ii. 4) they are rendered, "What is to thee, and to me?" Certainly this looks suspicious-that the Roman Catholic church should pursue the same interpretation which we adopt in nine cases, and only in the tenth should deviate, and assume a new and strange translation. Can we be called uncharitable, if we suspect that she felt that, as she would not bring her worship up to the height of God's word, she would dare, in her awful blindness, to bring down God's word to the level of her worship.

It is plain to us, then, that our Lord here taught a very great lesson-that Mary had no partnership in his glory, nor might have any share in his extraordinary sorrow; that even the tears of a weeping mother might not mingle with the shed blood of a dying and atoning Son; that he must tread the wine-press alone, and that not even a mother must be with him to participate in his agony, or to lay claim to a single gleam of that glory which exclusively belongs to him. Does not this seem prophetic? Does it not seem to imply that some portion of his church would rise in which Ave Marias should supersede the more glorious ascription, "Abba, Father," and the intercession of a glorified saint should be

made to take the place of the intercession of the glorious and the almighty Son? I will give you a remarkable instance of this. The present pope of Rome has issued, on the subject of the immaculate conception, an encyclical letter from Gaeta, where he was lately a prisoner and an exile. To show how true is the Apocalyptic description," They repented not of their sins and their blasphemies," I will read what the present pope has written, and what was read in the course of 1849 in every Roman Catholic church throughout the world. "We also (says Pope Pius IX.) repose all confidence in this-that the blessed Virgin, who has been raised by the greatness of her merits above the choirs of angels up to the throne of God, and has crushed, under the foot of her Son, (the head of the old serpent,) and who, placed between Christ and the church, full of grace and sweetness, has ever rescued the Christian people from the greatest calamity, from the snares and attacks of all her enemies, taking pity on us with that immense tenderness which is the habitual outpouring of her maternal heart, to drive away from us, by her instant and all-powerful protection before God, the sad and lamentable mis

fortunes, the cruel anguish, the pains and anxieties which we suffer, and turn aside the scourges of Divine wrath which afflict us by reason of our sins, to oppose and divert the frightful streams of evil with which the church is assailed on all sides." The pope continues to say, "You know perfectly well, venerable brethren, [addressing the archbishops, bishops, and prelates of the Romish church throughout the world,] that the foundation of our confidence is in the most holy Virgin, since it is in her that God has placed the plenitude of all good, in such sort, that if there be in us any hope, if there be any spiritual health, we know that it is from her we receive it, because such is the will of Him who willed that we should have all by the instrumentality of the Virgin Mary." Such are the deliberate sentiments of Pope Pius IX., literally translated from the Latin, which I have now before me.

I have said then that this clause, “What have I to do with thee?" is prophetic; and certainly it is so. But our Lord gives a reason for what he said, and adds, " mine hour is not yet come." I do not think that the expression "hour" here is used in that solemn sense in which it is used in another portion of the gospel, where our Lord

exclaims," Father, the hour is come." The word may be rendered fairly and justly "opportunity;" and all that our Lord seems to me to teach by the expression is simply this: "The moment for me to perform the miracle is not yet arrived; the wine only begins to fail, I will wait till it is exhausted: if some of the wine remain in the vessels the impression I desire to produce by the miracle may be dissipated; they might say it was the wine that was left, and not wine instantly created by my mighty power; therefore, Mary, wait; you do not know, you must not interfere; I know the moment when it will be most for the good of the creature, and most for the glory of me.'

It is said, "And there were set six water-pots of stone," or, as it might be translated, "waterjars of stone." I cannot but notice here a hidden feature that shows the perfect reality of the story. When a story is concocted, you may detect points in it which will show that it is a fiction, that it does not cohere. Now these water-pots of stone were large jars which were brought in to every festival, and the guests drew water out of them for the washing of their hands before they sat down to their meal. The order was given, "Fill

full of instruction. I have selected the present, because it is the first, and not on any other ground, or because of any peculiar appropriateness in it.

I will preface each of my lectures by some introductory remarks on some branch of the evidence that may be adduced from the miracles. In my first I will give a brief exposition of what is meant by a miracle, and notice how a miracle is defined and designated throughout the word of God.

There are three great expressions by which miracles are designated—the first, a “miracle,” or "wonder;" the second, a "sign;" and the third, a "power." Very often our translation renders the same original word, dúvaμeis, in the plural—works, powers, miracles; but this is a rather loose way of translating it: each word is perfectly clear and well defined, wherever it is employed. The first epithet is that of "wonder." This presents the miracle in one of its aspects, but in its weakest and poorest aspect, and implies simply the impression which the performance of a miracle may make upon the senses of him that sees it. It merely implies that, by the act just witnessed, wonder, awe, amaze