fact that warm blood from the veins of a thoroughly healthy person, transfused through the veins of one who is emaciated or exhausted, quickens the wavering pulse and brings life to the dying.  It may be that through the nerve tissues, as well as through the veins, the same vitalizing force may be communicated, and that those who are in perfect health, both of body and of mind, may have the power of imparting life to those who are in need of it.  The miracles of healing ascribed to Jesus must have been miracles in the literal sense; they were wonders, marvels—­for that is what the word miracle means; that they were interruptions or violations of natural law is never intimated in the New Testament; they may have been purely natural occurrences, taking place under the operation of natural laws with which we are not familiar.  We are far from knowing all the secrets of this wonderful universe; the time may come when these words of Jesus will have larger meaning than we have ever given them:  “If ye abide in me, the works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father.”

The fact to be noted is, however, that the people with whom Jesus was brought into contact were made aware in many ways of the impartation of His Life to them.  “Of His fulness,” said John, “we all received, and grace for grace.”  There seemed to be in Him a plenitude of vitality, from which health and vigor flowed into the lives of those who came near to Him.  Nor does this seem to have been any mere physical magnetism; there is no intimation that His physical endowments were exceptional; the restoring and invigorating influence oftener flowed from a deeper source.  The physical renewal came as the result of a spiritual quickening.  He reached the body through the soul.  The order was, first, “Thy sins be forgiven thee”; then, “Arise and walk.”  If the spirit is thoroughly alive, the body more quickly recovers its lost vigor.  And it was mainly in giving peace to troubled consciences and rest to weary souls that He conferred upon those who received Him the great boon of life.

Thus Jesus proved Himself “the Prince of Life.”  In the early ages of the Church the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, came to be described as “the Lord and Giver of Life”; but that was because He was believed to be the Continuator of the work of Jesus—­the spiritual Christ.

There seems to be in this conception a great and beautiful revelation of the essential nature of Christianity.  There are many ways of conceiving of this, but I am not sure that any one of them is more significant than that which we are now considering.  Those words of Jesus to which I have before referred are wonderful words when we come to think upon them.  They occur in that discourse in which He describes Himself first as the Good Shepherd, and contrasts Himself with the thieves and robbers who have been ravaging the flock.  “The thief cometh not,” He says, “but that he may steal and kill and