the alphabet which is put into our hands by God to enable us to read that great book the Universe." In that universe are three mysteries: the mystery of matter, the mystery of life, the mystery of God. The laws of matter seem simplest of the three; but, how great soever the circle of light surrounding them, the circumference of darkness grows more mysterious and tremendous:

"Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,
Yet dazzle Heaven."

Milton, Paradise Lost, iii. 380, 381.

Matter, even as to what it is, and how it is, eludes and will for ever elude our grasp. Then, when we come to apply the laws of matter to living things, we are forced to admit the existence of something lying beyond; a something, sui generis, working with and through those laws to an appointed end. Passing from life to a region even more mysteriousthat of mind, we find something as much transcending life as life transcends matter. It is of no use theoretically to drive life into the structural depths of the universe; of no avail to transfer mind into the thick darkness of the durational past; of no help to conceive of the Great Cause as only operating in the eternal aforetime; we do not get rid of Him, nor of them. A scientific conception of the universe must embrace-Matter, a manifestation of underlying Energy; Life, an unveiling of hidden Existence; Mind, affording conception of the Highest Intellectual Power-the Supernatural.

Against this we have a few sophistries which sound like echoes of the old speech from under the Tree of Knowledge. "Everything in Nature is natural, and not supernatural; or it would not be a part of Nature." Then, if a bird flies into a room it belongs to the room, and is part of the furniture. "Every unknown cause must be accounted a natural cause." Then, we are to build upon ignorance, and call the house knowledge. The folly of this being evident, we are assured"We know nothing about causes, we can only trace antecedents and consequents." Very well, then say nothing about that of which you know nothing. It is asserted—“ Matter either made itself, or is eternal; in any case, it made everything else." This irrational faith unfaiths all rational belief,

and can only be received by those who believe everything that is not in the Bible. We know, as well as we can know anything, that matter once was formless, and without properties; that motion must have come into it from without, was therefore preternatural, and without it Nature would not have been possible. The high energy in the universe is ever passing into lower forms; the reversal of low energy into the higher can only be accomplished, even under the most favourable conditions, by loss of the far greater part; and, when the lowest form has become universal, there can be no reversal except by infusion of energy from without. We also know that no amount of pushing by unintelligent force in time and space could create the world we live in, any more than the shaking of pebbles would build Westminster Abbey ; nor are the vibrations of atoms equivalent to moral emotions of will, love, reverence, in a self-conscious intellect-they are at least vibrations plus the emotions.

We are told-"It is impossible for us to conceive the Supreme Being acting otherwise than we actually see in Nature." Really this is babble; turn the asserted fact—“ It is impossible for us to conceive the Supreme Being acting as we actually see in Nature," and every atheist in the world will say "Amen." "Progress," we are told, "is necessary to existence, or life;" take the reverse-"Progress is necessary for nonexistence and death;" both are true. "The highest effect is to bring man into perfect harmony with law;" yes, but the aim of all science and all intelligence is to control natural law by human will. "In obedience to law are life and safety;" yes, but knowledge and power to subdue natural law are imperatively demanded for life and safety. All this shows that there is something unseen in all that is seen, something transcending Nature in Nature.

Some admit that miracles are theoretically possible, but deny that any have been wrought, and would ignore them by means of truisms. "If we neglect gravitation, we shall be dashed in pieces at the foot of a precipice, or be crushed by a falling rock; if we despise sanitary law, we are destroyed by pestilence; if we disregard chemical laws, we are poisoned by a vapour." "Yes," we reply, "because God, who likes simple

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folk, approveth not simpletons." It has been proposed that we erect two hospitals; in one the patients are to be "physicked," in the other "prayed for." Evidently the proposer had need of both remedies. The wisdom and order of Divine conduct, whether in giving or withholding, cannot be tabulated by man; so as to form a theory of prayers, and a register of the varying degrees of faith and intensity, for production of greater or lesser results. Sickness unhealed, even as sickness healed, whether a rod or a reproof, may be for the glory of God. Out of folly, wisdom may be got; by gravitation, levitation; from sickness, healing; and poison, not always deadly, becomes medicine; so things contrary turn to our part.

