thereto. Thus, this
word, as a symbol, stands for that which is the first and last of all
true prayer.

The works of Jesus, like his words, were all of a symbolic character,
in that each so-called miracle foreshadowed a result to be realized as
a common heritage of men through the age-lasting evolution of the same
intelligence that then produced the transient tokens of its presence.
In the New Testament there are four words used, in the original Greek,
which have been translated as descriptive of miraculous occurrences.

Their basic meaning is as follows: 1, _dunamis_, power, energy, a
faculty or ability to do; 2, _ergon_, a work, an arrangement in order,
with purpose and skill; 3, _teras_, to turn, to resolve, to excite
wonder or fear; 4, _semeion_, the word most frequently employed,
indicates a sign, mark, or token by which a thing is shown, something
used to represent something else. Our word "miracle" is often and
erroneously used for a phenomenon supposed to have occurred outside
the realm of law. Yet, in the strictest sense, the bursting of a blade
of grass from out the ground, the conception and birth of any form of
life, are as stupendous miracles, marks of creative power, as the mind
of man can ever contemplate.

The wise and great in any department of progress have always towered
like gods above their fellowmen. The natural product of their lives
has been a constant miracle to those about them. In spiritualizing the
story of the prodigies performed by Jesus, we would not question the
psychic power, transforming virtue of such an one as he, who was
fitted to convey a re-creative influence to the world. But we would
wish to show how far those phenomenal evidences of power and
intelligence transcended the domain of mediumistic wonder-working or
spiritistic occultism. This is easily accomplished as we continue to
apply the same principle of interpretation that has already shown us
that the supposed miraculous conception and birth of the Christ was
but a consummation of the plan, and in obedience to the same laws by
which the heavens were made, the earth begotten and born, mineral and
vegetable kingdoms formed and sustained, animal life brought forth and
evolved, and, finally, man progressively created in the image,
according to the likeness of his God. Because the same spiritual
nature that the typical man so perfectly embodied has been begotten in
our souls and is seeking to express itself along the lines he p