THE

METHODIST VISITOR;

A Magazine for all Branches of

THE METHODIST FAMILY.

FIFTH VOLUME.

"THAT THEY MAY BE ONE."-John xvii. 11.

LONDON:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

MDCCCLXXVI.

THE TWELVE BASKETS.

A NEW YEAR taxes ingenuity. Authors are put on their mettle. This is said from experience. The writer has frequently gone through it. For a long season he has had the pleasure of writing, month by month, something for the magazine now before the reader. Now and then he has been at a loss for a theme. At a season like the present such is sometimes the case. How may appropriate truths be introduced without tiresome sameness? That is the difficulty.

Once more, however, we have got over it. While cogitating we were fortunate enough to recollect a remark made by a friend. He compared the twelve months to those twelve baskets of fragments which the Apostles gathered after the Saviour had wrought His miracle of the loaves and fishes. The idea is a good one. It will bear following out. The resemblance is true and fruitful. For instance, the twelve baskets bore witness to our Lord's generosity— did they not? Five thousand men were fed. There were also women and children. Perhaps these numbered another five thousand. If so, what a vast number were provided for! A small town was, virtually, supplied with food. So lavish, too, was the store that, when all had satisfied themselves to the utmost, twelve baskets full of fragments remained. The twelve months tell equally a story of Divine generosity. As regards the temporal and the spiritual, God is most bountiful. Week by week He shows that He "giveth to all liberally." When directions were given for putting up the sanctuary pillars," on the top of the pillars there shall be lily-work," said the command. The world is not a big granary or warehouse to buy and sell and get gain in, but there is also ornament-hawthorns, violets, birds of rich plumage, and animals with resplendent coats. This spirit of infinite kindness is beautifully taught in the parable of the Prodigal Son. He not only had food, but the fatted calf; not merely raiment, but the best robe; not simply shoes, but a ring on his hand; and there was music and dancing to boot. Does God forgive? He "abundantly pardons." Does He bestow grace? It "passeth all understanding." Does he impart joy? It is "joy unspeakable." Does He say He will love us? He will "love us "freely." Does He vouchsafe victory over temptation? We are "more than conquerors." Does He promise admission to heaven? It is " an entrance abundantly." Verily, ours is no niggardly Benefactor!

The twelve baskets show that men often get more than they expect. Nobody imagined that there would be such a supply. Neither the Apostles nor the crowd imagined that they would experience what they did. The feast and its result were so entirely unlooked-for as to fill every one with astonishment. And this is characteristic. The