ation instituted by the Jewish rulers respecting the
miracle of healing a man blind from his birth. In no modern court of
justice was a question of fact ever subjected to a severer scrutiny. And
the result was that they could not deny the miracle, but said in their
blind hatred of the Redeemer, "Give God the praise: we know that this
man is a sinner." So when they could not deny that Jesus cast out
devils, they alleged that he did it by the help of Satan; when it was
manifest that he had by a word healed a man that had lain
thirty-and-eight years a helpless paralytic, they blamed him for working
on the Sabbath-day; when Lazarus had been called out of his grave in the
presence of all the people, they said, "What do we? for this man doeth
many miracles." And then they consulted not to disprove these miracles,
but to put both him and Lazarus to death. Thus, in the good providence
of God, we have for the reality of our Lord's miracles the testimony of
his enemies and persecutors.

7. The _resurrection_ of Jesus is the miracle of miracles, of which we
may say with truth that it comprehends in itself all the other mighty
works recorded in the gospel history. We cannot but notice the
condescending care with which our Lord himself certified to his
disciples its reality. When he had suddenly appeared in the midst of
them, "they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had
seen a spirit." To convince them of the reality of his bodily presence,
he said, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me
and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And
when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet," that
they might see in them the prints of the nails. Finding them still
incredulous, "believing not for joy and wondering," he added another
conclusive proof that he was not a spirit, but a true man: he asked for
meat; "and they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb;
and he took it, and did eat before them." Luke 24:36-43. To the
unbelieving Thomas he offered the further proof which he had demanded:
"Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing."
The certainty of this great event the evangelist Luke sets forth in his
introduction to the Acts of the Apostles: "To whom also," (to the
apostles,) "he showed himself alive after his passion, by many
infallible proofs, being