Thirdly, the miracles are closely connected with the _moral teaching_ of Christ, and it is difficult either to separate the two, or to believe the whole account to be fictitious. His wonderful works, and His wonderful words involve each other, and form together an harmonious whole, which is too life-like to be imaginary. Indeed, a life of Christ without His miracles would be as unintelligible as a life of Napoleon without his campaigns. And it is interesting to note in this connection that our earliest Gospel, St. Mark's, contains (in proportion to its length) the most miracles. As we should expect, it was Christ's miracles, rather than His moral teaching, which first attracted attention. Fourthly, the miracles were as a rule miracles of _healing_: that is to say, of restoring something to its natural state, such as making blind eyes see; and not doing something unnatural, such as giving a man a third eye. Miracles of either kind would of course show superhuman power; but the former are obviously the more suited to the God of Nature. And this _naturalness_ of the miracles, as we may call it, seems to many a strong argument in their favour. Fifthly, there were an immense _number_ of miracles, the ones recorded being mere _examples_ of those that were actually worked. Thus in St. Mark's Gospel we are told that on one occasion, Christ healed _many_ who were sick with _divers_ diseases; on another that He had healed so _many_, that those with plagues pressed upon Him to touch Him; and on another that everywhere He went, into the villages, cities, or country, the sick were laid out, so that they might touch His garment, and _as many as touched Him were made whole_.[336] [Footnote 336: Mark 1. 34; 3. 10; 6. 56] Sixthly, there was a great _variety_ in the miracles. They were of various kinds, worked in various places, before various witnesses, and with various details and characteristics. They occurred in public as well as in private; in the towns as well as in the country; at sea as well as on land; in groups as well as singly; at a distance as well as near; after due notice as well as suddenly; when watched by enemies as well as among friends; unsolicited as well as when asked for; in times of joy, and in times of sorrow. They were worked on the blind as well as the deaf; the lame as well as the dumb; the leprous as well as the palsied; the dead as well as the living. They concerned men as well as women; the rich as well as the poor; the educated as well as the ignorant; the young as well as the old; multitudes as well as individuals; Gentiles as well as Jews; nature as well as man--in fact, according to our accounts, it is difficult to imagine any miracles that could have been more absolutely convincing.