Class Book. Copyright^ . COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. MIRACLE AND SCIENCE Miracle and Science BIBLE MIRACLES EXAMINED BY THE METHODS, RULES AND TESTS OF THE SCIENCE OF JURISPRUDENCE AS ADMINISTERED TO- DAY IN COURTS OF JUSTICE FRANCIS J. LAMB ATTORNEY AND COUNSELLOR AT LAW OBERLIN, OHIO, U. S. A. BIBLIOTHECA SACRA COMPANY 1909 COPYRIGHTED 1909 BY FRANCIS J. LAMB The News Printing Co., Oberlin, O. ::;" LIBRARY cf CONGRESS Twu Conies Received JUN 26 1BU9 « Copyncnt tntry PREFACE The Introductory Chapter presents generally the plan of this work. The following indicates the occasion and purpose of its production. Observers in late years have known that multitudes, classified in Christian categories, have suffered loss of faith in the Bible. To them the Bible has ceased to be the Word of God — ceased to be the record in hu- man language of revelations of God to man of His love, law, and economy of grace. Its counsels are no longer to them regulative authority in matters of religion and spiritual life. On the contrary, the Bible has become to them mere litera- ture, the product solely of human thought, with no element whatever of divineness in its production. Embraced in this class are many in the Christian ministry, in educational work, and in the laity of the churches. The inception and spread of this new disbelief in the Bible synchronizes with the advent and spread of a new attack on the Bible. The attack flatly denies the miracle and supernatural inherent in the Bible record from Genesis to Revelation. This attack is championed by devotees of what is vi Preface known as advanced (sometimes called destructive) Higher Criticism of the Bible. As disclosed by their literature the attack has its base in supposi- tion of natural evolution in human history and the world. A concrete statement of the attack is made by a foremost leader of these critics — A. Kuenen, Professor of Theology in Leyden. We quote his statement : " So soon as we derive a separate part of Israel's religious life directly from God, and allow the supernatural or immediate revelation to intervene in even one single point, so long also our view of the whole continues to be incorrect. ... It is the supposition [italics ours] of a natural de- velopment alone which accounts for all the phe- nomena." x The contention of these advanced critics is based, also, on the presupposition that miracles are impossible, and therefore cannot be the basis of history; hence they should be expunged from the Bible. The reasons assigned for such denial proceed on the Bible conception of miracle and assert: (a) miracle is irrational; (b) miracle is not God's way of working in the world; and (c) miracles cannot be proved to be true. Analytical consideration of the three propositions shows that 1 Prophets and Prophecy in Israel (1877), p. 4. Preface vii the first two are dependent on the third; for, mir- acles being provable, then (&) miracle is one way of God's working in the world; and (a) God's working in the world is not irrational. The pro- position that miracles are not provable is evidently the basis of such disbelief and denial. To counter- act these attacks upon the Bible; to show that due employment of the rules, tests, and ordeals of the proper science (that of jurisprudence) upon the Bible record will demonstrate that there is within human control competent evidence, ample and adequate when duly dealt with, to prove the Bible record of miracles true and a verity, to dis- prove the contention of the negators, and to vindi- cate the truthfulness of the Bible, were the pur- poses for which the work was undertaken. The result is herewith presented. The value of jural science to religion has not, we venture to suggest, been adequately appre- hended. After showing the capacity of that science in proving miracles to be verities, we have set forth to some extent its capacity in simplifying difficult and perplexing questions in religious matters, and in solving serious problems in theology and cog- nate questions. The value of that science in such inquiries may be seen, also, when, by its due em- viii Preface ployment on the Bible record, it ascertains rational certainties and provides for faith foundations of fact and verity. It is proper to state to the reader that our use of italics in Scripture quotations is for emphasis — not as indicating words supplied by translation in our English version. If the literary cast of the book in any part shall seem to any reader to par- take of the nature of a brief for the truthfulness of the Scriptures, or a brief against opponents who charge God with unrighteousness, it may be sug- gested in reply, that a lawyer's brief seems an ap- propriate method of complying with the Scripture exhortation to " contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints/' Francis J. Lamb. Madison, Wisconsin, June 2, 1909. CONTENTS Introductory — Problems Stated Miracle defined — pregnant questions, 1 ; Testing mir- acles by science, 2 ; Denials of miracles, 4 ; Jural science — rules, tests, standards, 7; Illustrations of " issue " — solving questions, 10 ; Divine em- ployment of " issue," 11 ; Evidence — function — operation, 13. CHAPTER II Verity of Miracles Examined by Judicial Stand- ards 15 Section I Issue and ordeal, 17; Competence of evidence gen- erally, 19 ; Opponents' objections examined, 26. Section II Ancient Document evidence, 26; Tests of the valid- ity of evidence, 27; Evidence — Ancient Docu- ment rule, 30; Writings unacknowledged and un- recorded, 33 ; Ancient Document rule applies to all kinds of writings, 38 ; Copies equally with or- iginals embraced in the rule, 40 ; Accounting for loss of originals dispensed with in cases of very Ancient Documents, 41 ; Ancient copy like Bible copies, 43; Bible documents within the rule — Greenleaf, 45. x Contents Section III Evidence competent, 51 ; Facts, 53 ; Result of trial ... 57 CHAPTER III Function of Miracle 60 Miracle — the testimony of Gcd, 61; Miracle evidence — Abraham, 64 ; Gideon — Symbolism, 66 ; New - Testament instances, 68 ; Supreme instances, 72 ; The Master's testimony, 75. CHAPTER IV Miracles as Objective Evidence in Revelation 78 Section I Miracle authenticating revelation, 78; The doctrine rational, 80. Section II Unsanctioned subjective conception mistaken for revelation, 84; Subjective conceptions of revela- tion, 85 ; Unauthenticated subjective conceptions, 88 ; Moses, 88 ; The Man of Cohasset, 89. Section III Christ the Way and Guide in conceptions of Deity and of duty, 92. CHAPTER V Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 96 Jesus' use of jural science, 99; Blasphemy charged against Jesus, 102 ; The " issue " — deity of Je- sus, 105; The verdict, 109; Deity of Jesus con- firmed, 112. Contents xi CHAPTER VI Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 114 Section I Scope of proposed inquiry, 114 ; State of religion, Ex- odus era, 118. Section II Deity — attributes proved, 126; Sacred scribes, 132; Judgments executed against the gods of Egypt, 135. Section III Existence of God, 138 ; Specific proof, 139 ; Summary — Jehovah's existence proved, 145. Section IV Perpetuating evidence, 147; Custody of the evidence, 149; #7ra£, 153. Section V Righteousness of Jehovah denied by skeptics, 156 ; Skeptics' accusation analyzed, 158 ; God's judg- ment covenant with Abraham, 162 ; A revela- tion, 165; Tracing the judgment covenant, 167; Judgment covenant — Exodus era, 169 ; Nine punishments of Egyptians, 175; Further tracing of the judgment covenant, 178; God judged the Egyptians, 179 ; Judgment covenant performed, 181. Section VI Dealing with Pharaoh's heart, 185 ; Rule construing intent, 187 ; Apologetics, 188 ; Heart hardened, 190 ; Plague of hail, 194 ; Plague of locusts, 197 ; Full proof, 201 ; Jural matters judged by jural xii Contents standards, 202; Presumption of right in juris- prudence, 205; Meaning and use of phrase "to stand," 205; What is proof, 207; Further evi- dence, 209 ; Party's right to make full proof, 212 ; Jehovah supreme in all the earth, 213; The new- evidence; 214; Further evidence essential, 217; Completion of proof, 218; Contrasted probative force of final miracle, 220 ; The judgment, 222. CHAPTER VII MlBACLE INTEGEAL AND CONSTITUENT IN GOD'S ECON- OMY of Grace and Revelation 225 Section I Scope of inquiry, 225 ; Resurrection of Jesus, test and proof of doctrine, 228; Gates of Hell — Satan, 230 ; The Church of Christ, 232. Section II Apostles' .conception of Jesus before his crucifixion, 234; Fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy, 238; Foun- dations of apostles' faith in Jesus as Messiah, 239 ; Faith produced by miracle, 244 ; Miracles — Mount of Transfiguration, 245. Section III Jesus — Last Supper — arrest — trial, 252. Section IV On the cross — apostles' faith eclipsed, 257; Chal- lenge of priests and rulers, 261 ; Apostles' faith lost, 264. Section V Apostles' faith, awakened, not perfected, by resurrec- tion of Jesus, 267; Essential instruction to apos- Contents xiii ties, 269; Resurrection of Jesus — ordeal of trial, 275; Miracle and lesson — Sea of Tiberias, 288; The lesson taught, 294. Section VI Ascension and Pentecost, 296; Transformation of apostles, 297. Section VII Miracle lesson — salvation for Gentiles also, 300; Brethren established, 306. CHAPTER VIII Cessation of Miracles — Why 308 " Not as I will, but as thou wilt," 313 ; The Master's lesson at Nazareth, 314; Foreigner fed in fam- ine — why, 316; Another foreigner, Naaman, 317. CHAPTER IX Is Moral Imperative a Function of Evidence 321 Answer of science, 321 ; Answer of religion of Christ, 322; Supernatural evidence to prove supernatural facts, 326; Miracle evidence ordained for the great commission, 329; Perpetuating the miracle evidence, 331 ; Miracle evidence preponderant, 332. Miracle and Science CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY — PROBLEMS STATED " Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord." Isaiah 1:18. The Bible embraces sixty-six Ancient Docu- ments. They record more than two hundred mira- cles. One has truly said : " We can discuss Christianity to a certain dis- tance without accepting its alleged miracles as true ; but we cannot discuss it at all, without accepting them as a part of the system. If we leave them out of it we shall not be discussing Christianity but some figment of our own." MIRACLE DEFINED PREGNANT QUESTIONS The Bible presents miracle as : A wonderful, supernatural, and superhuman transaction wrought by the special fiat of Deity; a transaction possible to Deity alone (John 3:2; Acts 3 : 22). The Bible also presents miracles as integral and constituent in God's economy of grace and revelation — his moral government of men. This estimate which the Bible 2 Miracle and Science itself puts upon miracles has been the faith of Chris- tians from the beginning. Opponents of Christianity have from ancient times denied the miracles. But the strange anomaly 1 has appeared, in late years, of great numbers in all walks of life who, while still adhering to the Christian Church, question, disparage, or deny the verity of the Bible record of miracles. These conditions are forcing to the front in the religious world such radical questions as these : Are the alleged Bible miracles verities? Is there competent evidence within human control adequate to prove the alleged miracles true? Are miracles integral and constituent in God's economy of grace and revelation? Is miracle made the testimony of God? Do miracles have any function in theology, the science of religion? Can man have rational certainty that purported revelation is really such unless verified by objective evidence which Deity alone can produce, i.e. supernatural evidence, which at the same time is evidence man by his normal powers can scrutinize, test, and know to be verity? TESTING MIRACLES BY SCIENCE Literature on the Bible miracles is abundant ; but after extended inquiry we do not find that any 1 Anomaly examined in Chapter VII. Introductory — Problems Stated 3 work has yet been published that employs the tests of science, or the scientific method, in examining the miracles or in attempting to solve the above and cognate questions. These conditions justify, if they do not demand, renewed examination of the subject in the light of applied science. This will deal with old doctrines long adhered to ; but if the use of tests and meth- ods science has established for ascertaining truth and fact in regard to those questions shall yield more accurate conceptions of doctrines regarding miracles and more rational foundations upon which the doctrines stand, the result may well justify the labor. We propose such examination. It may lead into new paths and lines of inquiry, and the caution of Professor Simon Greenleaf, eminent as a jurist and authority on evidence, on a related inquiry made some years ago, may be renewed here: " It is essential to the discovery of truth that we bring to the investigation a mind free from all pride of opinion — open to conviction — not hostile to the truth sought for, willing to investigate with candor, to impartially weigh the arguments and evidence, follow the truth wherever the investiga- tion leads us and acquiesce in the judgment of right reason." 4 Miracle and Science DENIALS OF MIRACLES Often, perhaps generally, negators base their contention on the ground that science shows or scientists declare that as nature is constituted mir- acle is impossible. This contention of negators overlooks the relation nature sustains to powers outside of or over and above nature. This rela- tion and its consequences on this question have been lately well and briefly stated by a scientist of more than national fame: " The best definition of nature is that which con- ceives of it simply as the system of causally con- nected sequences of the universe. Thus conceived, the free wills both of man and the Creator are forces outside of nature having the mysterious power of piercing the joints of this harness of cau- sally connected sequences, and modifying the re- sults according to an intelligent purpose. Man by his volition brings about new and unexplainable combinations of natural forces. To a limited ex- tent he changes the face of nature. He forms com- binations that are new, and produces results which are extranatural. Nature herself would never pro- duce a house, or build a railroad, or develop do- mestic plants and animals." 