n
books, and may be supposed to be true or false." The same may be said of
other religions: if one is true, all are true; if one is accepted, all
must be accepted. Therefore, miracles are not a proof. For if they are
proofs for those who are present, they fail as proofs to those who are
absent.

But in the day of the Manifestation the people with insight see that all
the conditions of the Manifestation are miracles, for They are superior to
all others, and this alone is an absolute miracle. Recollect that Christ,
solitary and alone, without a helper or protector, without armies and
legions, and under the greatest oppression, uplifted the standard of God
before all the people of the world, and withstood them, and finally
conquered all, although outwardly He was crucified. Now this is a
veritable miracle which can never be denied. There is no need of any other
proof of the truth of Christ.

The outward miracles have no importance for the people of Reality. If a
blind man receives sight, for example, he will finally again become
sightless, for he will die and be deprived of all his senses and powers.
Therefore, causing the blind man to see is comparatively of little
importance, for this faculty of sight will at last disappear. If the body
of a dead person be resuscitated, of what use is it since the body will
die again? But it is important to give perception and eternal life--that
is, the spiritual and divine life. For this physical life is not immortal,
and its existence is equivalent to nonexistence. So it is that Christ said
to one of His disciples: "Let the dead bury their dead;" for "That which
is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit."(88)

Observe: those who in appearance were physically alive, Christ considered
dead; for life is the eternal life, and existence is the real existence.
Wherever in the Holy Books they speak of raising the dead, the meaning is
that the dead were blessed by eternal life; where it is said that the
blind received sight, the signification is that he obtained the true
perception; where it is said a deaf man received hearing, the meaning is
that he acquired spiritual and heavenly hearing. This is ascertained from
the text of the Gospel where Christ said: "These are like those of whom
Isaiah said, They have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not; and
I healed them."(89)

The meaning is not that the Manifestations are unable to perform miracles,