THOUGHT XI.

MIRACLES ARE CREDIBLE.

"The first note of interrogation found in the Bible follows a doubtinjecting word of the demon-serpent to our first parents, Hath God said?' Then came the flattering announcement which modern philosophy is so ready to repeat, 'Ye shall be as gods.'"-CHRISTLIEB, Christian Belief.

"A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and, as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined."-DAVID HUME.

THE above statement, by David Hume, is an example of the narrowness wrought in the minds of men who habitually refuse the miraculous.

That a miracle does not agree with the usual course of antecedent and sequence that most men experience is true; but that our present experience of natural order is the essential and only one is utterly false. We know about as well as we can know scientific facts, that existing antecedents and effects arose out of a state of things altogether at variance with the present state: hence, if miracles are incredible-as contrary to law; the present order of things, having risen out of a state wholly at variance, is in no wise to be believed-which is absurd.

A miracle is not a violation of the laws of nature. The order of nature is respected. It is the entrance of a new thing, by power of the Creator, to sustain and ameliorate nature. It is unnatural that so much misery exists-not that the Saviour by purity of life seeks to remove it; unnatural that the Only Righteous One should die on the cross-not that He should rise from the grave. He who observes how beautifully the life of Christ is in obedience to every physical and moral law, how perfectly He represents the purity of human nature, will recognize that life as a life-long miracle apart from the miracles He wrought; and such a miracle is a sign and seal of the connection between nature and spirit, truth and goodness, God and holiness. Nature is all that it contains, and there are laws of matter, laws of life, laws of mind; and if to teach mind, save life, glorify matter, the will of God is revealed to men, it is not unnatural for the course of nature to receive Divine influence. What other credentials than the miraculous can accredit God's messenger? With regard to Judaism and Christianity, the notion of their propagation without miracles, seeing that all their essential facts are miraculous, is more contrary to sound judgment than the belief that they were established and maintained by miracles.

To talk of our own firm and unalterable experience of laws being proof that no other men had a variable experience, is equal to the absurdity of saying that our experience and knowledge cover all possible experience and knowledge. Vary Hume's argument"There must be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit

that appellation; and as uniform experience amounts to proof, there is here direct and full proof, from the nature of the fact, against the existence of any miracles; nor can such proof be destroyed, or the miracle rendered credible, but by opposite proof, which is superior."

The fallacy is threefold: 1, in the assumption that our experience is uniform; 2, that our uniform experience is universal; 3, that our exceptional experience as to the miraculous is inferior to our so-called uniform experience concerning nature's ordinary course.

I. There is no such thing as uniform experience. Those who possess the largest acquaintance with nature know of so many startling surprises, that whatever comes within the range of possibility cannot be regarded as wholly improbable. This has always been known—

“ οὐκ ἐστ ̓ ἄελπτον οὐδὲν.”

2. Even were our own experience uniform, that would not measure nor fix the limits of the actual to other men, in other times, in other circumstances. All the present inhabitants of the world might say—“We have not seen a miracle, not one of us has been present at any time, in any place where a miracle was wrought "—but their evidence would be of no avail against that of the trustworthy intelligent capable men who were present in the place and at the time and did see that a miracle was wrought.

3. "Miracles cannot be rendered credible, but by an opposite proof, which is superior." If it be required that the few alleged miracles, which a small number of men declare that they have witnessed, be rendered credible

by proof derived from experience as large as that of the many who have not seen a miracle, the requirement is unreasonable. We, nevertheless, as if to verify the assertion-The impossible is the only thing which is sure to happen, assay to give the required proof:

The invariable experience of men is that they are unable to attain actual cognition of causes, can only know things as antecedents and consequents. The cause of the simplest as of the greatest events is inscrutable. We do not know the cause of gravity, nor of electricity, nor of light, nor of heat, nor of life, nor of intelligence. Far from our being able to give account of them, to explain their origin, to afford reasons for their continuance, they are wrapped in mystery, interpenetrated and pierced by energies of which we only know that we know nothing. The universal experience of men is-that the whole of nature is a marvel. We do not find any indication of such a chain of causation as would, of itself, suffice to explain the system of nature. It possibly exists in infinite variety in every possible way. While freely acknowledging the operation of natural causes, and thinking that our scientific theories of laws will obtain higher generalization, we do not see any possibility of eliminating will and design from the universe. Professor J. S. Brewer says, "Will is something which cannot be resolved into anything else." Will and design render every event, even the commonest, miraculous. Where all is miraculous, the existence and use of by-paths for use of wonted and unwonted energies, is but a small marvel. Thus we establish miracle by evidence commensurate with the experience of mankind.

Opponents endeavour to take off the edge of our

argument by the assertion-"Nothing is accounted a miracle if it ever happen in the common course of nature." It seems a little silly, if the foundation of everything is miraculous, to assert that the superstructure is no marvel; nor is it scientific, if that foundation be a variety as compared with the preceding, to deny the possibility of further variety. Really, the peculiar and special events, called miracles, are no great marvel. They arise out of unlike preceding states, but are as nothing if compared with the whole of nature, in all its new and special things, arising out of other unlike preceding states.

We now enter the moral argument. David Hume shall state a case:-"When any one tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself whether it be more probable that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority which I can discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous than the event which he relates, then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion."

Here again is the fatal fallacy which assumes that the rareness and marvellous nature of an event tell against the good faith and intelligence of the witnesses. As if want of experience in the many, the ignorance of those not present at the time, nor in the place of the rare occurrence, should avail against the positive accurate knowledge and experience of those who were present. The ignorant and wicked men who brought about the