CHAP. X] CONSISTENT WITH BELIEF 155

credulity. Besides these persons, however, there are others who, while not actually disbelieving in God, nevertheless consider that His acts are so entirely regulated by fixed laws or customs that it is out of the question to accept evidence that on any occasion He has departed from them. Argument is of course unavailing with those who have thus prejudged the case.

But the question wears a different aspect to those who already are convinced of the existence of God, with the attributes of unlimited power, wisdom, and goodness. It is by Him, they conceive, that the laws of matter are laid down, and the corresponding action fore-ordained. But if He is indeed omnipotent, it must be within His power to establish other laws, either permanently or temporarily. To deny this would be to make Him the subject of a destiny; and destiny, not God, would be the true ruler of the universe. But if He is really and always omnipotent, then a single alteration or aberration in these laws at any moment must be equally within His competence as it is to establish them. Whether He shall make such an alteration is a question to be decided by His infinite wisdom, directed by His infinite love. If the occasion seems to His wisdom to require it,

and His love suggests that it may tend to the happiness of His creatures, we should expect that power to be exercised. Under these conditions its exercise becomes not merely possible, or even probable, but certain, for it is dictated by the laws of His own nature. Therefore if we are asked to consider whether a given miracle really occurred we may legitimately, and indeed we must necessarily, in the first instance, consider whether there would be adequate reason for God's so acting, before even entering on the inquiry whether there is evidence to convince us that He did so act.

That there was sufficient reason of this nature for most of the miracles recorded in the Bible cannot be doubted if we consider their purpose. I say most, for as I do not uphold the literal inspiration of that Book, I regard every part of it as properly open to reverent critical examination, and some parts to be incapable (as far as my limited judgment goes) of substantiation as a real Word of God. But the general story of the early days of the human race, and of the selection and direction of the descendants of Abraham in order to be the depositaries of special knowledge of God and His laws, are consistent with our fullest recognition of the attributes and methods of God;

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and as such they are accepted in the belief of Christians as well as Jews. Next, the events narrated in the New Testament are, in the universal Christian faith, received as the manifestation of the infinite love of the Almighty to all His creatures. But human creatures are in their nature prone to reject the Divine teaching and guidance, prone to cast out of their minds even the idea of God, prone to set the pleasures and occupations of the world as of much higher interest to them than the promptings of the Divine Spirit or the hopes of Divine favour. Therefore it is consistent with reason to expect that the Almighty should from time to time recall His majesty and His decrees to these careless or rebellious creatures by some striking manifestations of His authority-and should give weight to the message sent by His human ministers by unquestionable evidence of their mission from him. Miracles-wonders-departures from the order of nature-thus become the sanctions and the evidence of the Divine message to man, and, far from being breaches of God's law, they are the means ordained to support it. For the moral nature of man is far higher and more momentous than his physical, and therefore, to preserve and purify the higher, the lower may well be set aside on suitable occasions.

Let us turn for the elucidation of this point to the general character of the miracles recorded in the Gospels. Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, God Himself assuming the temporary form and character of man, came on earth to warn the Jews of the errors into which their priests and lawyers had fallen, to proclaim the true nature of God and of His commandments, and to turn the hearts and understandings of men from sin to repentance, from death to life. How was such a mission to gain authority, against the authority and subverting the authority of the teachers of the people who claimed to be invested with the sanctity of Divine interpreters of the law? Clearly by no human means. John the Baptist used only human persuasion- he did no miracle;' he undoubtedly baptised many, and warned them to flee from the wrath to come, but it does not appear that he achieved more than a momentary success of evanescent enthusiasm. Jesus Christ brought, however, further credentials. His first miracle was one of merely social goodwill-the turning of water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana. This led His disciples to believe on Him, but they were then only a few individuals. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, then came to Him secretly and, acknowledging

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that His miracles proved that He came from God, sought instruction in His doctrine. To Nathanael also and to the woman of Samaria He proved His Divinity by telling them of circumstances in their lives which He could not have known by ordinary human means, and they then, and others through them, believed on Him. But though He taught among them, His teaching was evidently not generally efficacious; for He said 'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.' His second public miracle was the healing of the son of a nobleman at Capernaum. Then followed a series of miracles of similar nature, the curing of sufferers from fever, from palsy, from leprosy, from lameness, and blindness, and deafness, from all manner of diseases, from possession by unclean spirits, and the bringing back of the dead to life. These testimonies to His omnipotent goodness satisfied the people of His Divine authority; they came in crowds to hear Him, and large numbers accepted Him as the promised Christ. But their idea of the Christ was that He was to be merely an earthly deliverer of the nation from the Roman sway, and when they found that this was not to be the result of the teaching of Jesus, they abandoned 1 John iv. 48.