1 X G. Frederick Wright, Scientific Confirmations of Old Testament History, pp. 84, 85 ; see, too, Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural. Introductory — Problems Stated 5 The power man thus exercises over nature is not merely extranatural. It is supernatural; es- sentially so, because it is the domination of mind, or intelligent purpose, over and superior to nature, or insentient force — force incapable of purpose or choice. Professor Wright continues : " There is no more philosophical difficulty in conceiving of God's working a miracle than there is in conceiving of man as producing an extranat- ural effect through his control and combination of natural forces. The difference between a miracle and the accomplishment of man's free will lies chiefly in the magnitude of the events and the ex- tent of the control which is manifested. Man is limited in his control of nature. . . . " With God, however, there is no such limitation of power. He has power to bring about results which are superhuman as well as supernatural." Denial of miracles is sometimes rested on the al- leged view of science, that all things are governed by immutable laws, or fixed modes of motion, termed the Laws of Nature, by which God himself is of necessity bound. This argument and its fal- lacy lie in supposing that the omniscient Creator of all things first made a code of laws, and then put it out of his own power to change, modify, or interfere with them or their operation. 6 Miracle and Science If one admits the existence of God as in any in- telligible sense the upholder of all things, there is no ground on which one can consistently say that miracle is impossible. Evolutionists who believe in the existence of God admit that the origin of life is to be attributed to interposition by him : this ad- mits all that is necessary to establish the possibility of miracle, for such intervention is what miracle is defined to be. Atheistic evolutionists use their theory to dis- pense altogether with God in the universe. While nature may be to some extent so explained as to show development from lower to higher forms, there are gulfs which evolution cannot bridge. In this view, evolution declares that the forces now operating are the same as in all ages. But, that being true, spontaneous generation of life does not now occur; and so no presumption can be allowed that it ever did. It follows, inevitably, that there is a break in the chain of evolutionary continuity that requires for the production of life such an in- tervention as miracle is. In short the appearance of life is a miracle, so far as evolution is concerned, as really as any of the mighty works wrought by Jesus are miracles. Hence evolutionists of the Atheistical School cannot consistently or ration- Introductory — Problems Stated 7 ally object to the possibility of miracles. 1 But al- though we are justified in concluding that there is no valid ground on which a theist, deist, or evolu- tionist can claim the impossibility of miracles, the questions of their verity and function as above stated remain to be considered. The Bible comes to men as evidence. The Sci- ence of Jurisprudence operates on what is pro- posed as evidence, and therefrom establishes truth and fact, and is obviously a science to be employed in solving those questions. JURAL SCIENCE RULES, TESTS, STANDARDS The science of jurisprudence, like chemistry and every other science, has its data, rules, tests, stand- ards and methods, its instruments so to speak, its machinery, with which it operates in dealing with evidence in establishing proof. These rules, tests, and standards are maxims which the sagacity and experience of ages have established as the best means of discriminating truth from error. 2 Such rules, tests, and standards, and their due employ- ment, constitute the scientific method of investiga- tion in jurisprudence. 1 See William M. Taylor, Miracles of our Saviour, pp. 19-21. 2 A. P. Will, Circumstantial Evidence, p. 2. 8 Miracle and Science A statement of the more important of these rules and methods is necessary, to enable the reader to appreciate their application in the examination of the evidence of miracles here proposed. What- ever in fact produces belief is evidence. Evidence is what produces belief. This fact is primary, fun- damental. Jural science and legislation within the last one hundred years, acting on this basic truth, have very greatly liberalized rules and standards of competency of evidence. These will be noticed later. Evidence is power. Evidence produces results. In connection with correct reasoning, evidence pro- duces knowledge. But, like every power subject to man, that which may be evidence must be con- trolled and applied in the elucidation of truth or fact by appropriate means, in order that it may pro- duce its just effect. The power of steam, to be available, must be confined by the rigid cylinder and applied to the work by the moving piston. The primitive power of the ox, to be available, must be controlled and applied to the load by the indispen- sable yoke. The power of evidence is addressed to the intel- lect ; hence the instrument that controls and applies it in administering jural science must be adapted Introductory — Problems Stated 9 to that condition. That instrument in this science in evolving truth or fact from evidence is desig- nated "the issue." It defines the precise question in dispute. 