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through the air, were already beginning to singe. He came down with a forcible,
but by no means injurious bump in what appeared to be a mound of fresh−turned earth. A large mass of metal and masonry, extraordinarily like the clock−tower in
the middle of the market−square, hit the earth near him, ricochetted over him, and
flew into stonework, bricks, and masonry, like a bursting bomb. A hurtling cow hit one of the larger blocks and smashed like an egg. There was a crash that made
all the most violent crashes of his past life seem like the sound of falling dust,
and this was followed by a descending series of lesser crashes. A vast wind roared throughout earth and heaven' so that he could scarcely lift his head to look. For a while he was too breathless and astonished even to see where he was
or what had happened. And his first movement was to feel his head and reassure himself that his streaming hair was still his own.

"Lord!" gasped Mr. Fotheringay, scarce able to speak for the gale, "I've had a squeak! What's gone wrong? Storms and thunder. And only a minute ago a fine night. It's Maydig set me on to this sort of thing. What a wind! If I go on fooling in this way I'm bound to have a thundering accident! . . .

"Where's Maydig?

"What a confounded mess everything's in!"

He looked about him so far as his flapping jacket would permit. The appearance of
things was really extremely strange. "The sky's all right anyhow," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And that's about all that is all right. And even there it looks like a terrific gale coming up. But there's the moon overhead. just as it was just now. Bright as midday. But as for the rest−−Where's the village? Where's−−where's anything? And what on earth set this wind a−blowing? I didn't
order no wind."

Mr. Fotheringay struggled to get to his feet in vain, and after one failure, remained on all fours, holding on. He surveyed the moonlit world to leeward, with
the tails of his jacket streaming over his head. "There's something seriously wrong," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And what it is−−goodness knows."

Far and wide nothing was visible in the white glare through the haze of dust that
drove before a screaming gale but tumbled masses of earth and heaps of inchoate ruins, no trees, no houses, no familiar shapes, only a wilderness of disorder vanishing at last into the darkness beneath the whirling columns and streamers, the lightnings and thunderings of a swiftly rising storm. Near him in the livid
glare was something that might once have been an elm−tree, a smashed mass of splinters, shivered from boughs to base, and further a twisted mass of iron girders−−only too evidently the viaduct−−rose out of the piled confusion.

You see when Mr. Fotheringay had arrested the rotation of the solid globe, he had
made no stipulation concerning the trifling movables upon its surface. And the earth spins so fast that the surface at its equator is travelling at rather more
than a thousand miles an hour, and in these latitudes at more than half that pace.
So that the village, and Mr. Maydig, and Mr. Fotheringay, and everybody and everything had been jerked violently forward at about nine miles per second −−
that is to say, much more violently than if they had been fired out of a cannon.
And every human being, every living creature, every house, and every tree −− all
the world as we know it −− had been so jerked and smashed and utterly destroyed.
That was all.

These things Mr. Fotheringay did not, of course, fully appreciate. But he perceived that his miracle had miscarried, and with that a great disgust of miracles came upon him. He was in darkness now, for the clouds had swept together
and blotted out his momentary glimpse of the moon, and the air was full of fitful
struggling tortured wraiths of hail. A great roaring of wind and waters filled earth and sky, and, peering under his hand through the dust and sleet to windward,
he saw by the play of the lightnings a vast wall of water pouring towards him.

"Maydig!" screamed Mr. Fotheringay's feeble voice amid the elemental uproar. "Here!−−Maydig!"

"Stop!" cried Mr. Fotheringay to the advancing water. "Oh, for goodness' sake, stop!"

"Just a moment," said Mr. Fotheringay to the lightnings and thunder. "Stop jest a
moment while I collect my thoughts. . . . And now what shall I do?" he said. "What
shall I do? Lord! I wish Maydig was about."

"I know," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And for goodness' sake let's have it right this
time."

He remained on all fours, leaning against the wind, very intent to have everything
right.

"Ah!" he said. "Let nothing what I'm going to order happen until I say 'Off!' . .
. Lord! I wish I'd thought of that before!"

