In the fifteenth chapter we have our Lord’s own reflections on the evidences which he had afforded of his Messianic character, during his entire ministry. “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” (ver. 24.) Here the miracles are classed with the other exhibitions of our Lord’s divine character; and attention is especially drawn to the moral aspect of his entire working as in the highest degree evidential. “They have seen and hated both me and my Father.” It is worthy of remark that while our Lord uniformly spoke of his miracles as part of his general working, by which he manifested his divine character, the Evangelist himself almost invariably calls them “signs.” This is brought out when he gives us his own reflections on the results of his public ministry. “Though he had done so many signs(2) before them yet they believed not on him.” (xii. 37.) So again, “many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” (xx. 30, 31.) In both these passages our Lord’s miracles are evidently referred to. They are pronounced to be both evidential of his divine mission, and at the same time to be manifestations of his character. The Evangelist while contemplating them as miracles never loses sight of their moral aspect. In the Synoptic Gospels one allusion is made to the evidential purpose of a particular miracle which is worthy of notice. Generally speaking they are viewed by the authors of these Gospels as simple manifestations of his divine character. On this occasion, when his power to forgive sins was questioned, he directly performed a miracle to prove that he possessed it. “But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house.” In this case it is clear that the purpose of performing the miracle was not to prove the truth of any doctrinal statement which he had made; but to establish the reality of his divine authority and commission. While it is quite true that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels have not enunciated the purpose of our Lord’s miracles in the formal manner in which it is done in St. John’s Gospel, it is clear that they must have taken the same view of their general character. In fact the evidential purpose of their performance is less clearly stated in them than in the fourth Gospel. All four Gospels view his miracles only as a portion of his superhuman manifestation, and are ignorant of that broad distinction which has been laid down between them and the other portions of his divine working. They are in fact included under it; and it is the concurrence of both together, and the moral aspect thereby impressed on the whole, which proves him to be the Christ.