as, no doubt, simple amazement at
the power which so easily and unostentatiously turned the water into
wine. This Person, they must have felt, stood in a peculiar relation to
Nature. In fact, what John laid as the foundation of his Gospel,--that
the Christ who came to redeem was He by whom all things were at first
made,--Jesus also advanced as the first step in His revelation of
Himself. He appears as the Source of life, whose will pervades all
things. He comes, not as a stranger or interloper who has no sympathy
with existing things, but as the faithful Creator, who loves all that He
has made, and can use all things for the good of men. He is at home in
the world, and enters physical nature as its King, who can use it for
His high ends. Never before has He wrought a miracle, but in this first
command to Nature there is no hesitation, no experimenting, no anxiety,
but the easy confidence of a Master. He is either Himself the Creator of
the world He comes to restore to worth and peace, or He is the Delegate
of the Creator. We see in this first miracle that Christ is not an alien
or an usurper, but one who has already the closest connection with us
and with all things. We receive assurance that in Him God is present.

3. But it was not only the Creator's power which was shown in this
miracle, but some hint was given of the ends for which that power would
be used by Christ. Perhaps the disciples who had known and admired the
austere life of the Baptist would expect that He whom the Baptist
proclaimed as greater than himself would be greater in the same line,
and would reveal His glory by a sublime abstemiousness. They had
confessed Him to be the Son of God, and might naturally expect to find
in Him an independence of earthly joys. They had followed Him as the
king of Israel; was His kingly glory to find a suitable sphere in the
little family difficulties that poverty begets? It is almost a shock to
our own ideas of our Lord to think of Him as one of a marriage party; to
hear Him uttering the ordinary salutations, civilities, and enquiries of
a friendly and festive gathering; to see Him standing by while others
are the principal figures in the room. And we know that many who had
opportunity to observe His habits could never understand or reconcile
themselves to His easy familiarity with all kinds of people, and to His
freedom in partaking in mirthful scenes and hilarious entertainments.

And just because of this difficulty