The issue of it was, that Christ's glory shone forth in it, shone forth as the Lord of creation, and as the Lawgiver to his creatures; and what I pray may be the issue of the exposition of it is, that you shall admire his power, be charmed with his mercy, believe in his sacrifice, rest upon his intercession, and anticipate that blessed day when the marriage festival shall not be that of a poor couple in Cana of Galilee, but when the bridegroom shall be the Lord of glory, and all redeemed saints shall constitute his chosen and his beautiful bride, and the marriage supper of the Lamb shall come, and we too shall be among those who have made themselves ready. Then

it will be seen that this bridal miracle in Galilee was a foreshadow of that great act at the restoration of all things, in which Jesus says, "Behold, I make all things new."

D

LECTURE II.

THE NOBLEMAN'S SICK SON.

So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judæa into Galilee.-JOHN IV. 46-54.

My last lecture was on the first miracle performed by Jesus, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. I then showed how gently the power of the gospel dawned upon a world that needed

it; how Christ came to perform a miracle to sanctify a wedding festival, before he came to do a miracle that was to sweeten all but a funeral bereavement. It is very clear that the gospel teaches humanity, in all its varied phases, to go to Christ. Is any man afflicted? What is he to do? To despair? No, but to pray. Is any man merry? What is he to do? Be extravagant? No, but to praise. Thus our prayers, our sorrows, and our joys equally lead us to Jesus; our smiles and our tears, our sweets and our sufferings, all the heights and depths, the lights and shadows of human experience lead the child of God to him who can add new beauty to the one, and communicate sustaining strength and comfort to the other.

I also noticed in my last lecture, that Jesus wrought a miracle to provide, not for an absolute necessity, but a luxury. The wine failed, and Jesus wrought a miracle, by producing more than a sufficient quantity; he turned the water into wine. I inferred from this the fact that, whether it be expedient to drink wine or not, it is not sinful to do so; that certainly wine is not condemned and reprobated in Scripture as an unchristian thing. Whether it be a poisonous thing, I suppose

people's experience, with that of medical men, will show; but whether it be an unscriptural thing, common sense, with the Bible open, can surely judge. If it be an unscriptural thing, Christ had not wrought a miracle in order to supply it. It has been urged, that the quantity of wine created by Christ must have been certainly a very tempting thing. Might he not, it is asked, have supplied just as much as the necessities of the company required? According to the statement given, he supplied some ninety or a hundred gallons. I answered, there is no more temptation to a sober man to be intoxicated when he drinks from a cask than when he drinks from a wine-glass. The secret of temperance is not in the wine-cellar, but in the landlord; it is not in what the man has, but what the man is; it is not circumstances that make a man sober, but the grace of God. Here is the grand mistake. People are constantly supposing that holiness and happiness depend upon, and result from, something outward; while, in truth, they depend on, and spring from, something inward. The world's prescription is to change the bed, God's is to heal the patient; the world's prescription is to give man something which man has not, or to take

away from man something which man has; God's prescription is to make man what man is not. Put a sober man amid all the wine that Spain can produce, and he will be a sober man still; put a drunkard any where, and he will be a drunkard still. It is the grace of God, and that alone, that can make men sober, righteous, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ our God and Saviour.

I also prefaced my last exposition by a few remarks upon the nature of miracles. I endeavoured to show that a miracle is not something which contradicts all the laws and ordinances of creation, but something rather which supplements them; but supplements them so gloriously and sublimely, that we can feel and see that creation's Lord is present. The miracle, for instance, that Jesus did when he turned water into wine, was not in contradiction to the laws, as they are called, of nature, but the most beautiful and triumphant completion of them. The ordinary law is, that the rain-drops and the dew-drops shall fall upon the vine-leaves and blossoms, and upon the vine-roots and fibres, and that these rain-drops and dew-drops absorb