THE SECOND MIRACLE OF CANA.

So considered, we have here the power of the Word in two ways. And first, the power of the Word to heal. We are saved simply by believing in Christ as He is presented through the Word of God. "He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son" (1 John v:10). We are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever" (1 Peter 1:23). Apart from the Word of God, we know nothing whatever about Christ. It is true that the believer's experience accords with the word, for: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself," but even after belief, we still need the Word to interpret to us that very experience which the Lord gives to his own.

There is great need amongst Christian workers of a revival of faith in the power of the simple Word of God. His promises concerning the Word have ever been confirmed by his providences. Multitudes have been convicted and converted by the silent power of the Scriptures, quite apart from argument or emotional appeal.

And the incident recorded in our lesson marks another way in which the Word has power. The healing Word, "Go thy way; thy son liveth," was spoken at one o'clock P. M. Capernaum, where the healing took effect, was about twenty miles away. The late Prof. Curtis rode from Cana to Capernaum easily in a little more than four hours. The Nobleman might have been back and by his son's side by five o'clock, yet we read that it was the next day before he went home. What kept that father, but a moment before Jesus spake the life-restoring Word so filled with fear and distress about his son, quietly at Cana all those hours? Nothing, clearly, but a new born faith in the power of Jesus' word, and a new born love for Jesus Himself. Nothing less than this could have kept that father from the bedside of his son.

And here again the experience of millions confirms the truth of the incident; for the Christian's assurance rests on the word of God and on that alone. We are saved by believing in Christ according to the Word of God, and we have quietness and assurance by believing what the Word says about the finished work of Christ. When the Word says: "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses," the heart of the believer has assurance.