If Jesus, on his arrival to the Jews as a nation, intended to prove his divine mission by the performance of miracles, he appears to have taken the wrong course to carry conviction to the minds of his fellow countrymen. Instead of performing signs and wonders before the most learned of his nation, he associated with the most ignorant classes of society. These were chiefly fishermen, who could be easily imposed on by any sleight of hand, performed by a dexterous juggler. It was to the most learned and competent men of that day to whom his appeals ought to have been made; but on the contrary, he employed such vulgar abuse as—“_O, generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell?_” It may safely be inferred, that such abusive language as this would be considered by the priests and rulers sufficient to stamp its author as a man of low character and violent temper. Again, instead of opening his mission with the declaration of Jehovah’s former promises to the Jewish nation, _that the God of their fathers had sent him to recover the lost sheep of the home of Israel_, he tells them that the holy temple was then _a den of thieves_; and at another time, commences with a cord, or rattan, (like a drunken man,) to drive men from the temple. Is it possible to conceive that such could be the conduct of him who was proclaimed to be “_Peace on earth and good will towards men_”? Again, miracles, as proofs of Christ’s divine mission, ought to have been performed before the most learned and talented men among the Jews. On the contrary, it was the ignorant and unlettered part of society who were the witnesses of his mighty deeds; for it is impossible for men who are unacquainted with the laws and phenomena of nature, to form any thing like a correct judgment of those laws, so as to know what were their natural operations, to the exclusion of divine power. So that a performance of any thing, however wonderful to ignorant and untaught men, would, to others, who were better acquainted with the laws of the universe, be no miracle at all. In conclusion, then, so far as miracles are concerned, a miracle must be something performed by another, that is impossible to take place without superhuman aid; and before persons who are so fully acquainted with the laws of the universe, that imposition would be impossible. Now the Jews, at the time of the coming of Christ, if he did come at all, had no such knowledge. In that age, many strange things were believed, that never had any real existence. For instance, it was fully believed by the Jews, and nearly throughout the world, that evil spirits or demons took possession of the bodies of men, and ceased, not to torment them in a thousand ways; and the casting out of these was considered a miracle. Jesus is said to have performed many miracles of this kind. Mary Magdalene had seven of them ejected by the Saviour. So it is recorded.