Apparently, Jesus's marvelous miracle-working power puzzled the people of His own generation. They knew little of the laws of nature, of course. They had been taught to believe in the possibility of miracles. But they were loath to grant any degree of divine power to Jesus. Hence, on one occasion, "the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils." Of course, such a suggestion was absurd. Jesus Himself said to His disciples, "How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end." To this argument, there is, of course, no answer. It proves conclusively, that Jesus did not perform miracles through the power of Beelzebub. What a miracle is, by what power it is performed and why miracles are permitted, are questions that we shall consider in this lesson. {264} [Sidenote: The universal presence of law.] Let us consider first, then, what a miracle really is. As a matter of fact, a miracle is never an act accomplished in violation of law. You must understand that the universe is ruled by law. Everything that happens, happens through the operation of law. If we live wisely--eat right and think right--then it follows by the law of nature that we shall have strong, wholesome bodies like the Christ's, and clear, active minds like His. But if we violate the rules of right living, then come certain laws of retribution, and we are made to pay the penalty of our wrongdoing And so it is throughout the universe The heavenly bodies are directed and governed by law; God's creatures everywhere are subject to law; the earth on which we dwell, with the strange and marvelous and mighty phenomena which we here daily observe, is a product of law. Would it not be inconsistent, then, to think that Jesus--who is Himself the God of law--should work in violation of law? His own words in refutation of the statement of the scribes that He was in league with Beelzebub, is a sufficient answer to such a supposition. "If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." We must conclude, therefore, that a miracle, no matter how unnatural it may seem, is accomplished through the operation of some law of the universe. Yet, how can this be true, when some miracles that are well authenticated seem to be so utterly in violation of the laws of nature known to us? [Sidenote: The miracle of the telephone.]