It is not strange that the miracles of the Antichrist will be accepted unquestioningly and with enthusiasm by apostates from Christianity, enemies of the truth, enemies of God: they have prepared themselves for an open, active acceptance of the messenger and instrument of Satan, his teaching, all his actions, having entered into communion with Satan in the spirit in good time. It is worthy of deep attention and lamentation that the miracles and deeds of the Antichrist will lead to embarrassment for the very chosen ones of God. The reason for the strong influence of the Antichrist on people will lie in his infernal cunning and hypocrisy, with which the most terrible evil will be skillfully covered, in his unbridled and shameless audacity, in the most abundant assistance of fallen spirits, and finally, in his ability to work miracles, albeit false, but amazing. The human imagination is powerless to imagine a villain, such as the Antichrist will be; It is not characteristic of the human heart, even a corrupt one, to believe that evil can reach the degree that it will reach in the Antichrist. He will trumpet about himself, as his forerunners and icons trumpeted about themselves, he will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God: those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion, and will join him. He will sound the trumpet, he will call himself the promised Messiah; The pupils of carnal wisdom will exclaim in greeting Him, seeing His glory, power, genius abilities, and the most extensive development in the elements of the world, they will proclaim Him a god, and will become His companions [879]. The Antichrist will show himself to be meek, merciful, full of love, full of every virtue; those recognize him as such, and will submit to him because of his most exalted virtue, who recognize fallen human truth as truth, and have not renounced it for the truth of the Gospel [880]. The Antichrist will offer mankind the dispensation of the highest earthly well-being and well-being, will offer honors, wealth, splendor, carnal comforts and pleasures; seekers of the earthly will accept the Antichrist and call him their master [881]. The Antichrist will reveal to mankind a disgrace of astounding miracles, inexplicable by modern science, similar to the cunning performances of the theater; he will strike fear with the thunder and wonder of his miracles, satisfy with them reckless curiosity and gross ignorance, satisfy human vanity and pride, satisfy carnal wisdom, satisfy superstition, perplex human learning; all men who are guided by the light of their fallen nature, who have alienated themselves from the guidance of the light of God, will be drawn into obedience to the deceiver [882]. The signs of the Antichrist will mainly appear in the air layer [883]: in this layer Satan predominates [884]. Signs will have the greatest effect on the sense of sight, enchanting and deceiving it [885]. St. John the Theologian, contemplating in revelation the events of the world that must precede his death, says that the Antichrist will accomplish great works, and will cause fire to descend from heaven to earth before men [886]. This sign is indicated by the Scriptures as the highest of the signs of the Antichrist, and the place of this sign is the air: it will be a magnificent and terrible sight. The signs of the Antichrist will complement the actions of his cunning behavior: they will catch the majority of people following him. Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered rebels, enemies of the public good and order, will be subjected to both open and covert persecution, will be subjected to torture and execution. The evil spirits sent throughout the universe will arouse in people a general lofty opinion of the Antichrist, a general rapture, an irresistible attraction to him [887]. The Scriptures depicted in many ways the severity of the last persecution of Christianity and the cruelty of the persecutor. The decisive and definite line is the name given by the Scriptures to this terrible man: he is called a beast [888], because the fallen angel is called a serpent [889]. Both names faithfully depict the character of both enemies of God. One acts more secretly, the other more openly; but to the beast, which has a resemblance to all beasts [890], uniting in himself their manifold ferocity, the serpent gave him his power and his throne and a great region [891].

Only with the special assistance of Divine grace, under its guidance, will God's elect be able to resist the enemy of God, to confess the Lord Jesus before him and before men.

