firmed by miracles. A series of works like those on which Christianity rests is unique in the world. They are not so far off as to be lost in the dim mist of great antiquity. Twenty or thirty individuals join hands, and unite all the centuries since Christ. The Church, treasury of truth, retains the precious deposit by a power which never fails. The Church is like an organism. A living consciousness as to the truth of miracles is perennial. The Church is always the same Body, preserving the memory of events and their meaning, and celebrating in ritual and doctrine their Divinity. Take away miracles, then all sacred doctrine, all promises, all hopes, perish, for they are founded on miracles. Not one pure gleam would shine from the Good Land to enlighten our darkness, or enable us to discern between the righteous and the wicked. That the Jewish scheme, knit to the Christian by a hundred ties, is a delusion; that prophets and martyrs were mad; that Moses was a juggler; Isaiah, an enthusiast; Elijah, a lunatic; our Blessed Lord, a knave; and the Apostles, dupes; we cannot believe. No one, in our day, is so wicked and foolish as to say this: but what avails it for modern infidelity, which does not cry with Voltaire-" Ecraser l'infâme!" to exalt our Lord and the ancient prophets to the highest pitch of excellence, and then to assert that those who knew them best, whose special business it was to give a true record of their words and acts, made them the originators-we must speak plainly—of the most astounding falsehoods-made them, though true men, to fill the world with lies? The thing is incredible. Why, every caution was taken against fallibility. The evidence of numerous unimpeached beholders, the suf

frages not only of the Apostles as to Christ's miracles, but the testimony of thousands both as to His and their works, render mistake impossible. Enemies were always present, eager and able to detect fraud; and the marvels. were of a nature as to which there could be no delusion. That the greatest and purest men in the world have through all ages been worshipping they know not what ; regarding books as true and holy which are essentially false and wicked; and have been made truthful, chaste, heroic, and God-fearing, by that which is built on the greatest lies; would be a more astounding marvel than the maddest of men ever thought of, or the most Satanic of men could devise. It can only be accepted by men who believe anything-provided it is not in the Bible.

V. Miracles were mostly wrought in, for, and by, the men of a nation who are an enigma to the world. Far from being credulous, they were and are the most unbelieving of all races. Their history, in Old and New Testament, or on modern page, is proof. Though incapable of weaving a mythical element in their records, their annals, their literature, their great men, their national character, their past, their present, all good expected in the future, are bound up with a system miraculously bestowed and confirmed. The miracles were unwillingly received, frequently resisted; publicly wrought, for the most part, and always capable of verification or of disproof. They were done amongst a race of purest lives, of justest laws, of religion the most reasonable yet most remarkable in the world. A people wonderful for genius-not in the Hellenic sense, but in special faculty for things divine, the only worshippers of One supreme and most holy God; a people in whom

alone resided a comprehensive continuous spirit of prophecy; whose great men render all other human majesties of little renown. To charge them with ignorance and barbarism dwarfs and disgraces the accuser.

It would be a greater miracle were there no miracle. Our opponents, by their own selected system of argument, are bound to choose the lesser marvel; they must, as true men, honest men, reasonable men, receive the miracles recorded in Holy Scripture as credible according to custom of thought, as confirmed by experience of life, as worthy of all acceptation.

THOUGHT XII.

SCIENTIFIC MEN ARE BOUND TO ACCEPT MIRACLES.

"Life exists in nature as an instrumental cause. Motion in nature is action in a living subject. Modification in nature is sensation in a living thing. What is effort in nature is will in life. What is distinction of light in nature is intellect in that which lives."—From Note-Book.

"There are difficulties with the Bible, but there are tenfold more without it."-From Note-Book.

DAVID HUME says, “A miracle can never be proved so as to be the foundation of a system of religion." Similar assertions are frequently made by men who count themselves too clever for the Common Faith. Their cleverness is spoiled by a great fault-want of common sense. They do not use in religious matters that common sense which does not desert them in worldly affairs. No man, unless blinded by unbelief, could make so rash and ignorant and false a statement in the face of Christianity. Christianity is founded on the Miracle of Christ's Resurrection: "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain" (I Cor. xv. 17). This miracle confirms all other miracles, and with the Incarnation—manifesting Christ's Divine nature-gives God's own signature to our Faith; the purest, the greatest, the most marvellous Faith the world has ever possessed. To assert—“A miracle can never

be proved so as to be the foundation of a system of religion "-stands convicted of falsity in the presence of that innumerable host of mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, and statesmen, whose science and faith have made them blessings to the world.

The following is a necessary inference from Hume's false premises :-"Though the being to whom the miracle is ascribed, be in this case the Almighty, it does not, upon that account, become a whit more probable; since it is impossible for us to know the actions or attributes. of such a Being, otherwise than from the experience which we have of his productions in the usual course of nature" ("Philosophical Works of David Hume," vol. iv. sec. 10, Miracles, p. 148, edit. 1854). The grossness of error will be exposed by a little reflection.

We know of God in many ways: by the usual and unusual course of nature; by events which occur hourly, and by those happening only once in a century, or in a millennium. We know of God whenever and however He pleases to reveal Himself: whether in Word or in Work. If God cannot reveal Himself to the consciousness of men, how is it that they are conscious of Him? If He cannot reveal Himself in the literature of the world, how is it that literature is full of Him? If He cannot manifest Himself in miracles and marvels, how is it that the whole world believes that He does so manifest Himself? Men reason to support their opinions, and argue for their doctrines. It is not becoming that God should speak as a philosopher who disputes, and as a sceptic who doubts; no, He speaks as one who decides, and sustains that He says by deeds of omnipotence. Miracles are His broad seal annexed to the charter of