THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPEL.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. — SUPERIORITY OF THE NATURE OF JESUS:

— Dreams. — Star of the magi.

— DOUBLE SIGHT: Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

— Kiss of Judas.

— Miraculous catch of fish.

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

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

— Man blind from birth. — Numerous cures by Jesus.

— THE POSSESSED.

— RESURRECTIONS: Daughter of Jairus.

— Son of the widow of Nain.

— OTHERS: Jesus walks upon the water. — Transfiguration. — 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.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

SUPERIORITY OF THE NATURE OF JESUS.

— The facts that the Gospel relates and that have until now been considered miraculous belong, for the most part, to the order of psychic phenomena, that is, to those whose primary cause is the faculties and attributes of the soul.

Comparing them with those that were described and explained in the preceding chapter, one will recognize without difficulty that there is between them an identity of cause and of effect.

History records others analogous to them, in all times and within all peoples, for the reason that, since there have been incarnate and disincarnate souls, the same effects have necessarily been produced.

One may, it is true, contest, with regard to this point, the veracity of History; but, today, they are produced before our eyes and, so to speak, at will and by individuals who have nothing exceptional about them.

The mere fact of the reproduction of a phenomenon, under identical conditions, suffices to prove that it is possible and is subject to a law, and is therefore not miraculous.

The principle of psychic phenomena rests, as we have already seen, upon the properties of the perispiritual fluid, which constitutes the magnetic agent; 7 upon the manifestations of spiritual life during corporeal life and after death; 8 and, finally, upon the constitutive state of the Spirits and the role they play as an active force of Nature.

These elements being known and their effects being proven, one has, as a consequence, to admit the possibility of certain facts that were rejected so long as a supernatural origin was attributed to them.

— Without prejudging anything as to the nature of the Christ, a nature whose examination does not fall within the scope of this work, considering him merely a superior Spirit, we cannot fail to recognize him as one of those of the most elevated order and placed, by his virtues, very far above terrestrial humanity.

By the immense results that it produced, his incarnation in this world must necessarily have been one of those missions that the Divinity entrusts only to its direct messengers, for the fulfillment of its designs.

Even without supposing that he was God himself, but solely an envoy of God to transmit his word to men, he would be more than a prophet, inasmuch as he would be a divine Messiah.

As a man, he had the organization of carnal beings; 5 but, as a pure Spirit, freed from matter, he must have lived more by spiritual life than by corporeal life, to whose weaknesses he was not subject.

The superiority of Jesus in relation to men did not derive from the particular qualities of his body, but from those of his Spirit, which dominated matter in an absolute manner, and from those of his perispirit, drawn from the most quintessential part of the terrestrial fluids (Chap. XIV, no. 9).

His soul, probably, was bound to the body only by the bonds strictly indispensable; constantly freed, it surely gave him double sight, not only permanent, but of exceptional penetration and far superior to that which ordinary men commonly possess.

The same must have occurred, in him, with regard to all the phenomena that depend upon the perispiritual or psychic fluids.

The quality of those fluids conferred upon him an immense magnetic force, seconded by the incessant desire to do good.

Did he act as a medium in the cures he performed? May he be considered a powerful healing medium? No, for the medium is an intermediary, an instrument of which disincarnate Spirits make use.

Now, the Christ had no need of assistance, since it was he who assisted others; he acted by himself, in virtue of his personal power, as the incarnate may do, in certain cases, in the measure of their strength.

What Spirit, moreover, would dare to instill into him its own thoughts and charge him with transmitting them?

If he received any foreign influx, that could come to him only from God; according to the definition given by a Spirit, he was a medium of God. DREAMS.

— Joseph, says the Gospel, was warned by an angel, who appeared to him in a dream and who advised him to flee into Egypt with the Child. (Saint Matthew, chapter II, vv. 19 to 23.)

Warnings by means of dreams play a great role in the sacred books of all religions.

Without guaranteeing the exactness of all the facts narrated and without discussing them, the phenomenon in itself has nothing abnormal about it, knowing, as one knows, that, during sleep, is when the Spirit, freed from the bonds of matter, enters momentarily into spiritual life, where it meets those who are known to it.

It is frequently this occasion that the protecting Spirits take advantage of to manifest themselves to their protégés and to give them more direct counsel.

Numerous are the cases of warnings in dreams, but one must not infer from this that all dreams are warnings, nor, still less, that everything one sees in a dream has a meaning.

It is proper to include among superstitious and absurd beliefs the art of interpreting dreams. (Chap. XIV, no. 27 and 28.)

STAR OF THE MAGI.

— It is said that a star appeared to the magi who went to adore Jesus;

that it went before them indicating the way to them and that it stopped when they arrived. (Saint Matthew, chapter II, vv. from 1 to 12.)

It is not a question of knowing whether the fact that Saint Matthew narrates is real, or whether it is merely a figure indicating that the magi were guided in a mysterious manner to the place where the Child was, given that there is no means whatever of verification; it is a question of knowing whether a fact of such a nature is possible.

What is certain is that, in that circumstance, the light could not have been a star.

At the time when the fact occurred it was possible to believe that it was, for then it was believed that the stars were luminous points fastened in the firmament and liable to fall upon the Earth; not today, when the nature of the stars is known.

Nevertheless, although it did not have as its cause that which was attributed to it, it does not cease to be possible, the fact of the apparition of a light with the appearance of a star.

A Spirit may appear under a luminous form, or transform a part of its perispiritual fluid into a luminous focus.

Many facts of this kind, modern and perfectly authentic, do not proceed from any other cause, which presents nothing supernatural. (Chap. XIV, no. 13 and following.)