The miracles of the Lord receive far less attention, in the present day, as proofs of His Divine mission, than they ought to do. Too many regard them with a silent incre- dulity, as things which, not having seen, they cannot be expected to care for. Not a few openly avow that they do not believe in the possibility of such things as miracles, and would fain strike them out of the Bible as weak stories, which, like burdensome lumber, should be cast overboard, to lighten the ship.
But, after all, there is no getting over the fact, that in the days when our Lord was upon earth. His miracles produced an immense effect on the minds of men. They aroused attention to Him that worked them. They ex- cited inquiry, if they did not convert. They were so many, so public, and so incapable of being explained away, that our Lord's enemies could only say that they were done by satanic agency. That they were done they could not deny. " This man," they said, " doeth many miracles." (John xi. 47.) The facts which wise men pretend to deny now, no one pretended to deny eighteen hundred years ago.
Let the enemies of the Bible take our Lord's last and greatest miracle — His own resurrection from the dead — and disprove it if they can. When they have done that, it will be time to consider what they say about miracles in general. They have never answered the evidence of it yet, and they never will. Let the friends of the Bible not be moved by objections against miracles, until that one miracle has been fairly disposed of. If that is proved unassailable, they need not care much for quib- bling arguments against other miracles. If Christ did really rise from the dead by His own power, there is none of His mighty works which man need hesitate to believe.
Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, the honour that Christ piits upon the /Scriptures. He refers to them in
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concluding His list of evidences, as the great witnesses to Hira. " Search the Scriptures," He says : " they are they which testify of me."
The " Scriptures" of which our Lord speaks are of course the Old Testament. And His words show the important truth which too many are apt to overlook, — that every part of our Bibles is meant to teach us about Christ. Christ is not merely in the Gospels and Epistles. Christ is to be found directly and indirectly in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets. In the promises to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David, — in the types and emblems of the cere- monial law, — in the predictions of Isaiah and the other prophets, — Jesus, the Messiah, is everywhere to be found in the Old Testament.
How is it that men see these things so little ? The answer is plain. They do not " search the Scriptures." They do not dig into that wondrous mine of wisdom and knowledge, and seek to become acquainted with its con- tents. Simple, regular reading of our Bibles is the grand secret of establishment in the faith. Ignorance of the Scriptures is the root of all error.
And now what will men believe, if they do not believe the Divine mission of Christ? Great indeed is the obstinacy of infidelity. A cloud of witnesses testify that Jesus was the Son of God. To talk of wanting evidence is childish folly. The plain truth is, that the chief seat of unbelief is the heart. Many do not wish to believe, and therefore remain unbelievers.
Notes. John Y. 30—39.
30. — [/ can of rkine own self etc.] This verse is perhaps one of the most difficult in Scripture. I* is so because the subject of it is that great mystery, — the unity of God the Father and God the Son. Man has no language to express adequately the idea that has to be conveyed. The general thought of the verse seems to be aa follows : —