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tainly discriminated and recognized by us to be truly what they appear to be.

1. This is argued from the acknowledged fact that our knowledge of the powers and laws of nature are very limited, and therefore we are never competent, in view of any wonderful phenomenon transcending all past recorded experience, to say peremptorily that it transcends nature and must have been caused by the direct action of God. This is true in part, but irrelevant. The question does not relate to the possible achievements of science in the future, but to what was done through the agency of religious teachers in an obscure province of the Roman empire two thousand years ago. Besides, science secures its wonderful results by means of apparatus, by means of elaborately adjusted conditions, and never in any other way. But the miracle was always the response to a simple command in the name of God or of Christ. Besides all this, science has effectually shut some doors while it has opened many others. It is now scientifically certain that a man four days dead in a hot climate cannot be brought back to life by natural forces alone. If the events in question actually occurred, then it is scientifically certain that they reveal the "finger of God."

2. Skeptics argue that miracles, even if they occurred, could not be certainly recognized as such, because the phenomenon, although obviously transcending natural physical law, may, for aught we can tell, be produced by some unknown superhuman agency; as, for instance, by the devil or by his angels. This might be true so far as the isolated fact as a physical event goes, although we have no evidence that finite spirits of any kind have

But the objection is

power of life or death over men. wholly irrelevant. The miracles were professed "signs" of divine revelation and commission. Good spirits would not conspire to counterfeit God and deceive men; evil spirits could not, and would not be allowed to do so if they could. The prophet, his character, the doctrine and the miracle make one congruous whole, which in all its parts equally bears the unmistakable and uncounterfeitable sign-manual of God. Evil spirits could not conspire to build up the kingdom of God (Matt. 12:25).

3. It is again argued against the credibility of miracles, that of the alleged phenomena we have only popular reports, and no evidence of their having been submitted to any adequate scientific test. We acknowledge that the mass of people were then, as they are now, credulous and inaccurate observers. But in the case of the most important miracles recorded the tests to which the phenomena were subjected were all-sufficient. The whole problem as to the resurrection either of Lazarus or of Christ or of the son of the widow of Nain is embraced in two definite and easily-ascertained facts. They were really dead, and subsequently they were really alive again in the same bodies. That Christ was really dead on Friday the entire educated world, skeptical and believing, agree to be an ascertained historical fact. The fact that he was really alive again on Sunday and afterward was tested in the strictest sense scientifically, and especially by the apostle Thomas. The disciples used one sense to criticise and confirm the report of another. They saw, heard and handled him, and thrust their "hands into the print of the spear." Many different

persons saw, heard and handled him in many different lights and in various situations through a space of six weeks. These persons were not deceived. They were intelligent and sober-minded men, as evidenced by all they did and wrote. They could not have conspired to deceive us. They consecrated their lives thenceforth "to preach Jesus and the resurrection." As conscious witnesses they were true, for they sealed their testimony as martyrs. As unconscious witnesses they could not deceive, for their unique experience transformed their characters and lives from being Galilean fishermen to being world-compelling apostles.

V. It is objected that the proof of which moral and spiritual truths are susceptible is their own inherent selfevidencing light; that they are only worthily recognized when they are seen and felt to be truth in their own light; that miracles, consequently, even if real, are useless as evidences of divine revelation, since moral and spiritual truth cannot be established by any correlation with physical phenomena; that the truth of a truth can never be established by the effects of even an infinite physical force.

It

But the gospel is not a disclosure of abstract moral or spiritual truths, but rather of a series of objective facts constituting the stupendous history of redemption. is the history of God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, and afterward sending his Holy Spirit to apply and complete the work. No possible quickening of our intuitive consciousness would disclose these matters of historical fact. No self-evidence establishes them as historical realities except the evidence which history renders. And among

the most convincing elements of this history is the witness it bears to the events we call "miracles." The incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, are the very substance of Christianity and its saving power; the first and third of these are the central suns of the constellations of miracles recorded in the Bible. It is conceded that sporadic, inconsequent miracles could prove nothing, and would themselves be difficult to prove. But given a supernatural crisis, a supernatural teacher and a supernatural doctrine, miracles are found to be in place like jewels on the state robes of a king. All the great miracles recorded in Scripture gather around two great foci in the history of redemption: the giving of the law through Moses and the life and death of the incarnate God. Miracles in such connections are inevitable, and in the highest sense congruous. Their absence would have been unaccountable.

Besides this, the miracle, when found in this its normal relation to the character of the genuine prophet and to the nature of the genuine revelation, adds its own specific and indispensable quota of evidence. The miracle (the "sign") is the seal of God. A seal detached or attached accidentally to a rag or fraudulently to a fiction has no legal value. Even a true document in many cases has only an incomplete value in the absence of the seal. But when the true seal is attached to the true document, the evidence is impregnable. The prophet, the message and the miracle mutually authenticate one another. Separate, neither could be believed with confidence; together, neither can be doubted. Faith is the highest reason, and therefore the most obligatory duty, while unbelief is alike irrational and sinful.

LECTURE IV.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES-THE CANON AND INSPIRA

TION.

I. I AM to speak this afternoon of the Bible, its genesis and its inspiration. The word "Bible" means book, the word "Scripture" means writing, and it is by the common consent of men that these words are applied to this one subject, because it is a Book of books, and because, beyond all comparison, it is the Writing of writings. It is the most important of all books, because, as a matter of historical fact, this book, more than any other force, has moulded the character of the great nations of the world and given birth to what we call the modern or Western civilization; because all historic churches, with one accord, declare it to be the foundation of their creeds-declare that this book is the Word of God; because, in spite of all our divisions, the whole Church really accepts this book as the only infallible and divinely authoritative rule of our faith and practice; and because it is, between all Christians, the standard of appeal on all subjects of debate, the only common ground upon which we stand, the only court of last resort.

II. On what presuppositions does our doctrine rest? In every problem there are two elements-the a priori element of principle and the a posteriori element of fact. To this there is no exception in any of the problems of philosophy or of science or of theology. The a priori

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