and millions of men, from early childhood to old age, for direction of human thought, will, and energy. Through these things He secures control of the order and movement of family life, of communities, of states and nations. It is thus He creates civilizations and uses them in tributary relation to His will. He makes the wonders of science and invention, from Christendom's enfranchised intellect, serve the ever-enlarging reach of Christian light into the dark places of the earth. He employs the consecrated activities and means of His people for the overthrow of wrong and the victories of righteousness. Even when, through ambition and crime, states and nations sweep the desolations of war through defenseless tribes, He shows His overruling power for reversal of issues, by moving the ready powers of Christian love and enterprise upon the scene for fresh triumphs in truth and goodness. And thus it is through this high range of the supernatural and redemptory economy, that God's providential action is most peculiarly and effectually reaching on toward the goal of His purpose.

3. Extraordinary Providential action is properly defined as that employed by God in rare and exceptional events designated miraculous, i. e., without means, or apart from the ordinary relations of cause and effect through which He commonly works in nature and grace. In contradistinction to the regular administration through fixed order of means to ends, in natural, moral, or spiritual life, this is distinctly exceptional, and without any linkage of ordinary cause and consequence that we may know, previse, and employ. It

The possibility and reality of this have already been shown (pp. 102-108).

is by an immediate action of God, and incalculable— the true "miracle." It is not only supernatural, as all the redemptive working through established means of grace is, but it is by special direct causation. It is the kind of divine action belonging to the giving of a revelation and its authentication in "signs," "wonders," and "powers." The Old and New Testaments abound with illustrations. The incarnation, the mighty deeds of Christ, His resurrection, etc., are examples. The initiation and establishment of the redemptory economy, the setting up and verification of it for mankind, was necessarily by this direct and extraordinary manifestation. But theology properly teaches that this is no longer a part of the providential activity in the world, inasmuch as all the provisions of redemption have been wrought out, and the adequate economy of application to human life regularly provided through an established and divinely authenticated order of means of grace. The abiding presence of the "supernatural" in the system of divine means for spiritual ends, supersedes the need of "miracles," which formed a necessary feature in the earlier history of redemption. The "supernatural" or redemptive economy now has its own laws or order of uniformities, in spiritual powers that have been organized for man's spiritual and eternal life. Through the word of the Gospel, with its ever-present Spirit of light and power, God comes into the human soul through its intelligence, conscience, and capacity of consent. And the law of faith is that of acceptance of this divine order and conformity to its working. Its very heart-principle is that of harmonization with the divine plan and provision as essentially made known to us. There is no call to look for "miracles" to effect or show us some

thing more than that which has been provided to reach us through established means. The blessings of grace and the realization of redemption appear according to the measure of submission and conformity to a spiritual order. Everywhere personal salvation comes to men through the instituted means, and advances according to the use of means. Everywhere the kingdom of Christ extends according to the rule of the commission: "Go ye, make disciples of all nations." It is not upon the "miracle," God's working without means, that our faith is now to turn, with respect to personal salvation or the world's conversion.

It is not, however, to be said that extraordinary providence, in the sense of transcendence of uniform means, has no permanent place in the divine administration. It certainly belongs to the closing events of the world's history. Even always, in His supreme invisible omnipresence, we must regard God as touching, with more or less efficiency of directive or interventional powers, upon the ongoings of human life and history, for the care of men and the interests of His kingdom. The reality of special providence and answer to prayer imply as much as this. Though God's plan has obligated men to the order and use of means, He has not bound or limited Himself to them. The instruments of His ordinary providence, as already shown, embrace the whole universe of the physical, mental, and redemptory economies. But these do not exhaust His powers. In His immanence in the universe He is still more than it, and the infinitude of His possibilities is at the service of His holiness, wisdom, and love. He has not said in vain: "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall

"That from us aught should ascend to heaven

So prevalent as to concern the mind

Of God high-blest, or to incline His will,

Hard to believe may seem, yet this will prayer.”—Milton.

"Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”—J. A. Wallace.

"All things work together for good to them that love God.”

DIVISION II.

THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING MAN.

(Anthropology.)

The doctrine concerning Man follows naturally the doctrine concerning God and creation. It stands between these and the doctrine of redemption. Linked on the one side to the truth of creation, it is joined on the other to the whole scheme and work of salvation. We shall rightly understand man as the subject of redemption only as we understand his place in the world-system and the essentials of the constitution, endowments, and relations creationally given him.

We recognize the fact of a scientific anthropology. Our directness of access opens man to an examination and study closer and more thorough than any other subject of knowledge. And the various forms of scientific investigation, physiological, psychological, ethnological, and historical, have accumulated a large aggregate of well and firmly assured anthropological truth. What manner of being man is, in his physical, mental, and moral constitution, has thus, to a great extent, been made indubitably known. He is even shown to be a religious being, with instinctive and almost ineradicable aptitudes to recognize a relation of amenability to some divine Power or powers above him. It is needful, however, to bear in mind the limitations of scientific anthropology. In no case does science alone explain be ginnings. It investigates the facts and processes of