In conclusion. Without miracles there can be only natural religion ; revealed religion is impossible. Rev- elation is itself a miracle; and its very object is to tell us things which we could not other^vise know. Such things cannot be verilied as we verify the facts of sci- ence. No man hath or can see God. No man can tell us b_v experience what is the state of the soul after death, for from that bourne no traveller returns. Yet some knowledge of the relations of the soul with God may be absolutely necessary for our moral and spiritual well-being. Now the utter failure of natural religion convinces us that it is necessary. And therefore we feel no difficulty in the belief that God, in creating the world such as it is, and placing man upon it such as he is, and under such circumstances as those in wliich we find ourselves, did from the first purpose this reasonable interference ^vith the material laws of his own framing, by which he grants man the only sufficient proof that he is willing to enter into covenant relations with him. If the physicist reply that such action on God's part is inconceivable, we answer that he also must conceive of some such action. Students of physical science deal in k)ng numbers, but these numbers are as nothing com- pared with the eternity past. Work back with the geol- ogist, and you come at last to a first beginning of matter. Looked at by the light of mental science, the eternal existence of matter is impossible. To the metaphysi- cian, matter is but a phenomenon of mind. Confining ourselves, then, to our universe, what a momentous change was that in God when he passed from tlie pas- sive state of not willing it to the active state of willing the existence of our system ! Grant that by his fiat he only called into existence an atom, out of which by ev- olution all things here below have sprung, what a stu- pendous act it was, and how entirely it placed the Deity in relations, and, to speak with all reverence, under ob- ligations from which he was free before ! For tlie Crea- tor is under the obligations of justice and love to his creatures. He made us, and not we ourselves. But he neither was nor is under any moral obligations to his
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material laws. They abide in power and might be- cause he abideth continually. And miracle simply means that he, the Creator, has from time to time, un- der the operation of a higher law, }j,iven us the neces- sary proof that he does love us, and that certain mes- sengers, chosen from among men, had authority to teach us truths which concerned our peace; and that, finally, by " powers and portents and signs, he has man- ifested and displayed Jesus of Nazareth in the midst of us" as " a leader and Saviour, to give repentance unto his people and the remission of sins."
Miracles, then, were no after- thought, no remedial process to set right what had gone wrong before. They form an essential and necessary part and condition of the intercourse between the universal mind of God and the finite mind of man, and that intercourse was neces- sary for man's good. Why man is just what he is, and ■why the state of things in which he finds himself is what it is, we cannot tell. We can only reason from facts as we find them. But man being such as he is, we assert that the world would be a failure without mir- acles; for either man would exist without a purpose, or, having been placed here for some purpose, he would not know with sufficient certainty or clearness what that purpose was, and therefore would neither have the means of effecting it, nor even any obligation laid upon him of trying to accomplish what his Maker had willed in his creation. (R. P. S.)
For the relations of miracles to prayer, see Prayer. We have thus far considered simply the positive ev- idences on which tlie belief in miracles properly rests, and it remains to notice the objections that have from time to time been urged against it, ann the different views as to the character and office of miracles.
The Christians even of apostolic days were in the habit of appealing to the miracles and prophecies in sui)port of the truth of their religion, and hence it be- came important to define exactly the idea of a miracle ; and in conse(ptence of a desire for such preciseness divi- sion arose among the interpreters of Scripture, provok- ing heresy in the Church, while from without attacks were constantly made against the credibility of the <;ospel history, the divine authenticity of the prophetic announcements, and the wonderful works claimed to liave been wrought under the old dispensation. Dean Trench, in his Xotc.i on Miracles, has furnished an ex- cellent and interesting account of the various assaults I made on the argument for miracles, and to it we must refer for detailed information. Suffice it to say here I that tlie controversy respecting the jxissibility of mira- cles is as old as philosojihic literature. Indeed, from the writings of Jewish savans, it would apjjcar tliat the coniroversy respecting the possibility of miracles com- menced even in the days of the O.-T. dispensation, and that near the appointed time for the coming of the Sav- iour the world was greatly animated by a controversy on the subject. There is a very clear view of it, as it ' stood in the pagan world, given" by Cicero in his books JJe JJiriiKitioiie. In the works of Josephus there are occasionally suggestions of naturalistic explanations of ().-T. miracles; but these seem rather thrown out for tlie purjiose of gratifying sceptical pagan readers than as expressions of his own belief. The other chief au- thorities for Jewish opinion are Maimonides's Aforeh Ncborliim, lib. ii, c. 3.3, and the I'iike Ahoth, in Suren- husius's Mishna, iv, 4G9, and Abrabanel, Miphuloth Elo- him, \x m.