124 THE FIRST SIGN
carded His aureole, or wore it only on rare days and in retreat, as at the Transfiguration. You might have come to the feast, and marked all the notables, from near and far ; He would not be of them : this one is the bridegroom of the day, and this the bride ; this the bride's father or mother ; and this the ruler of the feast : and this an anonymous Stranger, one of the Nazareth party ; we have not seen Him in these parts before.
(2) All unobtrusively did He proceed. No stir was made in the water. No outflashing of golden splendour startled the guests. No curious eyes were bidden watch the strange phenomenon. No word from Christ announced the accomplish- ment of a wonder. " Draw out now, and bear unto the governor," were the simple words addressed to the servants by the Almighty Worker. In the briefest space of time the feat was done. So calmly, so suddenly does Christ work. So does He present the result without revealing the process. The great God hideth Him- self and yet worketh most gloriously in nature and in man.
(3) In working the miracle, Christ made use of common things. " There were six waterpots of stone set there." Christ used what was set there. He observed the greatest economy in the use of the miraculous. He did not create either the waterpots or the water ; the miracle was in the act of conversion only.
(4) The miracle required the co-operation of the servants and a signal exercise of the obedience of faith. The waterpots had to be filled with water, and on an occasion when to offer water to guests instead of wine would seem a serious insult and a bad omen, these servants had to pour out what they believed to be water, as if it were wine. We are not told when the change was wrought, at what precise moment " the conscious water saw its God and blushed." Probably not all the water in the waterpots became wine, but only that which in the obedience of faith the servants poured out into the glasses of the guests. The practical lesson, however, is obvious ; it is this : Fill the waterpots to the brim, leave the miracle to Him. He will not fail in His part if we do ours. The water will be turned into wine, prayer will become communion ; faith will become vision ; duty will become delight, and even pain a sacrament of blessing. But we must fill the waterpots to the brim. We must give to God full measure.
ST. JOHN II. II 125
Tf It is our part to obey God in simplicity ; what is commanded we are to do, and while we work He Himself will also work. He may do so in no visible way, as Christ here did nothing visibly, but He will be with us, effectually working. As the will of Christ pervaded the water so that it was endowed with new qualities, so can His will pervade our souls, with every other part of His creation, and make them conformable to His purpose. " Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it " ; this is the secret of miracle-working. Do it, though you seem to be but wasting your strength and laying yourself open to the scorn of onlookers ; do it, though in yourself there is no ability to effect what you are aiming at ; do it wholly, up to the brim, as if you were the only worker, as if there were no God to come after you and supply your deficiencies, but as if any shortcoming on your part would be fatal ; do not stand waiting for God to work, for it is only in you and by you that He performs His work among men.^
(5) It was a surprise to the guests. The ruler of the feast, on tasting the wine, unaware of any miracle, complimented the bridegroom on having acted contrary to general usage. " Every man," said he, " at the beginning doth set forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse ; but thou hast kept the good wine until now."
If One of the surprises that God treats us to in the course of our life, which will no doubt be also the overwhelming surprise of our first review of this life from the vantage-ground of a laro-er and better, consists in the disclosure of the way in which our anonymous Lover has been besetting us behind and before, and laying His hand upon us. How many constraints that make for salvation have never been registered in the consciousness or printed off on the memory ! how many times there are when qualification for duty is given concerning which we shall by and by hear the voice saying, "I girded thee, though thou hast not known me ! " ^
^ Readers of Cowper's Memoirs will remember the way in which Theodora, his cousin, pursued him through life with gift and remembrance and token that came he knew not from whence. At one time it was a snuff-box of tortoise-shell with a familiar landscape on the lid, and the portrait of his three hares; at another it was a seasonable gift of money; and tradition tells that upon one occasion, when these nameless tokens reached him, he remarked, " Dear Anonymous is come again ; God bless him"