these miracles as he valued the utterance of the truth in words; but all
that he did had the one root, _obedience_, in which alone can any son
be free. And what is the highest obedience? Simply a following of the
Father--a doing of what the Father does. Every true father wills that
his child should be as he is in his deepest love, in his highest hope.
All that Jesus does is of his Father. What we see in the Son is of the
Father. What his works mean concerning him, they mean concerning the
Father.

Much as I shrink from the notion of a formal shaping out of design in
any great life, so unlike the endless freedom and spontaneity of nature
(and He is the Nature of nature), I cannot help observing that his first
miracle was one of creation--at least, is to our eyes more like creation
than almost any other--for who can say that it was creation, not knowing
in the least what creation is, or what was the process in this miracle?




II. THE BEGINNING OF MIRACLES.


Already Jesus had his disciples, although as yet he had done no mighty
works. They followed him for himself and for his mighty words. With his
mother they accompanied him to a merry-making at a wedding. With no
retiring regard, with no introverted look of self-consciousness or
self-withdrawal, but more human than any of the company, he regarded
their rejoicings with perfect sympathy, for, whatever suffering might
follow, none knew so well as he that--