A direct consequence of what has been said is that the Pharisees and Sadducees, demanding from the Lord a sign from heaven, demanded a miracle in the nature of the miracles of the Antichrist. The fact that they demanded just such a miracle explains the Lord's behavior in relation to their demand. Once, at such a demand, the God-Man expressed deep grief, refused the demand more than decisively, no longer wanted to be with those who allowed themselves to make a demand, and withdrew from them. On another occasion He gave them the following formidable answer: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given unto it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet." All those who required signs are called generations because of their affinity with each other in spirit; they are called an adulterous generation, because they have entered into communion with Satan in their spirit,[893] having broken communion with God; they are called the evil generation, because, being aware of the miracles of the God-man, they pretended not to be aware of them; despising and blaspheming the miracles of God, they asked for a miracle in accordance with their unfortunate mood, their spirit. The petition for a sign from heaven was not so much a petition for a miracle as a mockery of the miracles of the God-Man and the expression of an ignorant, perverse concept of miracles. The sign of Jonah the prophet, according to the explanation of the Saviour Himself [894], signified the signs that accompanied His death and resurrection. Then a sign of God was given from heaven! Then the sun, seeing the Lord crucified, was darkened at noon; there was a deep darkness everywhere that lasted for three hours; the curtain of the temple of Jerusalem was torn in two of its own accord, from the upper edge to the lower; an earthquake occurred; the stones were scattered, the tombs were opened; Many saints were resurrected and appeared to many in the holy city [895]. At the very resurrection of the Lord, an earthquake followed again; the light-bearing Angel descended from heaven to the tomb of the Lord, as a witness to the resurrection, and struck with terror the guards assigned to the tomb by seekers of a sign from heaven [896]. The guards announced the Lord's resurrection to the Jewish Sanhedrin. He, having received a sign from heaven, expressed the contempt and hatred for it that he had expressed for all the previous miracles of the God-Man, bribed the guards, and together with them took care to cover the miracle of God with the darkness of falsehood [897].

Let us now turn to the consideration of the miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ. They are God's gift to humanity. The gift was not given out of duty: it was given solely out of grace and mercy. Men were obliged to behave in relation to the gift and to the Giver of the gift with the greatest reverence and prudence, because the Giver of the gift declared Himself to be the God who received mankind for the salvation of men, and the gift to be His testimony. The gift had an undeniable dignity. But since the acceptance of salvation was left to the free will of men, it was left to men to consider the miracles of Christ, to discuss their authenticity and quality, to conclude from them about their Accomplishor, so that the recognition and acceptance of the Redeemer would be the result of free, positive conviction, and not of hasty, frivolous, as it were forcible infatuation. The miracles of Christ had complete definiteness. Concerning all of them we can say what the Lord said to the Apostle Thomas: "Bring forth thy finger, and see my hands: and bring thy hand, and put it into my side: and thou shalt not be unfaithful, but faithful" [898]. The miracles of Christ were tangible; they were clear to the simplest people; there was nothing mysterious about them; anyone could see them comfortably; There was no room for doubt and perplexity as to whether it was a miracle or only a miracle.

The miracles of the God-Man had a multitude of witnesses, most of whom were either hostile to Him, or inattentive, or sought only bodily help from Him. The miracles were irrefutable. The worst enemies of the Lord did not reject them, they only tried to humiliate them by blasphemous reinterpretation and by all the means that were inspired in them by deceit and malice. In the miracles of the Lord there was no vanity, no effect; not a single miracle is performed for the sake of men; all miracles were covered by the veil of Divine humility. They constitute a chain of blessings to suffering humanity. At the same time, they expressed with all satisfaction the power of the Creator over the material creation and over created spirits, expressed and proved the dignity of God, Who took upon Himself humanity, Who appeared as a man among men.

One of the miracles of the Lord, having a mysterious meaning, was not accompanied by any visible beneficence to any of the people, signifying the beneficence that was ready to be poured out on all mankind. The miracle was the killing of the barren fig tree, rich only in leaves [900]. This tree is mentioned in the Scriptures [901] among the trees of paradise in the story of the fall of the forefathers. It served them as its leaves to cover their nakedness, which the forefathers did not notice until they fell into sin, which sin revealed to them. Perhaps the fruit of the fig tree of paradise was the forbidden fruit. The Lord did not find fruit on the fig tree: He sought it on it untimely, He allowed His flesh to desire food untimely, which depicts the incorrectness of the desire of the forefathers, which, like all the infirmities of men, the Lord bore upon Himself and destroyed by Himself. Not finding fruit, the Lord rejected the leaves, destroyed the very existence of the tree: another tree, the tree of the cross, was already being prepared as an instrument for the salvation of men. The tree, the instrument of the destruction of men, is slain by the command of the Saviour of men. The mysterious miracle was performed in the presence of only the confidants of the mysterious teaching, the holy Apostles. It was accomplished just before the entry of the God-Man into the feat of redemptive suffering for humanity, before the ascension to the cross.

