THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPEL.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. — SUPERIORITY OF THE NATURE OF JESUS: — Dreams.

— Star of the Magi.

— SECOND SIGHT: Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

— Kiss of Judas.

— Miraculous draught of fishes.

— Calling of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew. — HEALINGS: Issue of blood. — Blind man of Bethsaida. — Paralytic. — The ten lepers. — Withered hand.

— The bent woman. — The paralytic of the pool.

— Man born blind. — Numerous healings of Jesus.

— THE POSSESSED.

— RESURRECTIONS: Daughter of Jairus.

— Son of the widow of Nain.

— OTHERS: Jesus walks upon the water. — Transfiguration. — The tempest stilled. — Wedding at Cana.

— Multiplication of the loaves.

— The leaven of the Pharisees.

— The bread of Heaven. — Temptation of Jesus. — Prodigies at the death of Jesus. — Apparition of Jesus, after his death.

— Disappearance of the body of Jesus.

THE POSSESSED.

— They then came to Capernaum, and Jesus, entering first into the synagogue on a sabbath day, instructed them. They marveled at his doctrine, for he instructed them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now there was in the synagogue a man possessed by an impure Spirit, who cried out: What is there between thee and us, Jesus of Nazareth? Hast thou come to destroy us? I know who thou art: thou art the holy one of God. But Jesus, speaking to him threateningly, said: Hold thy peace, and come out of this man. Then the impure Spirit, shaking the man in violent convulsions, came out of him. All were so astonished that they asked one another: What is this?

What new doctrine is this? He gives orders with authority, even to the impure Spirits, and these obey him. (Saint Mark, Chap. I, vv. 21 to 27.)

— When they had gone out, they brought to him a dumb man, possessed by the demon. The demon being cast out, the dumb man spoke, and the people, seized with admiration, said: Never was the like seen in Israel. But the Pharisees, on the contrary, said: It is through the prince of demons that he casts out the demons. (Saint Matthew, Chap. IX, vv. 32 to 34.)

— When he had come to the place where the other disciples were, he saw around them a great multitude of people and many scribes who disputed with them. As soon as they caught sight of Jesus, all the people were seized with astonishment and fear, and they all ran to greet him. He then asked: About what were you disputing in assembly? A man, from the midst of the people, taking the word, said: Master, I have brought thee my son, who is possessed by a dumb Spirit; wherever it takes hold of him, it casts him to the ground, and the boy foams, gnashes his teeth, and becomes all withered. I asked thy disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Jesus said to them: Oh! unbelieving people, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. They brought him, and he had not yet set eyes on Jesus when the Spirit began to shake him violently; he fell to the ground and began to roll about foaming. Jesus asked the boy's father: Since when does this happen to him? Since he was a little child, said the father. And the Spirit has cast him many times, now into water, now into fire, to make him perish; if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus answered him: If thou canst believe, all is possible to him who believes. At once the boy's father cried out, bathed in tears: Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.

Jesus, seeing that the people came running in a crowd, spoke in a tone of threat to the impure Spirit, saying to it: Deaf and dumb Spirit, come out of this boy and enter into him no more. Then the Spirit, uttering a great cry and shaking the boy in violent convulsions, came out, and the boy remained as if dead, so that many said that he had died. But Jesus, taking him by the hands and supporting him, made him rise up. When Jesus returned home, his disciples asked him in private:

Why could we not cast out that demon? He answered: The demons of this kind cannot be cast out except by prayer and fasting.

(Saint Mark, Chap. IX, vv. 14 to 28.)

— They then presented to him a possessed man, blind and dumb, and he healed him, so that the possessed man began to speak and to see: All the people were seized with admiration and said: Is this not the son of David? But the Pharisees, hearing this, said: This man casts out the demons with the help of Beelzebub, prince of demons.

Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be ruined, and every city or house that is divided against itself cannot subsist. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom subsist?

And if it is by Beelzebub that I cast out the demons, by whom shall your sons cast them out? Therefore they themselves shall be your judges. If I cast out the demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you. (Saint Matthew, Chap. XII, 22 to 28.)

