miracle, did he not feel that there had been a
great omission which he must supply? Nowhere else does Jesus appear just
as He did at that feast, though other incidents of His life are in
harmony with it. It is sometimes said He "graced" that marriage feast,
as royalty does by mere presence. But He did more. He entered into the
innocent festivities, and helped to their success. A glance into that
village home is a revelation of Jesus in social life, and His interests
in human friendships and relations.

We must remember that it was only innocent pleasures that He helped to
increase, in which alone we can seek the presence of His Spirit, and on
which alone we can ask His blessing.

This marriage feast must have been of special interest to John, if, as
is supposed, the family was related to Mary and probably to him. This
would seem to be her first meeting with Jesus since He bid her farewell
in Nazareth, and left the home of thirty years, to be such no longer.

Did not Mary, mother-like, call John aside from the festive scene and
say to him, "What has happened at the Jordan? tell me all about it." I
seem to hear John saying to her; "It is a wonderful story. Of some
things I heard, and some I both saw and heard. You know of the ministry
of your cousin Elizabeth's son John--of his preaching and baptizing.
Jesus was baptized by him. Immediately they both had a vision of 'the
Spirit of God descending upon Him; and lo! a voice from heaven saying,
This is My beloved Son.' Then John was certain who Jesus was. He told
the people about the vision, saying, 'I saw and bear record that this
is the Son of God.' And one day when my friend Andrew and I were with
him, he pointed us to Jesus saying, 'Behold the Lamb of God,' whom we
followed, first to His abode on the Jordan, and then here to Cana. We
were disciples of John, but now are _His_ disciples, and ever shall be.
You know, aunt Mary, how from childhood I had thought of Him as my
cousin Jesus, and loved Him for His goodness. From what my mother has
told me, which she must have learned from you, there has been some
beautiful mystery about Him. It is all explained now. Hereafter, I shall
love Him more than ever, but I shall think of Him, not so much as my
cousin Jesus, as the Messiah for whom we were looking, and as the Son of
God."

How the mother-heart of Mary must have throbbed as she listened to her
nephew John's story of Jesus on the Jordan. How it must have gone out
toward