1 In administering jural science, consideration is given to all allegations of contestants, and what- ever is alleged by one party and not denied by op- ponent is deemed admitted. On ascertaining on what a controversy between disputants hinges, jurisprudence requires that contention to be stated as a proposition, affirmed by one party, denied by opponent, and constitutes that "the issue." By thus precisely defining the exact question in dis- pute, " the issue " not only gives each party full intelligent opportunity to produce his evidence, but " the issue " controls and excludes or applies what is proposed as evidence; for only matters that are relevant to the " issue," that will help to get at the truth of the precise question in dispute, can be evidence. This is a cardinal doctrine of jural science. 2 This employment of " the issue " is seen con- stantly in litigation in courts of justice, where 1 Gould's Pleading, 196; Seller v. Jenkins, 97 Ind. 438. 2 2 Greenleaf on Ev. sec. 3. 10 Miracle and Science results of trial are formally announced and com- pulsorily enforced. But "the issue" as a jural in- strument is as old as the Bible, from which jurisprudence may have derived it. ILLUSTRATIONS OF " ISSUE " SOLVING QUESTIONS The use of " the issue " is not limited to com- pulsory litigation in courts. It is available for try- ing and deciding any and all contentions between disputants when truth or fact is to be ascertained and established through evidence. Abraham Lin- coln's use of this instrument of jural science in his oration at Cooper Institute, 1860, may illustrate. In the heat of political strife over slavery, the South, appealing to Washington's warning against local prejudice, charged the dominant party of the North with sectionalism. Mr. Lincoln in public discourse employed this part of the machinery of jurisprudence, the " issue," to test and try the charge. Identifying himself with that party at the North, and addressing the South, he said: " You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue, and the burden of proof is on you. You produce your proof and what is it? Why that our party has no existence in your section; gets no votes in your section. The fact is substan- tially true, but does it prove the issue? If it does, Introductory — Problems Stated 11 then, if we should without change of principle be- gin to get votes in your section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this con- clusion; and yet are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you will probably soon find we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your section this very year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth is, that your proof does not touch the issue." Mr. Lincoln by the use of this machinery of jural science took the disputed question out from the indeterminate sphere of mere argument or debate and, carrying it forward, advanced it to " issue," test, and the ordeal of trial and judgment, as con- clusively to the public — all honest minds — those who were affected by it and who constituted the tribunal — as though the decision had been an- nounced by a court in formal session. DIVINE EMPLOYMENT OF " ISSUE " Speaking reverently, we shall see later that when the deity of Jesus was in dispute, he not only recognized, but insisted on, the use of " the issue " in the rational examination of evidence, in proving his divinity in dealing with the palsied man at Ca- pernaum. Also, we shall see that Jehovah or- dained and employed " the issue " in proving his 12 Miracle and Science existence and supremacy as facts at the Exodus. Again, when the existence and supremacy of God were denied by worshipers of Baal at Carmel, God especially ordained the use of " the issue " as formulated by Elijah for trial by evidence through altar sacrifice and fire from heaven whereby God could and did prove openly to the physical senses of men his existence and supremacy. Elijah's prayer in immediate connection with the actual production of that evidence demonstrates this. The prayer is : Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day (1) that thou art God in Israel, (2) that I am thy servant, and (3) that I have done all these things at thy word. "A proposition of fact is proved when supported by sufficient and satisfactory evidence — which is that amount of proof which ordinarily satisfies an unprejudiced mind beyond a reasonable doubt. When we have this degree of evidence it is unrea- sonable to require more. " If it is such [evidence] as usually satisfies reasonable men in matters of ordinary transactions it is all any skeptic has a right to require, for it is by such evidence alone that our rights are deter- mined in civil tribunals; and on no other evidence do they proceed in capital cases." * ^reenleaf, Test, of the Evang. sec. 