— Together with the healings, the deliverances of the possessed figure among the most numerous acts of Jesus.

There are some, among the facts of this nature, such as those narrated above, no. 30, in which the possession is not evident.

Probably, in that age, as still happens today, all the infirmities whose cause was not known were attributed to the influence of demons, especially dumbness, epilepsy, and catalepsy.

There are others, however, in which the action of the evil Spirits is in no way doubtful, cases that bear so striking an analogy with those of which we are witnesses, that in them are recognized all the symptoms of such a kind of affliction.

The proof of the participation of a hidden intelligence, in such a case, stands out from a material fact: it is the multiple radical healings obtained, in some Spiritist centers, by the mere evocation and doctrination of the obsessing Spirits, without magnetization or medications and, many times, in the absence of the patient and at a great distance from him.

The immense superiority of the Christ gave him such authority over the imperfect Spirits, then called demons, that it sufficed for him to order them to withdraw for them to be unable to resist that injunction. (Chap. XIV, no. 46.)

— The fact that some evil Spirits were ordered to enter into bodies of swine is what may be the least probable.

Besides, it would be difficult to explain the existence of so numerous a herd of swine in a country where that animal was held in horror and offered no usefulness for food.

A Spirit, because it is evil, does not cease to be a human Spirit, although so imperfect that it continues to do harm, after disincarnating, as it did before, and it is against all the laws of Nature that it should be possible for it to make its dwelling in the body of an animal; 4 in the fact, then, to which we refer, we must recognize the existence of one of those amplifications so common in times of ignorance and superstition; or else it is an allegory intended to characterize the filthy inclinations of certain Spirits.

— It seems that, in the time of Jesus, the obsessed and the possessed were in great number in Judea, whence the opportunity he had to heal many.

Without doubt, the evil Spirits had invaded that country and caused an epidemic of possessions. (Chap. XIV, no. 49.)

Without presenting an epidemic character, individual obsessions are very frequent and present themselves under the most varied aspects which, however, through a broad knowledge of Spiritism, are easily discovered; 4 they can, not rarely, bring harmful consequences to health, whether by aggravating already existing organic afflictions, or by occasioning them.

One day they will, incontestably, come to be listed among the pathological causes that require, by their special nature, special means of treatment.

By revealing the cause of the ill, Spiritism opens a new path to the art of healing and provides Science with a means of achieving success where until today it almost always sees its efforts thwarted, by reason of not attending to the primordial cause of the ill. (The Mediums' Book, 2nd Part, Chap. XXIII.)

— The Pharisees said that it was through the influence of demons that Jesus cast out the demons; 2 according to them, the good that Jesus did was the work of Satan; they did not reflect that, if Satan cast out himself, he would be committing utter folly.

It is to be noted that the Pharisees of that time already claimed that every transcendent faculty and, for that reason, imputed to be supernatural, was the work of the demon, for, in their opinion, it was from the demon that Jesus received the power he possessed; 4 this is one more point of resemblance between that age and the present one, and such a doctrine is still the one that the Church seeks to make prevail today, against the Spiritist manifestations. n [1] Not all theologians, however, adopt such absolute opinions on the demoniacal doctrine. Here is one whose value the clergy cannot contest, set forth by an ecclesiastic, Monsignor Freyssinous, bishop of Hermopolis, in the following passage from his Conferences on Religion, vol. 2, p. 341 (Paris, 1825): “If Jesus worked his miracles by the power of the demon, the latter would have labored for the destruction of his own empire and would have employed his power against himself. Certainly, a demon who sought to destroy the reign of vice in order to establish that of virtue would be a very singular demon. This is why Jesus, in order to repel the absurd accusation of the Jews, said to them: ‘If I work prodigies in the name of the demon, the demon is divided against himself, and consequently labors to destroy himself!’ a reply that admits of no rejoinder.” [see Défense du Christianisme ou Conférences sur la religion, by M. D. Frayssinous.]

It is precisely the argument that the Spiritists oppose to those who attribute to the demon the good counsels that the Spirits give them. The demon would then be acting like a professional thief who restored all that he had stolen and exhorted the other thieves to become honest persons.