'Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the
works of God? 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work
of God, that ye, believe on Him whom He hath sent.'--JOHN vi. 28, 29.

The feeding of the five thousand was the most 'popular' of Christ's
miracles. The Evangelist tells us, with something between a smile and
a sigh, that 'when the people saw it, they said, This is of a truth
that Prophet that should come into the world,' and they were so
delighted with Him and with it, that they wanted to get up an
insurrection on the spot, and make a King of Him. I wonder if there
are any of that sort of people left. If two men were to come into
Manchester to-morrow morning, and one of them were to offer material
good, and the other wisdom and peace of heart, which of them, do you
think, would have the larger following? We need not cast a stone at
the unblushing, frank admiration that these men had for a Prophet who
could feed them, for that is exactly the sort of prophet that a great
number of us would like best if they spoke out.

So Jesus Christ had to escape from the inconvenient enthusiasm of
these mistaken admirers of His; and they followed Him in their
eagerness, but were met with words which lift them into another region
and damp their zeal. He tries to turn away their thoughts from the
miracle to a far loftier gift. He contrasts the trouble which they
willingly took in order to get a meal with their indifference as to
obtaining the true bread from heaven, and He bids them work for it
just as they had shown themselves ready to work for the other.

They put to Him this question of my text, so strangely blending as it
does right and wrong, 'You have bid us work; tell us how to work? What
must we do that we may work the works of God?' Christ answers, in