The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

390 THE MIRACLE OF REPARATION
pleadings. His own life was in peril, and He was just
coming forth from His red sweat of agony, and yet He
could restore the maimed as triumphantly as in the
sunshine and amidst the singing of the birds. His
power arose in an eternal relation that was beyond
the accidents of time and place. Students of
psychology tell us that the powers last acquired are
the first to fade. This wonder-working prerogative
was not an accomplishment attained in the consummation
of His human development, but belonged to
the deep, abiding, elemental facts of His nature.
His
divine power and Godhead were asserted in His profoundest
humiliation.
Luke's record of this miracle supplies an appropriate
and effectual answer to one of the assumptions
in Renan's Life of Christ The captivating spokesman
of French Rationalism admits the perfect
sincerity of Jesus, but finds himself confronted by the
claim to miraculous
power and superhuman rank the
hero of his story had obviously made. The theory
devised to meet the difficulty is practically what we
should now describe as thought-transference, or unconscious
telepathy. As the young Prophet passed
from place to
place in the fulfilment of His vocation,
zealous friends and admirers encircled Him, and
watched His power over the crowds. At length they
began to credit Him with feats of instantaneous healing.
The belief of His enthusiastic comrades and
disciples dominated His own mind, and at length
He
imagined Himself a depositary of the wonderful
powers ascribed to Him by devoted worshippers.
And, according to this chapter in the ingenious
romance, the miracles began to dwindle with the