BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 301

“There is a lad here with five barley loaves and two
small fishes.”

At this Ben Ezra brought his basket, and placing it at
the feet of the Master, heard more talk about the hungry
multitude, and then Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and.
prayed, and lo! the little meal became a banquet for the
multitude, and when all had had enough, the basket was too
small to hold the fragments that remained.

From that day forward Ben Ezra held his basket pre-
cious, and when, long years after, he became a pastor of
one of the early Christian churches, he was accustomed to
distribute the bread at the communion service with his own
hand from the basket he had carried with such joy in his
youth, and to the younger members of the flock he would
often talk of those days when Jesus trod the happy shores
of Galilee. Dying, he left this basket as a legacy, begging
all who followed him to hold it sacred. And so to this day
the descendants of Ben Ezra count their most precious heir
loom “The Basket of Ben Ezra.”

This story of Ben Ezra belongs to legendary lore and
is to be valued accordingly. As a matter of fact, we get
but one glimpse of the favored boy, and then he passes for-
ever from the Gospel record. What became of him? Did
he follow the Christ? Did he joy to tell his children, and
his childrens’ children, in after years, of the wonderful scenes
of that spring day by the sea of Tiberias?

Of all this we know nothing, but we do know that this
lad was an important figure in this scene, and we may urge
upon all thoughtful boys this great truth—that the lowliest
tasks may be more important in themselves and in their
relations to other events than we have ever dreamed.
How could this boy know that he was carrying in his