"We collected the bread and fishes, and I, myself, laid them upon a rock before Jesus. He then said to us, 'Command the multitude to sit down on the grass.' And when they were all seated, he took the five loaves and laying his hands upon them and upon the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed them, and then, breaking them into fragments, he gave them to us his disciples, and bade us distribute to the people. As often as we would return for more, we found the loaves and the fishes undiminished, and I saw with wonder how, when this Prophet of God would break off a piece of one of the fishes or of a loaf, the same part would immediately be seen thereon as if it had not been separated; and in this manner he continued to break and distribute to us for nearly an hour, until all ate as much as they would. When no one demanded more, he commanded us to gather up the fragments which lay by his side, and there were twelve baskets full over and above what was needed. The number that was thus miraculously fed was about five thousand men, besides nearly an equal number of women and children. And this mighty Prophet, who could thus feed an army, voluntarily suffered forty days and nights the pangs of hunger in the desert! He seems a man in suffering, a God in creating!"
This wonderful miracle, my dear father, is one that has too many witnesses to be denied. Not a day passes that we do not hear of some still more extraordinary exhibition of his power than the preceding. Every morning, when men meet in the market places, or in the corridors of the Temple, the first inquiry is, "What new wonder has he performed? Have you heard of another miracle of this mighty Prophet?" The priests alone are offended, and speak evil of him through envy.
They even have gone so far as to assert that he performs his miracles by magic, or by the aid of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. "If we suffer him to take men's minds as he doth," said Caiaphas to Rabbi Amos yesterday, when he heard that Jesus had walked on the sea to join his disciples in their ship, and stilled a tempest with a word, "the worship in the Temple will be at an end, and the sacrifice will cease. He draweth all men unto him."
You have asked, dear father, in your letter, "Where is Elias, who is to precede Messias, according to the prophet Malachi?" This question Jesus himself has answered, says John, when a rabbi put it to him. He replied thus:
"Elias has come already, and ye have done unto him whatsoever ye listed."
"Dost thou speak of John the Baptist?" asked those about him, when they heard this.
"John came in the spirit and power of Elias, and therefore was he thus called by the prophet," was the answer of Jesus.
I did not tell you that besides the six disciples whom I have named, he has chosen six others, which twelve he keeps near his person as his more favored followers, and whom he daily instructs in the doctrines he came down from heaven to teach. Of the thousands who never weary of going from place to place in his train, he has also selected seventy men, whom he has despatched by twos into every city and village of Judea, commanding them to proclaim the kingdom of God is at hand, and that the time when men everywhere should repent and turn to God, has come.
It is now commonly reported that he will be here at the Passover. I shall then behold him, and, like the wise men, I shall worship him with mingled awe and love. I will again write you, dear father, after I see and hear him. Till then, believe me your affectionate daughter,
Adina.