The Lord's miracles had a holy meaning, a holy purpose. Although they were great blessings in themselves, in the form of divine providence they served only as a testimony and proof of the incomparably higher beneficence. The Lord, having accepted mankind, brought to mankind an eternal, spiritual, priceless gift: salvation, healing from sin, resurrection from eternal death. The word of the Lord and the way of life manifested this gift with all satisfaction: in life the Lord was sinless, all-holy[903]; His word was full of power [904]. But men have fallen deep into the darkness and darkness of carnal wisdom; their hearts and minds are blinded. It turned out that a special condescension to the sickly state of people was necessary; it turned out to be necessary to give the clearest testimony for their bodily senses; it turned out to be necessary to impart vital knowledge by means of the bodily senses to the mind and heart, which died in their proper death, eternal death. To help the word of God, God's miracles are given. In order for people to understand and accept the spiritual gift, which is seen only by the eyes of the soul, the Lord added to the spiritual, eternal gift a gift similar to it, a temporary, bodily gift: the healing of human bodily illnesses. Sin is the cause of all ailments in man, both spiritual and physical, it is the cause of temporal and eternal death. The Lord, having manifested His power over the consequences of sin in human bodies, thereby revealed His power over sin in general. Carnal wisdom sees neither spiritual ailments nor eternal death: but it sees bodily ailments and the death of the body, it recognizes them, they have a great effect on it, they take care of it. The Lord, healing all the sick with a single word, with a single command, raising the dead, commanding unclean spirits, revealed His power, revealed God's power over man, over sin, over fallen spirits, manifested clearly for the bodily senses, for the very wisdom of the flesh. Seeing and feeling this power, it could and should, in a logical sequence, recognize the Lord's power over sin, not only in relation to sin to the body, but also in the relation of sin to the soul, to recognize the Lord's power over the soul itself, all the more so since in some of the Lord's miracles, as, for example, in the resurrection of the dead, His unlimited Divine power over both body and soul was revealed. The body was revived; the soul, which had already departed from this world to the world of spirits, was called into it, united with the body, from which it had already been separated forever. Signs were given to man within himself, not anywhere outside; man was given proofs of his salvation in himself, not far from him. Testimony to the eternal salvation of soul and body was given through the temporary salvation of the body from bodily ailments and bodily death. With a correct and pious view of the miracles of the Lord, they turn out to be filled with Divine reason: the demand for a sign from heaven turns out to be, as it was, devoid of meaning. There are rare cases when the power of the Lord was manifested outside of man over objects of material nature; But these cases did happen. They constitute a testimony that the Lord's power over all nature is an unlimited power, the power of God. These miracles serve as a supplement to those miracles that were good deeds to mankind in the very composition of man, so that the definition of the meaning that people had to give to the Redeemer of men would be the most accurate. As the purpose of the Lord's coming to earth was the salvation of man, so the Lord's care was focused on man, on the most elegant creation of the Lord, on His image, on His verbal temple. The land of our exile and suffering wandering, the earth, all material creation, in spite of its immensity, has been left unattended by Him. If some miracles have been performed in the midst of matter, they have been performed to satisfy the needs of men.

Such is the meaning and purpose of the miracles performed by the Lord and His Apostles. The Lord declared this; the Apostles proclaimed this. Once, a multitude of people gathered in the house in which the Lord was. The house was full, and a crowd crowded at the door; It was no longer possible to get into the house. At this time, they brought a paralytic who did not leave his bed. Those who brought it, seeing the crowd and crowding, carried the sick man to the roof; having made a hole in the ceiling, they lowered it on the bed before the Lord. Seeing the act of faith, the merciful Lord said to the paralytic: "Child, thy sins are forgiven thee." Some of the scribes were sitting there. To them, as knowing the law by the letter and as infected with envy and hatred for the God-man, the thought immediately occurred to them that blasphemy had been uttered. Who can, they thought, forgive sins, but God alone. The Lord, the Knower of the Heart, having seen their thoughts, said to them: "What do you think in your hearts? what is more convenient; what is easier according to your understanding, say to the weakened: sins are forgiven you; Or say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? To say without evidence "your sins are forgiven" can be both a hypocrite and a deceiver. But let it be known, that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins: He saith unto him that is paralyzed, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. The paralytic was instantly healed and strengthened: he took the bed and went out before everyone [905]. The miracle is filled with Divine wisdom and goodness. First, the Lord gives the sufferer an essential spiritual gift, invisible to the eyes of the senses: the remission of sins. The giving of a gift aroused in the learned Jews an involuntary confession that such a gift could be given by God alone. The Lord, in response to their heartfelt thoughts, gives them a new proof of Himself that He is God. Finally, the spiritual gift and spiritual proof are sealed by the gift and material proof: the instantaneous and complete healing of the sick. The holy Evangelist Mark, concluding his Gospel, says that the Apostles, after the ascension of the Lord, preached the word everywhere, and made haste to the Lord, and confirmed the word with signs that follow the word [906]. The same thought was expressed by all the Apostles in the prayer with which they resorted to God after the threats of the Sanhedrin, which forbade teaching and acting in the name of Jesus: "Grant to Thy servants," they said, "to speak Thy word with all boldness, when Thy hand may be stretched out to Thee for healing, and by a sign and wonder be in the name of Thy servant Jesus." The signs of God were given in aid of the word of God. The signs testified to the power and meaning of the word [908]. The essential actor is the word. There is no need for signs where the word is accepted, because of the understood dignity that belongs to the word. Signs are condescension to human weakness.

