How could there be any miracle for such! They were well satisfied with
themselves, and

Nothing almost sees miracles
But misery.

Need and the upward look, the mood ready to believe when and where it
can, the embryonic faith, is dear to Him whose love would have us trust
him. Let any man seek him--not in curious inquiry whether the story of
him may be true or cannot be true--in humble readiness to accept him
altogether if only he can, and he shall find him; we shall not fail of
help to believe because we doubt. But if the questioner be such that the
dispersion of his doubt would but leave him in disobedience, the Power
of truth has no care to effect his conviction. Why cast out a devil that
the man may the better do the work of the devil? The childlike doubt
will, as it softens and yields, minister nourishment with all that was
good in it to the faith-germ at its heart; the wise and prudent
unbelief will be left to develop its own misery. The Lord could easily
have satisfied the Nazarenes that he was the Messiah: they would but
have hardened into the nucleus of an army for the subjugation of the
world. To a warfare with their own sins, to the subjugation of their
doing and desiring to the will of the great Father, all the miracles in
his power would never have persuaded them. A true convincement is not
possible to hearts and minds like theirs. Not only is it impossible for
a low man to believe a thousandth part of what a noble man can, but a
low man cannot believe anything as a noble man believes it. The men of
Nazareth could have believed in Jesus as their saviour from the Romans;
as their saviour from their sins they could not believe in him, for they
loved their sins. The king of heaven came to offer them a share in his