Miracles of Our Lord | Page 6

that we worship him. But power is no object of adoration,
and they who try to worship it are slaves. Their worship is no real
worship. Those who trembled at the thunder from the mountain went
and worshipped a golden calf; but Moses went into the thick darkness
to find his God.
How far the expectation of the mother Mary that her son would, by
majesty of might, appeal to the wedding guests, and arouse their
enthusiasm for himself, was from our Lord's thoughts, may be well
seen in the fact that the miracle was not beheld even by the ruler of the
feast; while the report of it would probably receive little credit from at
least many of those who partook of the good wine. So quietly was it
done, so entirely without pre-intimation of his intent, so stolenly, as it

were, in the two simple ordered acts, the filling of the water-pots with
water, and the drawing of it out again, as to make it manifest that it was
done for the ministration. He did not do it even for the show of his
goodness, but to be good. This alone could show his Father's goodness.
It was done because here was an opportunity in which all circumstances
combined with the bodily presence of the powerful and the prayer of
his mother, to render it fit that the love of his heart should go forth in
giving his merry-making brothers and sisters more and better wine to
drink.
And herein we find another point in which this miracle of Jesus
resembles the working of his Father. For God ministers to us so gently,
so stolenly, as it were, with such a quiet, tender, loving absence of
display, that men often drink of his wine, as these wedding guests
drank, without knowing whence it comes--without thinking that the
giver is beside them, yea, in their very hearts. For God will not compel
the adoration of men: it would be but a pagan worship that would bring
to his altars. He will rouse in men a sense of need, which shall grow at
length into a longing; he will make them feel after him, until by their
search becoming able to behold him, he may at length reveal to them
the glory of their Father. He works silently--keeps quiet behind his
works, as it were, that he may truly reveal himself in the right time.
With this intent also, when men find his wine good and yet do not rise
and search for the giver, he will plague them with sore plagues, that the
good wine of life may not be to them, and therefore to him and the
universe, an evil thing. It would seem that the correlative of creation is
search; that as God has _made us_, we must find him; that thus our
action must reflect his; that thus he glorifies us with a share in the end
of all things, which is that the Father and his children may be one in
thought, judgment, feeling, and intent, in a word, that they may mean
the same thing. St John says that Jesus thus "manifested forth his glory,
and his disciples believed on him." I doubt if any but his disciples knew
of the miracle; or of those others who might see or hear of it, if any
believed on him because of it. It is possible to see a miracle, and not
believe in it; while many of those who saw a miracle of our Lord
believed in the miracle, and yet did not believe in him.
I wonder how many Christians there are who so thoroughly believe
God made them that they can laugh in God's name; who understand

that God invented laughter and gave it to his children. Such belief
would add a keenness to the zest in their enjoyment, and slay that
sneering laughter of which a man grimaces to the fiends, as well as that
feeble laughter in which neither heart nor intellect has a share. It would
help them also to understand the depth of this miracle. The Lord of
gladness delights in the laughter of a merry heart. These wedding
guests could have done without wine, surely without more wine and
better wine. But the Father looks with no esteem upon a bare existence,
and is ever working, even by suffering, to render life more rich and
plentiful. His gifts are to the overflowing of the cup; but when the cup
would overflow, he deepens its hollow, and widens its brim. Our Lord
is profuse like his Father, yea, will, at his own sternest cost, be lavish to
his brethren. He will give them wine indeed. But even they who know
whence the good wine comes, and joyously thank the giver, shall