The word works differently, and the signs work differently. The word acts directly on the mind and heart; Signs act on the mind and heart through the bodily senses. The consequences of the word that acted are stronger, more definite than the consequences of the action of signs. When both the word and the signs act together, then the effect of the signs remains as it were unnoticed, because of the abundant action of the word. This is clearly seen from the Gospel accounts. Nicodemus was affected by the signs, and he recognized in the Lord only a teacher sent from God [909]. The Apostle Peter was influenced by the word, and he confessed the Lord to be Christ, the Son of God. The words of eternal life, he said to the God-man, and we believe and know that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God [1000]. St. Peter was an eyewitness to many miracles of the Lord; the multiplication of the five loaves and the feeding of the multitude of people with them had just taken place, but in his confession the Apostle is silent about miracles, speaking only about the power and action of the word. The same thing happened to the two disciples, who conversed with the Lord without recognizing Him, on the way to Emmaus, and recognized Him when they came to this village, already in the house, at the breaking of bread. As soon as they recognized Him, the Lord became invisible. They said nothing about the amazing miracle, they paid all attention to the effect of the word. Is it not our heart, they said to one another, burning in it, when the Lord spoke to us on the way, and spoke to us the Scriptures?

The God-Man blessed those who did not see the signs and believed [1002]. He expressed his condolences to those who, not satisfied with words, needed miracles. If you do not see signs and wonders, do not believe [1003], He said to the Capernaum nobleman. That's right! deplorable are those who forsake the word, who seek conviction from miracles. This need reveals a special predominance of carnal wisdom, gross ignorance, a life sacrificed to corruption and sin, a lack of exercise in the study of the Law of God and in God-pleasing virtues, the inability of the soul to sympathize with the Holy Spirit, to feel His presence and action in the word. Signs were most intended for persuading and bringing to faith sensual people, who were occupied with the cares of the world. Immersed in worldly cares, constantly nailed by the soul to the earth and its deeds, they are incapable of appreciating the dignity of the word: the merciful Word attracted them to salvation, granted by the word by means of visible signs, which, constituting a material conviction acting through the senses, led the weak soul to the almighty, saving Word. Those who believed, because of the signs, constituted the lowest category of believers in Christ. When a spiritual, most exalted, all-holy teaching was offered to them, then many of them interpreted it according to their own concepts [1004], did not want to ask God for an explanation of the word of God, condemned the word that was the Spirit and the life [1005], thereby denounced their superficial faith, their superficial pledge of the heart, and many of His disciples, who had seen many signs, went backwards, and did not walk with Him [1006].

