blasphemy,
the difference is striking. Ordinarily he avoided calling attention to
himself, wishing men to form their opinion of him after they had learned
to know him as he was. Yet when one looks beneath the surface of his
teaching, the tone of authority which astonished the multitudes is
identical with the calm self-confidence which replied to pharisaic
censure: "The Son of Man hath authority on the earth to forgive sins."

141. Jesus drew the multitudes after him not only by his teachings, but
also by his mighty works. He certainly was for his contemporaries a
wonder-worker and healer of disease, and, in order to appreciate the
impression which he made, the miracles recorded in the gospels must be
allowed to reveal what they can of his character. The mighty works which
enchained attention in Galilee were chiefly cures of disease, with
occasional exhibitions of power over physical nature,--such as the
stilling of the tempest and the feeding of the five thousand. The
significant thing about them is their uniform beneficence of purpose and
simplicity of method. Nothing of the spectacular attached itself to them.
Jesus repeatedly refused to the critical Pharisees a sign from heaven.
This was not because he disregarded the importance of signs for his
generation,--witness his appeal to his works in the reply to John (Matt.
xi. 4-6); but he felt that in his customary ministry to the needy
multitudes he had furnished signs in abundance, for his deeds both gave
evidence of heavenly power and revealed the character of the Father who
had sent him.

142. One of the commonest of the ailments cured by Jesus is described in
the gospels as demoniac possession, the popular idea being that evil
spirits were accustomed to take up their abode in men, speaking with their
tongues and acting through their bodies, at the same time afflicting them
with various physical diseases. Six specific cures of such possession are
recorded in the story of the Galilean ministry, besides general references
to the cure of many that were possessed. Of these specific cases the
Gadarene demoniac shows symptoms of violent insanity; the boy cured near
Caesarea Philippi, those of epilepsy; in other cases the disease was more
local, showing itself in deafness, or blindness, or both. In the cures
recorded Jesus addressed the possessed with a command to the invading
demon to depart. He was ordinarily greeted, either before or after such a
command, with a loud ou