Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

lous. We cannot fully know the cause or causes of any event-whether great or small; in origin, in continuance, in passing away, in the whole and in every fragment, the earth, our life on it, and our connection with other worlds, are mysteries. We cannot tell what a moment may bring forth, but we know, in a manner not to be mistaken, that the Most High reigneth.

Prospice-Looking forward, we see that the anthropomorphism of our argument is not feebleness, but real strength. The counterpart is in the intelligible framework of the universe. We must judge of God in accordance with the faculties which we possess and the discerned government of nature. It is by necessity of our nature that we judge human-wise of God, by like necessity we judge human-wise in all our science. Moreover, we discern a likeness to the constitution of our character in the texture of that Holy Mind, the Divine Incarnation, Jesus. All belonging to this Jesus-the Prophecies, Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection, Sending of the Holy Ghost-impart knowledge of the Divine Nature and give Power. Pascal says, "Non seulement nous ne connaissons Dieu que par J. C., mais nous ne connaissons nous mêmes que par J. C." Though trial and sorrow may come, we shall never part company with that Divinely given blessed heart-moving hope-“ tremolar dell' onde"-that beautiful measured rhythm of the grand ocean's waves of Immortality,

“ ποντίων δὲ κυμάτων

ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα·”

ÆSCHYLUS, Prom. 89.

connecting all the pure in heart with a Heavenly Home. Miracles, as we look back, were the steps by which

nature ascended the heights of being and existence. As we look around, miracles are the power in all new life, and the sustainment of old life; they move in the rhythm of all things, the current of electricity, the pulsation of life, the throb of our breast; they are mighty in the tidal-wave, in succession of day and night, in cycles of the universe. Miracles, as we look forward, are to accomplish catastrophes in the destinies of men and of worlds. In the past, the present, the future, our conscience our reason-our science-detect, accept, approve, miraculous working.

The Design of Miracles, as to men, is to affix them and nature with the seal of God, in proof that things are not of themselves but by purpose of the Almighty. They show that all nature is essentially supernatural; they account for beginning, continuance, end. They explain those things for which science cannot account. They rule and make agree those discrepancies in religion and science which range so many of us in the ranks of conflicting creeds. They enable us to arrange all discordant elements in logical harmony without sacrifice of essential and necessary truth. When they appear as startling events, their occurrence is so rare that they afford no ground for belief in any new law of nature, nor for disbelieving any that we suppose to be established. They rebuke the exaggerations of some rash thinkers in science as to the contradictions between the current of religion and the course of nature. They indicate a time when our moral and intellectual ideas, enlarged by Divine attainment, will more fully know natural facts. Miracles make hidden glory visible, the extraordinary proves that the ordinary

is Divine, the uncommon and wonderful give to all things a supreme aspect; without them, constituted as we are, could be no certainty even as to God's existence. Creation would not be known as a standing wonder, unless illuminated at times with the strong light of miracles. The philosophy of miracles is the revelation of the Living God, and a seal of the supernatural to revealed advance in moral truth.

Records of marvels are in every land and language. Believers are not credulous and rash, but the most intellectual and prudent of men. Human consciousness, growing up from the very root of things, is possessed with conviction of the Divinity by whom it grew; discerns the fact that all effects are from the Great Cause; and faith in the One Resurrection Life is no great difficulty to him who knows that all life rose out of the dead. The grain of wheat abideth alone, unconscious of all its surrounding, but if it die, if the warm prolific moisture of the settled furrow decompose all but that little salient point, the embryo, it will start up and bear much fruit. The frost-bound bulb of the snowdrop is not dead but sleepeth. If the south wind blow there will be a putting on of lovely garments. The lily, too, sheds its slough, and becomes an exquisite image of moral purity. To believe in this or that departure from Nature's usual course, is not unreasonable, but a lawful enlargement. Every law contains all conceivable and inconceivable eccentricities: no Deity presides where law is absent.

Forged miracles are not disproof, but proof of the universal conviction as to reality of the true. The statement that narratives of miracles chiefly abound among

[ocr errors]

ignorant, barbarous, credulous nations, is not accurate: the most compact, continued, intelligible, credible, historical account, is given by the most remarkable people in the world; and those of them who wrought the miracles, or who wrote the records of them, were of a virtue outshining circumstance and defying temptation. Only one religion is established by miracles, yet all religion is based on conviction of the Supernatural, and a miraclestream flows through all history, which scientific measurement proves to be deep and wide. If it be said, "Past experience can only be verified by cross-examination of the witnesses, which is impossible; and belief in the Scripture miracles rests on our consciousness of fitness, rather than on demonstrations of their truth; 'Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit; we reply --The moral consciousness of fitness is in itself a conviction that the experience of former men was veritable. Nor is that all: the miracles of Scripture, exceeding all other wonders, are in connection with truths so important, morality so pure, men so grand, that the accusation of ignorance, barbarism, superstition, must be refused. They rest on past experience which can be verified, at least in part; the experience was that of millions; and on present facts, which we may investigate. Thus resting, they are world-wide phenomenafor which you cannot account. Or, if you do partially account, it is by allowing spiritual miracles, and refusing physical, which is absurd. Spiritual conversions day by day, marvellous enlightenment, renewal of strength, abounding of joy, are not less miraculous than the old marvels.

Of all nations in the world, the Jews had the highest

knowledge of God, purest morality, the best and wisest laws. The miracles wrought among them were not for show; nor to obtain for the workers personal influence, power, wealth; but for separation of the race from impure and godless nations, and to establish faith in One God. They were the least superstitious of all people; and received no marvels but those specially attested, connected with moral precept, civil and ecclesiastical law, the life and worship of the nation. If it be said, "Their continual idolatry before the Captivity, and their readiness at the Christian era to believe every impostor, prove their credulity;" we reply-The common sense of the nation always righted itself; the perturbations, trials, experiences of other religions, of other asserted marvels, caused them to return with additional reverence and tenacity to their common faith: a faith which lived on uncorrupted in its records, and preserving amongst the people, in all times and seasons, those sacred human affections in which the breath of God breathes and is. Only marvels recorded by public monuments and religious memorials are now received by them; and these form the nation's character, habits, literature, religion, aspiration, science. (See Leslie's "Short Method with Deists.")

These marvels, antecedently incredible and, to all appearance, utterly impossible; so soon as wrought and attested, are partly explained by natural similitudessome of which we have given. In addition, the fact of being wrought: I. in opposition to Evil and Error; II. in confirmation of Righteousness and Truth; yields the peculiar and satisfying conviction that they are parts of a great plan.

« НазадПродовжити »