THOUGHT XXVII.

MIRACLES OF THE PRESENT DAY.

"Certum est quia impossibile."-TERTULLIAN.

“Certainly testimony does not satisfy all the wants of the human mind in the matter of evidence, because upon the supposition that a most wonderful event of the deepest importance to us has taken place we have naturally a longing for direct and immediate knowledge of that event.”— MOZLEY, On Miracles, p. 95.

VIRGIL, Eneid, vii. 89. "Phantoms rising as the mists arise;"

fictions of credulity, of no definite or credible reality. Lecky ("Rationalism in Europe," vol. i. p. 1) says, "Nearly all educated men receive an account of a miracle taking place in their own day with an absolute and even derisive incredulity which dispenses with all examination of the evidence." To this we reply that a miracle is possible at any moment, is the position those take who believe in the living God. This is not less a fact in science than a verity in theology. These educated men mean only to use the language of common sense; or to say with a little scorn, as Horace, in

Epicurean mood, when told at Gratin how that frankincense melted in the temple without fire

This general incredulity may be justified by various facts.

Many asserted miracles, both of former and later times, are with good reason regarded as lying signs invented by craft, and believed in by ignorance. Further, it is well known that, apart from craft and credulity, a sudden and strong rousing of physical, or mental, or emotional energy, will expel disease, at least, temporarily; and action-not necessarily strong or sudden, whether we are conscious or unconscious of it-will at times evoke dreams and visions which are easily mistaken for signs. and seals of the supernatural.

Simulations of miracles are also of easy manufacture. Even conjurors, who pretend to no supernatural power, and only wish to give innocent amusement, dazzle the eye and puzzle the intellect of the shrewdest. Spiritualists assert that, as if by revelation of a fourth and inner dimension of space, tables disappear from before their very eyes, lumps of coal are thrown by invisible hands, and limbs without trunks come into view. Persons in the hypnotic state, are will-less automata, do the silliest and absurdest acts. Consciousness can be separated from the senses, and then men, unconsciously, do marvellous things. Bitter may be taken for sweet, and sweet for bitter, every sense will belie itself. Dr. Rudolf Heidenhain partially explains hypnotic delusion by the statement that it arises from "In

H

hibition of the activity of the ganglion-cells of the cerebral cortex." * Mr. Friedländer, a medical student who had been often hypnotized, was told one first of February morning, that precisely at four o'clock in the afternoon he would, in his own room, on looking at the clock, be magnetized by means of influence acting from a distance. He was so magnetized.† An hour may be specified and a place appointed at and to which a person can be made to go unwittingly. Adding wonder to wonder, one side of a person may be rendered independent of his will by production of unilateral hypnosis. In this state, according to the statement of Professor Cohn, a person-naturally and completely colour-blind -may distinguish colours. Athanasius Kircher communicated influence to a fowl, so that the bird lay motionless on the ground with its beak resting against a chalked line. Czermak so influenced a crayfish that it stood motionless on its head.§

If these strange things are wrought by inhibition of cerebral activity, doubtless a similar inhibition, or an unwonted exhibition of cerebral activity, may lead to the seeing and doing of that which the seer and doer may deem miraculous. The reported marvels performed in the presence of sacred relics, or in the course of pilgrimage to some holy place, are not all delusionsthey may have been wrought under excitement. We can accept every one, and yet give a true scientific physiological and psychological explanation which wholly separates them from the supernatural.

Shall we then say, miracles have ceased? That all *"Animal Magnetism," Dr. Rudolf Heidenhain, p. 49.

† Ibid., p. 86.

Ibid., p. 98.

§ Ibid., Preface, p. x.

nowaday marvels are but natural; that, God having spoken by His Son, miracles are no longer needed? S. Chrysostom seems to speak as if, in his day (about A.D. 380), miracles were unnecessary, adding, that this did not prove they had always been so— Μὴ τοίνυν τὸ μὴ γίνεσθαι νῦν σημεῖα, τεκμήριον ποιοῦ τοῦ μὴ γεγενῆσθαι τότε. Καὶ γὰρ τότε χρησίμως ἐγίνετο καὶ νῦν χρησίμως où yívera" ("Epist. ad Corin.," Hom. vi.). To everything there is a season; a time for miracles to be wrought, and a time for them not to be wrought. We very well understand that for the revelation and establishment of Divine Truth miracles should be a sort of bell rung in men's ears bidding them mark and learn"Miracula necessaria fuerunt, antequam crederet mundus, adhoc ut crederet mundus" (S. Augustine, “De Civitate Dei "). Now, however, that the Church is established; and is itself, we Christians assert, a miraculous proof of Christ's Kingdom; we may say that we need no other influence than that of the ordinary and continuous operation of the Holy Ghost-the greatest of all miracles; that the divine building is erected-the scaffolding may be taken away. Believers are made, are helped, are taught, by the inner work of God the Spirit; not by the outer work of physical marvels; miracles may have ceased. Modern miracles are discredited for the reason that, for the most part, the more searchingly they are investigated the more convincingly they may be disproved; so convincingly, indeed, that men of a sceptical mind regard even the ancient miracles with suspicion. We now reverse the thought: Miracles Have Not Ceased.

It is not certain, because some marvels are explain

able, that all are natural or fictitious. That must be a peculiar sort of mind which cannot admit that the false often implies the true. Every alleged miracle must rest on its own evidence. Miracles are not like ninepins which knock one another down. We may suppose that since the days of our Lord and the Apostles there have been few and with the roll of ages fewer marvels: but this may result from the fact that the great miracle of Christianity is Christ: the fewness also of other miracles may have resulted from our want of faith. The promise of miraculous signs was not so much for the Apostles, as for those who should believe by their means (Mark xvi. 17, 18); nor is it true that miracles would be useless now a few well tested and attested amongst scientific men might be greatly beneficial. This, of course, is but supposition. We cannot see far enough to know for certain what is beneficial in the long run. Ahaz and the Pharisees both showed want of faith: the one by refusing to ask for a sign, the other by asking for one. There may be long intervals during which miracles cease, and there is no open vision as between the days of the prophets of Judah and the coming of our Lord. John the Baptist, though he came in the spirit of Elijah, the worker of miracles, did no miracles. The modern Church seems in darkness, with feeble and ineffective grasp on the powers of the unseen world. We live, we are told, in an age of common sense; perhaps we put common sense in the place of faith. Common sense is of inestimable value, yet it is no disgrace to it that it cannot do the works of faith. The Scriptures assure us that, in the last days, our holy men are to receive miraculous spiritual might; perhaps even the