He lifted his little voice against the whirlwind, shouting louder and louder in the vain desire to hear himself speak. "Now then!−−here goes! Mind about that
what I said just now. In the first place, when all I've got to say is done, let
me lose my miraculous power, let my will become just like anybody else's will, and
all these dangerous miracles be stopped. I don't like them. I'd rather I didn't
work 'em. Ever so much. That's the first thing. And the second is−−let me be
back just before the miracles begin; let everything be just as it was before that
blessed lamp turned up. It's a big job, but it's the last. Have you got it? No
more miracles, everything as it was−−me back in the Long Dragon just before I
drank my half−pint. That's it! Yes."

He dug his fingers into the mould, closed his eyes, and said "Off!"

Everything became perfectly still. He perceived that he was standing erect.

"So /you/ say," said a voice.

He opened his eyes. He was in the bar of the Long Dragon, arguing about miracles
with Toddy Beamish. He had a vague sense of some great thing forgotten that instantaneously passed. You see, except for the loss of his miraculous powers, everything was back as it had been; his mind and memory therefore were now just as
they had been at the time when this story began. So that he knew absolutely nothing of all that is told here, knows nothing of all that is told here to this
day. And among other things, of course, he still did not believe in miracles.

"I tell you that miracles, properly speaking, can't possibly happen," he said, "whatever you like to hold. And I'm prepared to prove it up to the hilt."

"That's what /you/ think," said Toddy Beamish, and "Prove it if you can."

"Looky here, Mr. Beamish," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Let us clearly understand what a
miracle is. It's something contrariwise to the course of nature done by power of
Will . . ."


--
"Miracles violate every law of reality as this world judges it. Every law of time
and space, of magnitude and mass is transcended, for what the Holy Spirit enables
you to do is clearly beyond all of them." - ACIM

Just as, if anything matters, death matters; if anything matters, miracles matter.

Thus, how tremendous A Course in Miracles, and Christianity must be, if they be true.


"The power to work miracles belongs to you." - A Course In Miracles

"Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things *are* possible to him who believes.”
- Jesus Christ, Mark 9:23, Holy Bible, New Testament, NKJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9%3A23&version=NKJV

"Miracles are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first." - ACIM


"There is no order of difficulty in miracles." It is as easy to move a mountain
as it is to move a grain of sand. Yet can you move a grain of sand?

"By demonstrating to yourself there is no order of difficulty in miracles, you will convince yourself that, in your natural state, there is no difficulty at all
*because* it is a state of grace." - ACIM

"The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time.
Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all."

"Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love."

"If you hope to spare yourself from fear, there are some things you must realize,
and realize fully. The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force.
It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating. It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains."
- A Course In Miracles

"So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to
you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and
does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done,
he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
- Jesus Christ, Mark 11:22-24, New Testament, Holy Bible, NKJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A22-24&version=NKJV


"Miracles are seen in light."

"It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. The miracle is always there.
Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your
failure to see. It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. You will
see them in the light; you will not see them in the dark.

To you, then, light is crucial."
- A Course in Miracles, Workbook, "Miracles are seen in light" Lesson 91


"When you have looked on what seemed terrifying, and seen it change to sights of
loveliness and peace; when you have looked on scenes of violence and death, and watched them change to quiet views of gardens under open skies, with clear, life-giving water running happily beside them in dancing brooks that never waste
away; who need persuade you to accept the gift of vision? And after vision, who
is there who could refuse what must come after? Think but an instant just on this; you can behold the holiness God gave his Son. And never need you think that
there is something else for you to see."
- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 20, "The Vision of Holiness," Section 8, "The Vision of Sinlessness"

So this says you could change the world like Television.

"There is no problem, no event or situation, no perplexity that vision will not solve."

"Vision is freely given to those who ask to see."

"this world is an hallucination... Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are..."

"And all you need to do is recognize that *you* did this."

"There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to teach." - A Course in Miracles, Workbook, Lesson 132

If miracles exist there is no world. If the world exists, there are no miracles.

"This world is full of miracles."
- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 28, Section 2

"Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed."

To work miracles *pray,* and *will*.

i.e. "I pray to God for, ______ Amen."
"I will, ______ Amen."

"Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But the
only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. The prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize what you already have. In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed yourself in a position where you could
resemble your Father only by perceiving miraculously. You have lost the knowledge
that you yourself are a miracle of God. Creation is your Source and your only real function." - ACIM

"the purpose of this course is to help you remember what you are" - ACIM


"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall
be added to you."
- Jesus Christ, Matt 6:33, New Testament, Holy Bible https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206%3A33&version=NKJV

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