130 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



ing, tedious convalescence, He healed them all. Another 

 striking demonstration is recorded in St. Matthew 9 : 35. 

 And this healing of the body is part of His Gospel. 



His first miracle confirms His program for His own 

 life. There is great significance in this first miracle 

 of Christ at the wedding at Cana, the turning of water 

 into wine. The occasion, the place, the fact that it was 

 His first miracle and that the miracle was what it was, 

 should be noted. He knew how His every act would be 

 scrutinized. With Him there was no forgetting the im- 

 port of what He did, no waste movement, no slip, no 

 second try, no failure to take into account the vista of 

 history. His first miracle was so chosen by Him as to 

 reveal His meaning to the world, it is full of purpose. 

 By His first miracle He turned water into wine. In 

 these days there are many who are afraid of this miracle. 

 They think it would have been better had he turned wine 

 into water. He actually turned water into wine; He 

 gave color to that which had no color ; He gave taste to 

 the tasteless; He gave sweetness to that which lacked 

 sweetness; He gave brightness and sparkle where it had 

 not before existed; He satisfied man's taste. He com- 

 pletely changed the water into wine, something totally 

 different. He enriched water into wine. Surely He 

 comes into our dull, drab colorless lives and enriches 

 them in a way that is beyond the power of any person to 

 explain. No, the greatest miracle of all is the way He 

 comes into human life so that it is not what it was before 

 He came. So great is the change which He makes when 

 He comes into our lives that we call it a *'new birth"; 

 and it is nothing less. 



We have seen what Jesus considered the program for 

 His own life work. We have noted how He carried out 



