faint by the way. When He spoke to the disciples on the matter
they intimated the impossibility of feeding so great a number, for the
entire stock of food at hand comprized but seven loaves and a few little
fishes. Had they forgotten the former occasion on which a greater
multitude had been fed and filled with but five loaves and two small
fishes? Rather let us believe that the disciples remembered well, yet
deemed it beyond their duty or privilege to suggest a repetition of the
miracle. But the Master commanded; and the people seated themselves on
the ground. Blessing and dividing the small provision as before, He gave
to the disciples and they distributed to the multitude. Four thousand
men, beside women and children, were abundantly fed; and of the broken
but uneaten food there remained enough to fill seven baskets. With no
semblance of the turbulent enthusiasm that had followed the feeding of
the five thousand, this multitude disp