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

412 THE LAST MIRACLE
In the first place, let us consider the witness of this
narrative to the reality of toe Resurrection.
the Lord I
n
" It is
John Ruskin has a passage on this scene in the 4th
volume of Modern Painters (§ 16), which is so full of
vivid pictorial colour that 1 will venture to quote it at
length
u
I suppose there is no event in the whole life of
Christ to which, in hours of doubt or fear, men turn
with more anxious thirst to know the close facts of it,
or with more earnest and passionate dwelling upon
every syllable of its recorded narrative, than Christ's
showing Himself to His disciples at the Lake of
Galilee. There is something pre-eminently open,
natural, full fronting our disbelief, in this manifestation.
The others, recorded after the Resurrection,
were sudden, phantom-like, occurring to men in profound
sorrow and wearied agitation of heart ; not, it
might seem, safe judges of what they saw. But the
agitation was now over. They had gone back to their
daily work, thinking still
their business lay net-wards,
unmeshed from the literal rope and drag.
'
Simon
Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto
him, We also go with thee.' True words enough,
and having far echo beyond those Galilean hills.
That night they caught nothing ;
but when the morning
came, in the clear light of it, behold !
a
Figure