Sometimes a noise is made about the supernatural being unnatural-as if what came into Nature from without, did not thereby become part of Nature and natural. Walking on the sea is a plain reversal of laws; but so also, antecedently, is sending a message under the sea. If the latter is accomplished in our days; so the former, in the example of Christ and the experience of Apostles. To say "The alleged sea-walking and submarine telegraphy have nothing in common; because to accomplish the miracle, either the body or the water must have been invested with new properties; and, in the telegraph case, it was merely required that old and persistent properties should be ascertained and utilised"—is really to assume that we know all about the miracle that is to be known; that there are no energies, either in heaven or earth, by use of which a man may walk on the surface of the sea. The fact is, to our forefathers, telegraphy was an impossibility equal to the miracle wrought by Christ. Doubtless, it will be established, if ever men do walk on the sea, that they do so by ascertaining and utilising old and persistent properties of the universe.

We are able to explain why miracles are wrought; but the definition of so unknown a quantity as how they are wrought is sure to be imperfect. To say "Whatever is contrary to universal and invariable experience is antecedently incredible," is but a truism; yet what man or nation has universal and invariable experience? The saying of Professor Baden Powell-"In Nature and from Nature, by science and

by reason, we neither have nor can possibly have any evidence of a Deity working miracles; for that we must go out of Nature and beyond science"-is double-edged; for neither Nature nor science, in that case, can possibly present any evidence against miracles. Really, such sayings remind one of making a fog and then trying to escape; they limit science to its present capabilities. It is puppyism grown into dogmatism, as Douglas Jerrold would say, to assert as a universal truth-"It is more probable that testimony should be mistaken than that miracles should be true;" for the meaning unveiled is this: It is more probable that the evidence for a miracle is false, than that other men, if there were miracles, should not have seen them. If the assertion be taken as a denial of the truth and reality of anything not generally known, it is a flagrant petitio principii, an absurd attempt to correct experience by inexperience, to make every unknown and unlikely thing antecedently incredible, and to measure knowledge by ignorance. It is demonstrable, adopting the generally received nebular theory as to the origin of worlds, that there have been continual interventions of energy, even if all the morality, intelligence, life, strength, beauty, variety, existed potentially in the primary diffused mist. Scientific theory and experiment are, however, eliminating all material properties from the primal substance: and, ere long, the evidence for intervention may assume the power of demonstration for if the original atoms had not material properties, those at present known could not have been got out of them— unless put in by creative energy. The ablest of our scientific men teach that there is something more than matter or stuff in the universe; and that the doctrine of Continuity, whether they go backwards or forwards, brings them to an invisible universe.

There are two classes of miracles. Those which from the very nature of the case are excluded from investigation, such, for example, as are wrought by the Glory of the Father upon the Son, say the Supernatural Birth; which must be received as "miracula de quibus ipsa est fides," not as "miracula quæ sunt ad fidei confirmationem "-the objects of faith, not for

"Essays and Reviews: Study of the Evidences of Christianity."

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the confirmation of faith. The other class are those miracles which may be tested by the manner, time, circumstances, of their accomplishment. These surpass the ordinary powers of Nature-"præter naturam, supra naturam, contra naturam;" not that the effect is unnaturul, but such as could not be produced unless new powers were evoked.

These latter miracles are as credible, if we have trustworthy report, as if we saw them with our own eyes; there is no absolute difference between the two testimonies. In the case of many witnesses, indeed, we have far more conclusive evidence than could be afforded by our own unaided and uncorroborated senses.

Three things make miracles antecedently probable and subsequently credible: alleged adequate power; sufficient motives for their performance; permanent results arising from their occurrence.

As to the Power, the term duváμsiç seems a fit word to describe the putting forth in a répaç, "wonder, or prodigy," evidence for the existence and presence of the Almighty, or of one from Him. Sufficient motives are manifested, in a teleological point of view, by the onusov, or "sign," or instructive light, by which we are made to understand that Divine love, wisdom, purity, the kingdom of heaven, are nigh at hand. The permanent results are the opening of secret sources of power, of holiness, of wisdom, which make the children of men so strong, pure, wise, that they lay hold on eternal life.

In this latter sense miracles are also prophecies: not only do they sometimes foreshadow future events, as in 2 Kings xx. 8-11; they also foretell the victories of the Son of God, and prefigure the rich potent balm with which the Great Physician will heal the deep and deadly diseases afflicting Nature.

The view of God, in Nature and beyond Nature, moving along all radii from the infinite into the present finite creation, physical and psychical, and passing into the infinite future, most powerfully attracts scientific students, religiously inspires them, and imparts to their glorious studies yet greater glory. God is not only outside, but within the universe; the Book of Nature is the biography of the Author. Dynamical agency