Neither the word nor the signs of the God-Man had a beneficial effect on the Jewish high priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, although, with the exception of the latter, they clearly knew the Law of God to the letter. Not only were they strangers to God, hostile to God because of the sinful infection common to all mankind, but they became so, they established and sealed themselves in such a disposition because of their own volition, because of their self-conceit, because of their desire to lead that life and succeed in that life which was forbidden by the Gospel. They could not hear the Son of God speaking to them; they did not listen to His words as they should, they did not hearken to Him; they only caught those words that seemed convenient to them for reinterpreting and accusing the Lord. This is how hatred for the words of the hated is usually attuned. Why do you not understand My discourse? the Saviour spoke to His enemies, who stubbornly and bitterly rejected the salvation offered to them. Why do you not understand My teaching? Why do you not accept My healing word? for you cannot even hear my word: it is intolerable to you. Being children of falsehood and agents in its direction, you do not believe Me, for I speak the truth [1008]. He who is of God will listen to the words of God: for this reason you will not hear, for you bear it from God [1009]. If I do not do the works of My Father, have not faith in Me: if I do, if you do not believe Me, believe in My works: that you may understand and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him [1010]. In vain were the words which, as God's truth, contained in themselves a complete testimony [1011]; in vain were the miracles, which also contained complete confirmation, which were so tangible and obvious that the enemies of the God-man, with all their desire and effort to reject them, could not but recognize them [1012]. A remedy that worked on people who did not know the Law of God or were very little acquainted with it, who spent their lives in earthly occupations and vanities, but did not reject the Law of God of their own free will, this remedy had no effect on those who knew the Law of God in detail to the letter, who rejected it by their lives and will. Everything that could be done for the salvation of people was done by the ineffable mercy of God. If they did not come and spoke to them, the Saviour determines, they had no sin: but now they have no guilt (apology) for their sin: if they have not done any works in them, they have done no one else, they have no sin: but now they have seen and hated Me and My Father [1014]. Christianity is taught with such certainty that there is no excuse for those who do not know it. The cause of ignorance is one will. As the sun shines from heaven, so does Christianity. He who voluntarily closes his eyes, let him attribute his lack of vision and ignorance to his own volition, and not to the absence of light. The reason for the rejection of the God-Man by men lies in men, just as in them lies the reason for the acceptance of the Antichrist. I have come in the name of My Father, the Lord testified to the Jews, and ye receive Me not: if any man come in his name, him ye receive. They are called both those who reject Christ and those who accept the Antichrist, although the Antichrist is mentioned as having to come. Rejecting Christ according to the mood of their spirit, they at the same time accepted the Antichrist according to the same mood of spirit: they were numbered among those who accepted the Antichrist, although they had completed the field of earthly pilgrimage many centuries before his coming. They committed his greatest deed: the murder of God. For the time of his appearance, for himself, such an evil deed has not been left. Just as their spirit was in a hostile attitude towards Christ, so it was in a state of communion with the Antichrist, separated from him by a vast expanse of time, which is now reaching the end of the second millennium. Every spirit, says the Theologian, who does not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh, having come, bears from God: and this is the Antichrist, whom ye have heard, as he is coming, and now is already in the world according to the Spirit [1016]. Those who are led by the spirit of Antichrist reject Christ, have accepted the Antichrist in their spirit, have entered into communion with him, have submitted to him and worshipped him in spirit, acknowledging him as their god. For this reason, that is, God will allow them to act of flattery, in which they believe lies, so that all who did not believe in the truth, but who were pleased in unrighteousness, may receive judgment [1017]. In His allowance God is just. Indulgence will be satisfaction, at the same time rebuke and judgment for the human spirit. The Antichrist will come in his own time, predestined for him. His coming will be preceded by a general apostasy in the majority of people from the Christian faith. By apostasy from Christ, humanity will prepare to receive the Antichrist, will accept him in its spirit. In the very mood of the human spirit there will arise a demand, an invitation to the Antichrist, sympathy for him, just as in a state of severe illness there arises a thirst for a murderous drink. An invitation is pronounced! An appealing voice is heard in human society, expressing the urgent need for a genius of geniuses, who would raise material development and success to the highest degree, who would establish on earth that well-being in which paradise and heaven become superfluous for man. The Antichrist will be a logical, just, natural consequence of the general moral and spiritual direction of people.

