ST. JOHN II. II 135
sunshine. Behold, and drink, and see my glory without the vineyard, since you had forgotten to see it in the vineyard ! " ^
^ An Eastern fable says that a boy challenged his teacher to prove the existence of God by working a miracle. The teachei, who was a Brahmin, procured a large vessel filled with earth, in whicli he deposited a kernel. In the place where the kernel was put a green shoot soon appeared ; the stem put forth leaves and branches, which soon spread over the whole apartment. It then budded with blossoms which, dropping off, left rich ripe fruits in their place. In the space of an hour the little seed had grown into a noble tree. The youth, overcome with amazement, exclaimed: "Now I know there is a God, for I have seen His power." The priest smiled, and said, " Simple child ! that which you have seen is going on every day around you, only by a slower process. Every cocoanut, every pineapple, every banana, every mango, every guava, is a manifestation of Divine power, and would be considered by us miraculous if not so common. If the stars appeared only once in a thousand years, how we should wonder and adore ! The thinking brain, the beating heart, the vibrating nerve, the forests, fields and flowers, the earth and sea teeming with living organisms, ranging from the jelly-fish up to man, the vast universe, with its starry worlds, its glorious constellations, its planetary systems all moving to the motions of the Divine will, are one great miracle. He who created still sustains. The hand that made all things still holds all things up. In God we live and move and have our being." ^
Sick of myself and all that keeps the light
Of the blue skies away from me and mine,
I climb this ledge, and by this wind-swept pine
Lingering, watch the coming of the night.
'Tis ever a new wonder to my sight:
Men look to God for some mysterious sign,
For other stars than those that nightly shine,
For some unnatural symbol of His might : —
Would'st see a miracle as grand as those
The Prophets wrought of old in Palestine ?
Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows
In yonder west; the fair, frail palaces.
The fading alps and archipelagoes.
And great cloud-continents of sunset seas.^
^ A. A. Brockington, The Seven Signs, 28. 2 L. Crookall, Topics in the Tropics, 41, * X^omas Bailey Aldrich,
136 THE FIRST SIGN
2. It was the glory of spiritual truth. — To see this is harder than to discern the presence of creative power ; it requires higher faculties in the soul. Yet most assuredly Christ's first miracle meant something more than a natural wonder brought about by, and indicating the presence of, superhuman power. It was, besides this, a parable and a prophecy ; it was a discovery of laws whereby the King of the new spiritual empire would govern His subjects.
(1) In Christ's Kingdom, as at Cana, nature is ever being silently changed into something higher and better than it was when He came to visit it. Its poor materials are being gradually transfigured. Christ sits down at the board at which mankind feasts on the good things provided by the Creator ; and when nature fails, as, if unassisted, she must fail, to satisfy man's deeper wants, grace does the rest. The water of man's natural character is constantly made wine by grace. Easy good-nature becomes charity towards God and man ; well-exercised reason or far-sighted judgment is heightened into a lively faith which deals with the unseen as with a reality. The natural virtues, without losing their original strength, are transformed into their spiritual counterparts; and religion bestows a grace, an intelli- gence, an interest in life, a consistency and loftiness of aim, which are recognized by those who do not comprehend its secret. When a man who has been aimless, selfish, discontented, ill at ease with his work, and with all around him, suddenly becomes light- hearted, cheerful, active, ready and rejoicing to spend himself for others ; full of the qualities which are as welcome to man as they are approved by God ; of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance — how is this to be accounted for, but by His Presence who proclaims, "Behold, I make all things new ! " He does not destroy what was good in the old, but He emiches it by His invigorating and transforming power, turning the water of nature into the wine of grace. Now, as at Cana of Galilee, men see the result ; they do not see the process by which it is reached.
(2) At Cana of Galilee, too, we note not merely the secret transforming power of Christ in His Kingdom, but the law of continuous improvement which marks His work. The words which the president of the feast addressed to the bridegroom
ST. JOHN II. 11 137
were an unconscious utterance of high spiritual truth. "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse." That is the way of the world ; that is the history of the life of animal pleasure, and even of the life of mental pleasure, when a man's horizon does not extend beyond the grave. A time comes when the keenest enjoyments of the past pall upon the taste; when the finest faculties are sensibly giving out, and everything heralds decay. " But thou hast kept the good wine until now." That is the rule of Christ in His Kingdom ; a rule of continuous progress from good to better, from better to best, if man will only will to have it so.