but it is equally Christ in both; it is equally Divine power in both, only we have got so accustomed to the long process, that we say it is the natural thing, and are so little accustomed to the short process, that the senses are startled and the mind is awakened. The difference is here too-that in the one case we see a succession of continuous causes, and in the other we see the actor come forth himself, lay aside the machinery by which he has acted heretofore, and in one word say, "Let this water be wine;" and, recognising its Creator and its God, it be

comes so.

som

In the next place, a miracle is not, as son

have tried to show, contrary to nature. Neer

accept this definition of it, because, as I

Shall

show you in subsequent lectures, Strauss, one of

the most subtle and most able infidels of m times, (but who, I rejoice to say, has b plied to by his own countrymen, Neand lock, and many others whose genius

odern

een re

er, Tho

and piety

are unquestionable,) has laid hold this, and

tried to do great mischief by it.

A miracle is

not a thing against nature, but something above

and beyond what we call nature.

For instance,

when we read of our Lord's healing the sick, and

in other instances raising the dead, we hear it said this is contrary to nature. It is no such thing. We call it contrary to nature, because we think that sickness is natural. Sickness is not natural; it is an unnatural thing; it is a discord in a glorious harmony; it is a blot upon the fair creation; it is most unnatural; and was never meant originally to be. When we see our Lord raising the dead, we say it is unnatural; yet it is not so, because death is the unnatural thing, and the natural thing is putting an end to death, and bringing back everlasting and glorious life. Thus, then, the healing of the sick and the quickening of the dead are not contrary to nature, but the perfection of nature; it is the bringing back of nature to her pristine state; it is restoring the primeval harmony; it is the evidence of ancient happiness, and the augury of future; it is the demonstration to us that all the prophecies that describe the glorious paradise that is to be are possibilities: and hence, every miracle of our Lord was a flower snatched from the paradise that is to be, a tone of the everlasting jubilee sounding in the depths of the human heart; a specimen of that new Genesis, under which there shall be no more sickness, nor sor

row, nor trial, but wherein former things shall have passed away, and all things shall be made new. Therefore a miracle is not contrary to nature, but it is the expansion, the perfection, the ennobling of nature, it brings nature back to what it was. And that teaches us what I think I ought to impress, that we ought never to be satisfied with this world, as if it were what it was meant to be; it is all out of course; and it always seems to me, therefore, that the physician is carrying forward, as it were, the work that Christ does perfectly; that he is here as a testimony to us, that the great Physician will one day

do perfectly what his earthly agent does imp

fectly. And so with every other curative

Pro

cess that goes on; it is an augury and foreste

of the perfection that will be; it is a testà that nature has gone wrong, and an earnes nature will yet be put right by nature's I

But besides all this, a miracle is sq more; it is an addition of a new and a n

ony

st that ord. mething

obler law

to the law that previously was; it isot the de

struction of any existing law, but adding to that law a more perfect

is super

and glorious

one. Thus, when I raise my arm, the power of

gravitation ought to make that

arm instantly

fall; but when I keep that arm up it is not by the destruction of the law of gravitation, but it is the superadding of a higher law, the great law of life. So, we can conceive that when Christ does a miracle, it is not the extinction of that which is really a right law, but it is the bringing from heaven a nobler law, to be superadded to, and render more glorious, the law that is. I will not dwell longer upon this subject at present, but reserve a portion of my remarks upon it for next lecture. I proceed, therefore, at present to unfold the illustration and the instance of what I have said in that beautiful miracle, the first that Jesus performed, in Cana of Galilee.

Before I enter upon this miracle clause by clause, let me notice how graciously Christ begins his career of miracles and mercies. The day begins, not with a burst of meridian splendour, but its dawn peeps from behind the hills, tinges the sea with its beautiful and rosy colours, and then shines more and more 'unto the perfect day." So rose softly, beautifully, and progressively the Sun of righteousness. His first miracle was not a miracle of tremendous power, but one of quiet and gentle be

neficence. The Saviour's first miracle dawned in the form of a nuptial benediction upon a young couple, beginning the journey, and about to attempt the battle of life. He heightened domestic joys before he went forth to mitigate domestic sorrows. He began rejoicing with them that do rejoice before he went on his pilgrimage to "weep with them that weep." Jesus sympathized first with the happy before he went forth to succour the miserable and the unhappy. And who was it that so sympathized? Who was it that had a heart thus opened to the softest and most responsive sympathies? He on whose so there pressed the load of a world's transgressio He who saw a long and rugged road before.

and at the end of that road the cross to

which he

should be nailed.
heavy with the prospect of coming
could yet pause in that rough road,
aside to that little cottage in that sec
hamlet, to show that whilst he could
world's sins, he would recognise the

He whose spirit was thus

agony, nd step

questered

expiate a

remains of

Eden happiness and Eden bliss even in the

humblest and poorest of mankind.

And it is at

such a time, let me add, such a time of happiness and joy, as that which is described at the mar