MIRACLES.
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After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.—John, vi. 1, 2.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs.—Acts, ii. 22.
And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.
So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.—Acts, xix. 11, 12.
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles.—Hebrews, ii. 4.
O, what a scale of miracles is here— Its lowest round high planted in the skies; Its towering summit lost, beyond the thought Of man or angel. Young.
A miracle, with miracles enclosed, Is man; and starts his faith at what is strange? What less than wonders from the Wonderful; What less than miracles, from God can flow? Admit a God—that mystery supreme, That Cause uncaused, all other wonders cease. Young.
Who! O, who shall tell His acts miraculous? When His own decrees Repeals He, or suspends; when by the hand Of Moses or of Joshua, or the mouths Of His prophetic seers, such deeds He wrought, Before the astonished sun’s all-seeing eye, That faith was scarce a virtue. Need I sing The fate of Pharaoh, and his numerous band, Lost in the reflux of the watery walls, That melted to their fluid state again? Need I recount bow Samson’s warlike arm With more than mortal nerves was strung, to o’erthrow Idolatrous Philistia? Shall I tell How David triumphed, and what Job sustained? —But, O supreme, unutterable mercy! O love unequalled, mystery immense, Which angels long to unfold! ’Tis man’s redemption That crowns Thy glory, and Thy power confirms. Smart.
When God came down from Heaven, the Living God, What signs and wonders marked His stately way? Brake out the winds in music where He trode? Shone o’er the heavens a brighter, softer day? The dumb began to speak, the blind to see, And the lame leaped, and pain and darkness fled; The mourner’s sunken eye grew bright with glee, And from the tomb awoke the wondering dead. H. H. Milman.
“Come forth!” He cries, “thou dead!” O God, what means that strange and sudden sound, That murmurs from the tomb? That ghastly head, With funeral fillets bound? It is a living form— The loved, the lost, the won, Won from the grave, corruption, and the worm— “And is not this the Son Of God?” they whispered, while the sisters poured Their gratitude in tears, for they had known the Lord. Dale.
At His command fled fever, thirsty fiend, Whose parching fire dries up the wholesome blood: And madness wild, whose moon-struck eye-balls glare, With steady gaze, on vacancy: His touch, With healing virtue, from the withered limbs Drove nerveless palsy, that with fatal stroke ’Numbs every fibre, grafting death on life— Unnatural union! Scaly leprosy, At His appearance, vanished: dropsy, swol’n, Withdrew his bloated form, and each confessed A present God. William Bolland.
When raging winds Rushed from their caverns, and resistless swept The foaming waves, when hideous roared the storm, As if the wild contending elements Had strove for mastery, at His command The tempest ceased, the towering billows sunk In undulations calm, and zephyrs played Upon the bosom of the peaceful deep. William Bolland.