41. This was the theory of Strauss; but it is not tenable, for this reason, among others, that the interval of time which elapsed between the death of Christ and the composition of the records which described Him as a superhuman personage is not long enough to account for such legendary develop- ments. The evidence is not like that for the miracles attributed to St. Anthony or to Ignatius Loyola, which are found only in the later and not in the earlier biographies. It is as nearly contem- porary as we could expect. It does not grow as we advance from decade to decade in the history of the Church. The belief in a superhuman Christ is as deep-rooted in the letters of St. Paul written before the year 58 as it is in the Gospel according to St. John written at least thirty years later, although it is not expressed in the same way. The evidence is as good in degree and in kind as we could expect it to be, without the intervention of a special miracle by which scientific testings, not in the least necessary for the faith of the first century, should have been provided to satisfy the cravings for certitude of the nineteenth. Tt is fully detailed, delivered in transparent good faith, and under circumstances which would forbid a careless assent.*
v. OTHER BIBLE MIRACLES. —1. The Acts of the Apostles. —The miracles ascribed to the apostles in Acts stand on a somewhat different platform. Standing alone, the evidence for them would hardly be sufficient to compel their reception. But they must be considered in their relation to the advent of Christianity, and to the super- human powers of the Founder of the Christian Church. The commission to the apostles (Mt 105) included the direction: ‘Heal the sick, raise the
* This is all worked out by Paley, Zvidences, pt. i. ch. 2.
MIRACLE
dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils.’ This does not suggest, it will be observed, that what we have called cosmic miracles came within the powers with which they were entrusted by the Lord, and we find no trace of such miracles in Acts. In the appendix to St. Mark (Mk 1617) the remarkable promise is recorded: ‘ These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.’ With the exception of immunity from poison, instances are given in Ac of all these powers being enjoyed, not only by the original eleven and by St. Paul, but by many other dis- ciples. Thus the gift of tongues found its fulfil- ment at Pentecost, and is alluded to by St. Paul in his Epistles. Propheey, which was akin to this, is frequently spoken of as a ‘sign’ of an apostle. Agabus not only predicted a famine (Ac 11°), but also warned St. Paul of what would happen to him at Jerusalem (Ac21). Twelve unnamed Ephesian disciples on whom St. Paul laid his hands were endued with this gift (Ac 19%), as were also the four daughters of Philip the Evangelist (Ac 21°). And that ‘wonders and signs’ were wrought by the apostles is repeatedly asserted (Ac 24 512 68 818), and it is in entire harmony with St. Paul’s own claims (see iv. ὃ 9). Among these were the ex- pulsion of demons (Ac 5!® 1618), the healing of the lame (Ac 37 148), of a paralytic (Ac 934), and of the sick (Ac 56 289 1912. the cures in the last case being described as δυνάμεις οὐ τὰς τυχούσας, Which operated through the medium of St. Paul’s cloth- ing). Two cases of raising the dead are recorded (Doreas, Ac 9%’, and Eutychus, Ac 20%). Visions and voices from heaven are spoken of (Ac 9% 10 108... 125), and the intervention of angels is men- tioned (Ac 5! 8%). ‘Two visitations of judgment, upon Elymas (Ac 13") and upon Ananias and Sapphira (Ac 5°-1°), are brought about by St. Paul and St. Peter respectively. It is not necessary to discuss the healing virtue ascribed to St. Peter’s shadow (Ac 815), or the deliverance of St. Paul from the viper (Ac 28%); for in the former case nothing is said as to the success of the attempted remedy, and in the latter case no miracle is necessarily involved (but cf. Mk 1618), But, on the whole, it is impossible to evade the consequence that the ministry of the apostles, according to the only records which we have got, was sustained by powers which are beyond the power of man or of nature as known to us. They fall into their place immediately if Christ was what He claimed to be, and the Church which He founded the minister of His grace; but on any other hypothesis they cannot be explained.
2. The Miracles of the OT. —Similar observations may be made about the miracles of the OT. It is evident that we cannot speak with the same con- fidence about these that we can feel when describ- ing the miracles of Him who showed in His own person His superiority to death, of Him who is the Prince of Life. For they are narrated in ancient books, the origin of which in many instances is wrapped in obscurity. We cannot claim to have contemporary evidence for the miracles of the OT as we have for those of the NT. And so to one appreaching the OT literature without any appre- ciation of its fulfilment in the Christ, some of the miracles therein recorded, while always possible to a believer in God, may perhaps seem to be guaranteed by no sufficient testimony to compe! belief in oceurrences so improbable in themselves. But for us ‘Vctus Testamentum in Novo patet.’ The obscurities of the older revelation find their explanation in the fuller light of the later. And