But in truth there is the utmost difference possible between the two cae~s. In the Roman Catholic Church we have an nlready existing institution, with n priesthood whose sacerdotal pretensions have received nn altogether abnormal development, who are not entirely beyond the suspicion of pious fraud,,:, who rest mainly upon the support of a people credulous nlmost beyond belief,+ and who resort to every expedient to maintain their influence o,•cr such people iu order to hold their ground against the opposing forces of Protestantism and infidelity. If we inquire into the chnracter of those on whose testimony these apparitions are believed, we are referred to a few children, not over-distinguished for truthfulness, or an Irish housekeeper, who can scarcely be regarded as a first-rate judge of evidence, backed up by the stout affirmations of a peasantry not regarded as altogether the most enlightened in Europe. And the Roman Catholic Church has invariably a reserve of enthusiasm to fall back upon ready to welcome any prodigy, however improbable, which might redound to the honour of their Church. The circumstances under which the Jewish and Christian miracles were worked was in every way diiierent. In the latter case there was no reserve of enthusiasm to fall back upon, for the founding of the Christian society, even with the alleged support of these miracles, was a task of the utmost difficulty, and all the miracles were worked under the eyes of a band of prejudiced and most watchful opponents. The miracles themselves were of an altogether diiierent character, such as precluded altogether the possibility of mistake. Even if we give up all the miracles of healing as due to the influence of imagination, there remains a host of others which cannot be so disposed of. And lastly, the character of the witnesses is altogether diiierent. Not only had they every inducement to disbelieve what they saw, or to say they disbelieved it if they did not; not only did they gain no personal ends by maintaining to the last the truth of their story, but their whole subsequent career shows that we have in them no half-crazy fanatics who were ready to throw away their lives for an idea, but hard-headed men of business, who set to work with the utmost cool- ness and shrewdness to attempt the morally impossible, and by dint of patience and practical tact, added to the force of an assured conviction, actually accomplished it. The miracles of the Old Testament are distinct either from those of the New or from the prodigies of later times. The evidence for them is more distant, the period one of less enlightenment.
• Some curious stories are told of pilgrims.gee to Rome on the part of poor working people who ha.d seen the straw on which the poor "prisoner of the Vatican " reclined, ani of their astonishment at contrasting what they had been told with the reality. t Bee Professor Reusch'e crushing expose of German superstition in his 'Die Deutschen Bischrife und der Aberglaube.' Professor Reusch is no prejudiced antagonist. At r,resent he holds a. position midway between the Old Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church. TO THE BOOK u~' ,JOSHUA. xix
But if wo may trust our histories, they were worked for a defh1ite purpose, in the eyes of a whole people, and in a manner which admits of no mistake. They were no apparitions seen, or believed to be Been, by a. few ignorant and credulous people ; they were marvels publicly wrought on beha.lf of a na.tion in arms, and they facilitated one of the most memorable conquests to be found in all history. The evidence for them rests upon the credibility of the documents that relate them. And if we a.re not entitled to assume that these were contemporary documents, we have no right, on the other ha.nd, to assume that, from the mere presence of the miraculous in them, they must be relegated to a later date. If the events related will generally stand the test of criticism, we cannot detach the miraculous portions from the remainder. The evidence that the writer had access to authentic informa- tion in one part of his work gives him at lea.at serious cla.im on our attention throughout. At least, therefore, we are entitled to contend that the Scripture miracles must be allowed to sta.nd on an a.ltogether different ha.sis tha.n occa.siona.l appa.ritions to women a.nd children, occurring for reasons of which it is impossible to give a. rational explana.tion. It is with pain that in the foregoing rema.rks we ha.ve felt ourselves compelled to reflect with severity upon the religion of a. vast number of our brethren in Christ. No good ca.n be done by going out of the way to atta.ck the belief of one's neighbours. And nothing but a deep conviction of the cruel injury done to the ea.use of rave.a.led religion a.mong the thought- less a.nd superficia.l by this endless crop of spurious wonders would ha.ve justified these reflections. But in view of the way in which these supposed miracles ha.ve been used to discredit revelation, it has become necessa.ry to show tha.t the mira.cles of the Bible rest on altogether different grounds to those of the Roma.n Ca.tholic Church. It remains to dea.l with an objection to the miracles of the Old a.nd New Testament alike, the.t they are contra.ry to the laws by which modern discovery has proved that the physical uni- verse is governed. Those laws, we are told, are invariable, a.nd any state- ment, it is added, asserting that their action has been suspended must be discredited. It would lea.d us too far were we to enter upon the full con- sideration of this question. The question of the possibility of the miraculous has been ably dealt with by others.* Suffice it here to sa.y that science has not only proved the invariability of forces and their laws, it has proved much more. It has proved that invariable forces, acting by invariable laws, are the most pla.stic instruments possible in human hands. The most extra- ordinary physical and moral results a.re being produced upon the face of the globe by the moral agent will, when at work upon the physical a.gencies whose action is said to be invariable. All tha.t is claimed for God in these • See, for inst11J1ce, Dr. Mozley'B Bampton Lectures, and De11n Mansel'B EBBBY in 'Aids to Faith.' XX INTRODUCTION