MIRACLES
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MIRACLES
Even in fairly-civilized communities murder was not a crime to be punished by the state, but to be avenged by the relatives of the murdered man. This even was the state of things among the Jews when the Ten Com- mandments were promulgated, and Closes, by special enactments, modilied and softened the customs which lie found prevalent, and which did not distinguish be- tween wilful murder and accidental homicide. Natural religion, therefore, gave no special sanctity to human life, but rcgariled only the injury done to the family of the sufferer. The divine commandment has gone home straight to the conscience. It lias made the shedding of blood a sin, and not mereh- an injury. Accordingly, Christian states have recognised the divine nature of the law by punisliing murder as a public offence, in- stead of leaving it to be dealt with as a private wrong.
A revealed religion therefore claims absolute power over the conscience as being the direct will of God. No question of utility or public or private expediency may stand in its way. It must be obeyed, and disobedience is sin. I5ut plainly we ought not to yield such absolute obedience to anything tliat we do not know to be the law of God. Man stands too high in tlie scale of exist- ence for this to be right. Were it only that he is en- dowed with a conscience, and thereby made responsible for his actions, it is impossible for him to give up the control over his own actions to any being of less author- ity than that One to whom he is responsible. But a revelation claims to be the express will of that very Being, and therefore a sufficient justification of our ac- tions before his tribunal. Surely, before we trust our- selves to it, we may fairly claim adequate proof that it is his will. The issues are too serious for less than this to suffice.
But, besides this, when we look at Christianity, the nature of its doctrines brings the necessity of supernat- ural proof before us with intense force. It teaches us that God took our nature upon him, and in our nature died in our stead ; and, as we have pointed out before, the strength of Christianity, and that which makes it a re- ligion of progress, is this union of the divine and human natures in Christ. He is not merely the " man of sor- rows," the ideal of suffering humanity — and a religion that glorifies a sinless sufft-rer may do much to alleviate sorrow and sweeten the bitter cup of woe— but he is much more than this. It is only when that sinless suf- ferer is worshipped as our Lord and our (Jod that we reach the mainsjmng which has given Christianity its power to regenerate the world.
But how could such a doctrine be believed on any less evidence than that which directly pledged tlie di- vine authority on its behalf? The uni(jue and perfect character of the Jesus of tlie evangelists; the pure and spotless nature of the morality he taught; the intluence for good which Christian doctrines liave exercised ; the position attained by Christian nations, and the contrast between the ideals of heathenism and of Christianity — all this and more is valuable as subsidiary evidence. Some of it is absolutely necessary to sustain our belief. Even miracles would not convince us of the truth of a revelation which taught us a morality contrary to our consciences. For nothing could make us believe that the voice of God in nature could be opposed to his voice in revelation. It is a very axiom that, however it reaches us, the voice of (Jod must be ever the same. But these subsidiary proofs are but by-works. They are not the citadel, and can never form the main de- fence. A doctrine such as that of (Jod becoming man must have evidence cognate to and in pari materie with the doctrine itself. Thus, by a plain and self-evident necessity, revelation offers us supernatural (iroof of its reality. This supernatural proof is twofold, prophecy and miracle.
Now these two not merely support one another, but arc essentially connected. They are not inde|)cndent, but correlative proofs. It was the office of the jirophet gradually to prepare the way for the manifestation of
] the Iramanuel upon earth. In order to do so effectually I he often came armed with supernatural authority. But a vast majority of the prophets had no other business than to impress on the consciences of the |)Ooiile truths already divinely vouched for and im|)licitly accepted; and such no more needed miracles than the preachers of Christianity do at the iiresent day. But among the prophets were here and there men of higher ]>owers, whose office was to advance onwards towards the ulti- mate goal of the prejiaratory dispensation. Such men offered prediction and miracle as the seals which rati- fied their mission. In general men could be prejiared to receive so great a miracle as that set forth in the opening verses of John's Gospel only by a jirevious dis- pensation which had brouglit the supernatural very near to man. If the 01«1 Testament had offered no mir- acles, and had not taught the constant presence of (iod in the disposal of all human things, the doctrines of the New Testament would have been an impossibility.