supernatural occurrence, a result obtained by suspension of natural
processes. You can do that any day. The miracle is that so few do it.

You know Ibsen's play, "The Doll House." How the wife forged a note,
raised the money to send her husband to regain his health. How he did
regain it, returned to great prominence and wealth as a banker. Then
the blackmailer threatened to reveal the crime. How the husband rushed
to his wife in anger that she should have done such a thing, that it
meant ruin to him in his high position. How the wife replied: "Why, I
expected the miracle. That you would save me as I saved you. That you
would say that you did it." If he only had, what a marvelous, what a
wonderful, what a supernatural thing it would have been. Christ made
whole and useful a withered hand. People say, "O, that I could do so
wonderful a thing." Well, why don't you. See the withered hands around
you. A young woman with a beautiful voice, but no means to cultivate
it. You have a thousand or so in the bank? You can save that voice to
a world that needs song. A young man with a fine mind, helpless to go
thru college, you have means to give that mind to a world in power
and usefulness. The natural thing is for you not to do it, the
supernatural, the miracle, is that you are divine enough to do it. A
man, a woman, is forsaken, friendless, cruelly judged by the world,
their goodness blasted, their spirit crushed, their hearts bleeding,
their lives made useless, withered. The natural thing is to avoid
such, stand aloof, be quite scornfully indifferent. The miracle would
happen if you went to them, lifted them up, restored them to society.
I have said avoid useless people, I mean selfish, lazy, purposeless,
aimless people. Sir Humphrey Davy worked a miracle when he took the
boy Farrady out of a stable loft and gave him a chance to cultivate
his genius. The Sistine Chapel is Angelo's miracle. When the band on
the deck of the Titanic, under the pale light of the morning stars