give a man faculties which he never enjoyed before. The work was altogether supernatural, and these means were made use of merely for the trial of the blind man's faith, and of the faith of all who should be parties to his cure.

This striking miracle was performed in the streets of Jerusalem, in the face of day, before all the world, and the man on whom the operation took place was a well-known beggar in that city. It was on the Sabbath-day, a day when people had full leisure to attend to any wonderful occurrence, and when, according to the corrupt notion of the Jews, to work such a cure was a crime, and, therefore, the more likely to be noticed. The case was so notorious that the man was brought before the Council and publicly examined. This rendered it very stri

king, and caused it to be clothed with an air of judicial authority. The blind man stood forth a living witness of the cure he had received. There was nothing to be said against evidence so palpable. He was a man of full age, and consequently not likely to be imposed upon himself, or to impose on others. He was excommunicated by the Pharisees for giving the glory of his cure to Jesus, and, therefore, it shows how much they were annoyed by this miracle, as being a strong confirmation of the truth of Christ's pretensions.

Having stated three cases of life, all differing from each other, in which the stupendous power of Christ was publicly and strikingly manifested in support of his divine claim, I shall now proceed to

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instance three cases of death, each varying somewhat from the other, in which this supernatural agency was again openly displayed.

The First is the case of the Ruler's daughter.

Whilst our blessed Saviour was at Capernaum, a Ruler of the Synagogue there came to him, and besought him to go to his house, and heal his daughter, for she lay a dying. But before he set out, it was announced to him that the child was dead. On his arrival at the house, he found a considerable company assembled, to whom he said, "Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead." Jesus, unmoved by their derision, went into the inner chamber where the deceased was laid, accompanied only by three of his disciples, and the father and the mother of the damsel, and taking her by the hand he thus addressed her, "Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years."

Now, the most remarkable points in this miracle were, that the father of the child was a man of some consequence, the head or Ruler of the Synagogue at Capernaum, and, probably, a man of some opulence. His religious character, therefore, set him far above all suspicion of conspiring to practice a fraud upon the world for the sake of Christ's fame, of whom he seems to have known nothing except by common report, and whose disciple he does not appear to have previously been. The daughter was a child of a very interesting age, and, therefore, better calculated

to excite attention, and was, likewise, old enough to be herself good evidence of her miraculous revival. The company assembled had all satisfied themselves of her actual death, and were, therefore, very competent to establish that fact. And the place where the miracle was wrought, being a town of some eminence in Galilee, and the scene of much of our Saviour's ministry, rendered the event more notorious, and served to corroborate the other testimony he gave to his divine character and pretensions.

His Second miracle of this kind was performed on the Widow's son.

As he entered the city of Nain, he met a funeral procession coming out of its gates, and a large concourse of persons in attendance. The circumstances of the case, independent of the connections of the family, were probably the cause of so great an assemblage. He was a young man, an only child, and his mother was a widow, all very moving incidents. Our blessed Lord, unasked, went up to the bier and thus addressed the corpse; "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother."

Now, if we examine the particulars of this case, we shall find it to be an advance upon the last. The Ruler's daughter was a child; this was a young man. In her, death had only just taken place; in him, it must have occurred at least some hours before. In the one case, the body must have been still warm, and the limbs pliant; in the other, it must have

been cold and stiff. The restoration of the girl was in a house, where only five persons, and those interested in the matter, were present with our Lord; the restoration of the young man was in the open air, upon a bier, on the road to interment, and before a large concourse of spectators, many of whom, no doubt, were drawn together by curiosity and sympathy, and were quite disinterested. Upon the performance of this miracle, the people "glorified God, saying, That a great Prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people."

The Last miracle I shall adduce, is the resurrection of Lazarus. This, likewise, was an advance upon both the preceding ones.

Lazarus was a beloved friend of Christ's. He lived at Bethany, nigh to Jerusalem, and when Christ arrived there, in consequence of a message he had received from the sisters of his friend, Lazarus had been dead four days, and the funeral was over. Jesus, therefore, proceeded at once to the grave, accompanied by Martha and Mary, and many Jews who had come to comfort the sisters. It was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Having directed the stone to be removed, and the body being thus exposed to the eye, "he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes."

Now, the advance to be noticed will be found in these particulars; that Lazarus was a man of full growth; that he was not only dead but buried; that he had lain in the grave four days; that his body,

according to the course of nature in an Eastern climate, must in that time have become putrid; that he was a person of some note, and consequently more calculated to make a noise in the world by his resurrection; that he dwelt, not as in the two former instances, in a remote district, but nigh to the metropolis of Judea; that the fame of his revival must have been instantly carried into the city and spread there; and that the heads of the Jewish nation could, at once, satisfy themselves by ocular demonstration, of the truth of the miracle; that such a miracle was calculated to excite great alarm in Christ's enemies, and that it did create such alarm by the following statement of their opinion and conduct; "If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death."

All these miracles bear ample testimony to the truth of Christ's holy character, and prove that his pretensions to be the Son of God were supported by powers which none but God could bestow. He who could invert the order of nature, who could restore health and understanding to the sick, sight to the blind, and life to the dead, had a right to say that he came forth from God, and was of divine extraction. His words were supported by acts which proved his authority, and his acts were a striking evidence of the unlimited power he possessed. None can control the operations of nature but he who is