The miracles of the incarnate God constituted the greatest material blessings that mankind can imagine. What good can be greater than the return of life to the dead? What good can be more precious than the healing of an incurable disease that took away life during life, making life more like a long death than a life? However, despite the beneficence, holiness, and spiritual significance of Christ's miracles, these miracles were only temporary gifts. In the exact sense they were signs. They were signs of eternal salvation given by the word. Those who were resurrected by the God-Man died again in their own time: they were granted only the continuation of earthly life, and not the return of this life forever. Those healed by the God-Man fell ill again, and also died: health was restored to them only for a time, and not forever. Temporal and material blessings have been poured out as a sign of eternal and spiritual blessings. Visible gifts were distributed to people enslaved to sensuality, so that they would believe in the existence of invisible gifts and accept them. Signs were extracted from the abyss of ignorance and sensuality, led to faith: faith imparted knowledge of eternal blessings and inspired a desire to acquire them. With the help of wondrous signs, the Apostles quickly spread Christianity throughout the world: the signs were a clear and powerful proof of Christianity both for educated peoples and for peoples immersed in ignorance and barbarism. But when faith was planted everywhere, the word was planted, then the signs were taken away, as having finished their ministry. They ceased to operate on a large scale and everywhere: they were performed by the rarely chosen saints of God. St. John Chrysostom, the Father and writer of the fourth and fifth centuries, says that in his time the bestowal of signs had already ceased to be effective, although there were still in places, especially among the monks, men bearing banners [1018]. With the passage of time, the banner-bearing men were constantly diminished. About the end times, the Holy Fathers predicted that then there would be no banner-bearing men [1019]. "Why, say some, are there no signs now? Listen to my answer to this with special attention, because I hear the question put to me here from many, both often and always. Why then did all those who were baptized begin to speak in foreign languages, and now this does not happen?.. Why is the grace of miracles now taken away and taken from men? God does this, not exposing us to dishonor, but even giving us great honor. How? I'll explain. The people of those times were poorer than those who had just been distracted from idols; their minds were white and dull, they were immersed in the material and devoted to it, they could not imagine the existence of immaterial gifts, they knew the meaning of spiritual grace, that everything is accepted by faith alone: for this reason there were signs. Of the spiritual gifts, some are invisible, and are accepted only by faith, while others are combined with a certain sign, subject to the senses, in order to arouse faith in unbelievers. For example: the forgiveness of sins is a spiritual and invisible gift: we do not see with our bodily eyes how our sins are cleansed. The soul is purified, but the soul is invisible to the eyes of the body. Thus, the cleansing of sins is a spiritual gift, which cannot be open to the eyes of the body; and the ability to speak in foreign tongues, although it belongs to the spiritual actions of the Spirit, at the same time serves as a sign subject to the senses, which is why it can easily be seen by unbelievers: the invisible action performed within the soul is made manifest and shown by means of the external tongue that we hear. For this reason Paul also says: "And the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit" (1020). So, I don't need signs. Why is that? Because I have learned to believe in the grace of God without signs. The unbeliever needs proof; but I, a believer, have no need of proof or sign; Although I do not speak foreign languages, I know that I am cleansed from sin. The former did not believe until they received a sign. Signs were given to them as a proof of the faith they accepted. So signs were given not to believers, but to unbelievers, that they might be made believers; Thus also Paul says: Signs are not to believers, but to unbelievers [1021]."

If signs were necessary, they would remain. The word remained, the establishment of which was facilitated by signs. It spread, reigned, embraced the universe. It has been explained with all satisfaction by the Fathers of the Church: access to it and assimilation of it have become especially convenient. It is essential; it is necessary; it accomplishes the salvation of men; it bestows eternal blessings; it brings the Kingdom of Heaven; in it are hidden the most sublime spiritual signs of God [1022]. But the word of the Lord endures forever. Behold, this is the word preached in you [1023]. In the word is life, and It is life [1024]. It gives birth to dead people into eternal life, giving them Its all-holy life: the hearers and doers of the word are not born of the seed that is corrupted, but is not corrupted, by the word of the living God and abides forever [1025]. In order to know the meaning of a word, one must fulfill it. The Gospel commandments, when fulfilled, immediately begin to transform, transform, and animate man, to transform his way of thinking, his heartfelt feelings, his very body: for the word of God is alive and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and which passes even to the division of soul and spirit, members and brains, and is judged by thought and thought of the heart. The Word of God contains within itself a testimony about itself. Like healing signs, it acts in man himself, and by this action it bears witness to itself. It is the supreme sign. It is a spiritual sign, which, being given to man, satisfies all the needs of his salvation, makes the aid from material signs unnecessary. A Christian, who is unaware of this property of the word, accuses himself of coldness to the word, of ignorance of the word of God, or of dead knowledge of one letter by one.

Part Two