ater number of wonderful things than
anyone else ever did. Indeed if we take the miracles that were done
by Moses, by Elijah and Elisha, in the Old Testament, and those that
were done by the apostles in the New Testament and put them all
together we shall find that they would not equal, in number, the
miracles of Christ. There are between thirty and forty of the mighty
works wrought by our Saviour mentioned in the gospels. And these, as
St. John says, are only a small portion of them. Ch. xxi: 25.

The other thing in which the miracles of Christ are different from
those performed by other persons, is _the way in which they were
done_. The prophets and apostles did their mighty works in the name
of God, or of Christ. Thus when Peter and John healed the lame man at
the gate of the temple they said:--"_In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth_, rise up and walk." Acts iii: 6. But Jesus had all the
power in himself by which those wonderful things were done. He could
say to the leper,--"_I will_; be thou clean." He could say to the
sick man:--"Take up thy bed and walk." When speaking of his death and
resurrection, he could very well say that it was his own power which
would control it all. His life was in his own hands. It was true, as
he said, "No man taketh it from me; but I lay it down of myself. I
have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again." John x:
18. And it was the same with all his other mighty works. He had all
the power in himself that was needed to do them.

And these miracles of Christ were the proofs that he was the Messiah,
the great Saviour, of whom the prophets had spoken. This was what
Nicodemus meant when he said to Jesus:--"We know that thou art a
teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou
doest, except God be with him." John iii: 2. And Jesus himself
referred to his miracles as the proof that God had sent him. John v:
36; x: 25.

And this was what he meant by the message which he sent to John the
Baptist, when his disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Are thou he that
should come, or look we for another?" Jesus answered and said unto
them, "Go, and show John again those things which ye do hear and see;
the blind receive their sight; and the lame walk; the lepers are
cleansed; and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up; and the poor
have the gospel preached unto them." Matt, xi: 2-6. These were the
very things which the prophets had foretold that Christ would do when
h