And then came a promise and assurance of a mightier blessing, of a fuller revelation hereafter to him, and to multitudes unborn, '_Because I said, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man_.' 'Faithful and true Israelite! the vision to thy progenitor who first bore that name shall be substantiated for thee, and for those who trust in me in lonely hours, through clouds and darkness, as thou hast done. The ladder set upon earth and reaching to heaven,--the ladder upon which the angels of God ascended and descended,--is a ladder for thee and for all. For the Son of Man, who joins earth to heaven, the seen to the unseen, God and Man in one, He is with you; through Him your spirits may arise to God,--through Him God's Spirit shall come down upon you.' DISCOURSE V. THE MARRIAGE FEAST. [Lincoln's Inn, 4th Sunday in Lent, March 2, 1856.] JOHN II. 11. _This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him._ The word '_Miracles_,' which our translators have adopted in this verse, gives little trouble to a reader. He thinks of some singular, glaring effect, which makes men wonder, and which they can refer to no known principle. That effect he calls a miracle. To produce astonishment is the immediate object of him who works it; to convince those who see it, and those who are told of it afterwards, that he is not subject to ordinary laws, and has the power of setting laws aside, is his ultimate object. Such thoughts, I say, are suggested naturally enough by the word Miracle. It is otherwise with the word '_Sign_' (Σημεῖον), which St. John uses himself. That word is simpler in sound than the other, but it gives rise to a longer and more troublesome inquiry. Outward display, the excitement of wonder, departure from rule, have no necessary or natural connexion with it. The name drives us to the question, 'A sign of what?' And all these qualities--supposing they were present in the sign--would not help us to answer the question. In the case before us, the act of turning water into wine--in which the miracle is supposed to consist--cannot be separated from the other parts of the narrative: together they constitute the sign. And to find the signification of the sign, we must have recourse to the first chapter of the Gospel; we must ask St. John himself to tell us why he has introduced it, and how it bears upon the subject of the history.