41. Introductory — Problems Stated 13 EVIDENCE FUNCTION OPERATION What may be termed the philosophy of the oper- ation and use of evidence should be noted among these preliminary matters. A late writer describes this as follows : " Evidence is always a relative term. It signifies a relation between two facts, the factum proban- dum or the proposition to be established, and the factum probans or material evidencing the propo- sition. " The former [the proposition to be established] is what one party affirms and the other denies. . . . The latter, the evidentiary fact, is brought forward as a reality for the purpose of convincing the tri- bunal that the former is also a reality. No correct and sure comprehension of the nature of any evi- dential question can ever be had unless this double or relative aspect of it is distinctly pictured. On each occasion the questions must be asked : What is the proposition to be proved? What is the evi- dentiary fact offered to prove it? " Part of the confusion which is often found arises from the circumstance that each evidentiary fact may in turn become a proposition to be proved until some ultimate evidentiary fact is reached. " For example, to prove the proposition that a murder was committed by John Doe, the eviden- tiary fact may be offered, that John Doe left the 14 Miracle and Science victim's house shortly after the murder; to prove this in turn, as a proposition, the evidentiary fact may be offered that John Doe's shoes fit the track left near the house by the murderer ; and this again as a proposition may be evidenced by the statement of a witness on the stand who has placed the shoes in the tracks. Here each evidentiary fact in its turn, becomes a proposition requiring the marshall- ing of new evidentiary facts more or fewer accord- ing to its complexity." x " In a case of burglary, the thief had gained ad- mittance to the house by means of a knife, the blade broken in the attempt and part of the blade left in the window frame; the broken knife was found in the pocket of the prisoner and corre- sponded exactly with the fragment left in the win- dow frame. In another case identification was established by the correspondence of the wadding of the fire arms of the prisoner with a part of a torn letter found in his possession — and in another case on the Northern Circuit when a man had been, shot by a bullet the wadding of the pistol which stuck in the wound was found to be a part of a ballad which corresponded with another part found in the pocket of the prisoner." 2 Other rules, tests, and standards of jural science may be noted as occasion for their use arises. 1 1 Wigmore on Ev. sec. 2. 2 IMd. sec. 149. CHAPTER II VERITY OF MIRACLES EXAMINED BY JUDICIAL STANDARDS "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. 5 : 21. Section I Are the reported Bible miracles verities? This is a question of fact. Questions of fact are solved by evidence. Hence the question may be narrowed to this: Are there facts or matters within human control, which, tested by the rules and standards of jural science, will constitute evidence that proves the alleged miracles verities? We propose, in seeking an intelligent, rational answer to the question, to examine a prominent and representative instance. This we propose to do by the same tests, rules, and principles of jural science by which the greatest, the most serious issues of life, liberty, honor, char- acter, and property are determined between man and man in courts of justice in the administration of the science of jurisprudence. The raising of Lazarus from death to life seems sufficiently important and representative for this 16 Miracle and Science purpose. We therefore propose here examination of that alleged miracle by the method, rules, and tests of that science in seeking an answer to this question : Is there now competent, relevant, admis- sible evidence within human control which, tested by jural science as administered in courts of jus- tice, establishes rationally, as verity, the alleged miracle of raising Lazarus from death to life? The question brings to mind the famous chal- lenge of David Hume, that " no amount of human testimony can prove a miracle." This challenge of Hume has constituted a fa- mous maxim of skeptics ever since it was an- nounced. Hume's assertion has been met suf- ficiently by argument, 1 but we are not aware that the challenge has ever been brought to the ordeal of actual issue, test, and trial. Hume's proposition seems to furnish the means for such ordeal, and gives opportunity for using the issue by the rules and standards — the instrumentalities in constant use — in administering jural science in courts of justice, to ascertain: First and especially, whether such evidence amenable to human control exists, 1 Lord Brougham, Discourse on Nat Theol. (Ed. 1825), note 5, pp. 210-214; Trench, Miracles, p. 60; Hopkins, Lowell Lectures, pp. 31-40; Taylor, Miracles