when He himself rose by his own power from the grave. To say that these facts never occurred, simply because, according to the ephemeral theory of the hour, they could not occur, is the infinite of folly. It is a thousand fold more certain that they oc- curred than that the best authenticated facts of history are true. For such facts we have only ordinary historical evidence ; for the truth of Christ's miracles, and especially of his resurrection, we have the evidence of all the facts of history from his day to the present. The actual state of the world, and the existence of the Church, necessitate the admission of those facts, to which God himself bore witness of old in signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, as He does still in a manner absolutely irresistible, in the gift of the Holy Ghost. To hear the whole gospel, even con- structively, pronounced a lie, is a sore trial to those who have even a glimmer of the faith of Paul, and who can only say with quiver- ing lips, what he said with the fulness of assurance, " I know whom I have believed." 1 Scientific men are prone to think that there is no other evidence of truth, than the testimony of the senses. But the reason has its intuitions, the moral nature its a priori judgments, the religious consciousness its immediate apprehensions, which are absolutely infallible and of paramount authority. A man might as easily emancipate himself from the operation of the laws of nature, as from the authority of the moral law, or his responsibility to God. "When, therefore, men of sci- ence advance theories opposed to these fundamental convictions, they are like bats impinging against the everlasting rocks.
But apart from the case of miracles, it may be safely said, that so far from its being true that nature has never been " crossed by spontaneous action," such action in nature is familiar, con- stant, and almost universal. What is an organism, but the prod- uct of spontaneous action ? that is, of the intelligent (and there- fore voluntary) selection and application of appropriate means for the accomplishment of a foreseen and intended end ? If the world is full of the evidences of spontaneous action on the part of man, nature is full of evidence of such action on the part of God. The evidence is of the same kind, and just as palpable and irre- sistible in the one case as in the other. It is admitted of necessity by those who deny it. Darwin's books, for example, are full of such expressions as "wonderful contrivance," "ingenious device,"
1 In the volume above referred to, there is an article entitled, "Miracles and Special Providences," being a review by Professor Tyndall of the Rev. Mr. Mozley's Bamptcm Lectures on Miracles. In that review "magic, miracles, and witchcraft " are placed iu the same category.
698 PART III. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
" marvellous arrangements." These expressions reveal the per- ception of spontaneous action. They have no meaning except on the assumption of such action. u Contrivance," " device," imply design, and would not be used if the perception of intention did not suggest and necessitate them. Some twenty times already, in the course of this work, it has been shown that, in many cases, those who begin with denying any spontaneous action in nature, end with asserting that there is no other kind of action anywhere ; that all force is mind-force, and therefore spontaneous as well as intelligent.
Spontaneous action cannot be got rid of. If denied in the present, it must be admitted in the past. If, as even Professor Huxley teaches, " Organization is not the cause of life ; but life is the cause of organization," * the question is, Whence comes life ? Not out of nothing, surely. It must have its origin in the spontaneous, voluntary act of the ever, and the necessarily Liv- ing One.
The theory of the universe which underlies the Bible, which is everywhere assumed or asserted in the sacred volume, which ac- cords with our moral and religious nature, and which, therefore, is the foundation of natural, as well as of revealed religion, is that God created all things by the word of his power ; that He endowed his creatures with their properties or forces ; that He is everywhere present in the universe, cooperating with and con- trolling the operation of second causes on a scale commensurate with his omnipresence and omnipotence, as we, in our measure, cooperate with, and control them within the narrow range of our efficiency. According to this theory, it is not irrational that we should pray for rain or fair weather, for prosperous voyages or healthful seasons ; or that we should feel gratitude for the in- numerable blessings which we receive from this ever present, ever operating, and ever watchful benefactor and Father. Any theory of the universe which makes religion, or prayer, irrational, is self-evidently false, because it contradicts the nature, the con- sciousness, and the irrepressible convictions of men. As this control of God extends over the minds of men, it is no less ra- tional that we should pray, as all men instinctively do pray, that He would influence our own hearts, and the hearts of others, for good, than that we should pray for health.
It is also involved in the assumptions already referred to, that the sequence of events in the physical and moral world is not
1 Elements of Comparative Anatomy, pp. 10, 11.