of our Sa- viour, p. 11. Miracles Examined Judicially 17 which, when duly considered, establishes the verity of the miracle; secondly and only incidentally, whether such proof can be made by human testi- mony. ISSUE AND ORDEAL We therefore propose here such ordeal as fur- nishing rational opportunity for examining and testing by established and approved methods of science the principal question ; viz. Regarded from the standpoint of science, rigorously, rightfully, and impartially applied, is that alleged miracle fact — is it verity ? Hume's challenge is : " Now a miracle is a violation of the laws of na- ture; and as firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as ample as any argument from experience can possibly be imag- ined ; and if so it is an undeniable consequence that it cannot be surmounted by any proof whatever de- rived from human testimony." 1 Mr. Hume's contention is universal against all miracles, excludes none, includes those recorded in the Bible, and embraces that of raising Lazarus from death to life. Divested of any petitio principii and argumenta- 1 Hume's Works (Ed. 1809).. p. 120. 18 Miracle and Science tive portions, and limiting it to the miracle of rais- ing Lazarus from death, Mr. Hume's proposition is : " A miracle [namely, that alleged of raising Laz- arus from death to life, described in the Gospel of John, chapter 11] is a violation of the laws of na- ture; and as firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against [the] mir- acle .... cannot be surmounted by any proof whatever, derived from human testimony." Believing Christians deny the proposition. That makes an issue. It is an issue of fact to be deter- mined by competent testimony, examined by rules, tests, and standards of jural science and evidence as administered in courts of justice. The narratives left by the Evangelists of matters occurring within the personal knowledge of the recorders and persons named may be brought to the tests to which other like class of evidence is subjected in human tribunals — courts of justice — to ascertain their competency, relevancy, and ad- missibility as evidence on this issue. The importance of the facts testified to and their relation to a miracle can make no difference in the principle or mode of determining their ad- missibility as evidence or the mode of weighing it. It is still the evidence of matters of fact capable of Miracles Examined Judicially 19 being known and related as well by one man as an- other. " If the testimony of the Evangelist, supposing it to be relevant and material to the issue in a ques- tion of property or personal right, between man and man, in a court of justice, ought to be believed and have weight, then upon the like principles it ought to receive our entire credit here!' 1 That standard of Professor Greenleaf for test- ing the competency and admissibility of the Bible documents as evidence is simple, plain, and read- ily apprehended. It has our approval, and we propose to examine the competency of those docu- ments as evidence when tested by that standard as it is established by the rules, principles, and maxims of jural science as administered in courts of justice. COMPETENCE OF EVIDENCE GENERALLY The rules and standards of jural science which determine the competency and admissibility of what is offered as evidence are the maxims which the sagacity and experience of ages in the admin- istration of that science in courts of justice have established as the true means of discriminating truth from error. An important fact in regard to 1 Greenleaf, Test, of the Evang. sec. 3. 20 Miracle and Science some of those rules as now administered deserves notice in this connection. Jural science in the department of evidence has within the last one hundred years been rescued from some imperfections of some of its rules by improvement, especially of rules controlling the competency and admissibility of evidence. Radically speaking, whatever influences one's mind for or against a proposition is evidence. It may be faint or cogent in its operation on the mind or judging faculty; that is a matter of de- gree. But if it operates " in any degree " to im- press the mind with a conviction that the proposi- tion is true or that it is not true, it is evidence. We quote to this proposition the doctrine laid down by jurists of deserved fame and authority in both Europe and America. Justice Edward Liv- ingston, in his work on " Code of Evidence," says : " Ultimately the whole machinery of Jurispru- dence, in all its branches, is contrived for the pur- pose of enabling the judging power to determine on the truth or falsehood of every litigated propo- sition. This is done by hearing and examining evidence; that is to say, hearing and examining everything that will contribute to bring the mind to the determination required. " If we refuse to hear what will in any degree Miracles Examined Judicially 21 produce this effect, we must determine on imper- fect evidence; and in proportion to the importance of the matter thus refused to be heard must evi- dently be the chance of making an incorrect rather than a correct determination." 1 The English jurist, William Wills, on the first page of his work on " Circumstantial Evidence," says: " Every conclusion of the judgment whatever may be its subject is the result of evidence — a word which is applied to denote the means by which any alleged matter of fact the truth of which is submit- ted to investigation is established or disproved." Greenleaf, in the first section of his great work on Evidence, says: " The word evidence, in legal acceptation, in- cludes all the means by which any alleged matter of fact, the truth of which is submitted to investiga- tion, is established or disproved." In former times jural science had by artificial rules excluded many classes and kinds of evidence as irrelevant, immaterial, or otherwise improper. For example, the testimony of a party and that of any witness having the least pecuniary interest in the subject of litigation were excluded. But extended experience had demonstrated that J l Code of Ev. (1823), p. 421. 22 Miracle and Science such rules, artificially made at first to protect suit- ors from possibly false testimony, became in num- berless cases a fatal barrier, which excluded the only real evidence by which the truth could be as- certained, and thus defeated the very fundamental function of jural science; namely, the elucidation of truth and fact from evidence. Decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia may illustrate this : " The judges both in England and in this country are struggling constantly to open the door — aye to" take it off the hinges to let in all facts calculated to affect the minds of the jury in arriving at a correct conclusion. . . . Truth, common sense and enlightened reason alike demand the abolition of all those artificial rules which shut out any fact from the jury however remotely relevant or from whatever source derived which could as- sist them in coming to a satisfactory verdict. . . . This court stands pledged by its past history for the abolition to the extent of its power of all ex- clusionary rules which shut out from the jury facts which may serve directly or remotely to reflect light upon the transaction upon which they are called upon to pass. For one case gained by improper proof, ninety-nine have been lost or improperly found on account of the parties being precluded by artificial rules from submitting all the facts to the Miracles Examined Judicially 23 tribunal to which is committed the decision of the cause. Verdicts . . . will never speak the truth. . . . until the door is thrown wide open to all facts cal- culated to assist in the slightest manner in arriving at a correct conclusion in the pending contro- versy." 1 Such miscarriage of justice, and consequent re- proach of jurisprudence, called for and secured re- form. As formulated by Bentham, the reformers proposed, as the perfect rule of admissibility of evidence, the following : " In the character of ob- jection to competency no objection ought to be al- lowed." 2 Changes of the old rule in the line of that pro- posed standard have been made by legislatures and courts as experience and observation have justified, until now, by such advance in jural science, all matters productive of belief and conviction as to the truth or falsity of a question in dispute are admitted. Parties may testify in their own behalf, and no one is excluded because of his relationship to a party or because of interest in the subject of litigation. 1 Johnson v. State, 14 Ga. 61 ; Haynes v. State, 17 Ga. 484. 2 Bentham, Rationale of Judicial Ev. (1827), vol. i. p. 3. 24 Miracle and Science The wisdom of such advance in liberalizing rules for the admission of evidence in jural science has been demonstrated, and the liberal rules justified, by actual experience and discriminating observa- tion; they have been established for all courts and tribunals of the United States and Great Britain and in enlightened courts generally. It is evident that in jural science liberality in admitting evi- dence, instead of restriction, is henceforth destined not only to continue but to prevail more and more. Coming now to the issue, the rule of evidence called into operation is : " On each occasion the questions must be asked: [1] What is the propo- sition to be established? [2] What is the eviden- tiary fact (or facts) offered to prove it?" 1 To these two questions, in the case of Lazarus, the re- sponses are: 1. The principal proposition to be established is, that by competent testimony the miracle can be and is proved, i.e. that " Lazarus was raised from death to life." Before stating the evidentiary facts to be offered to prove the " principal proposition," it seems neces- sary to note again the rule of evidence; namely, that " evidentiary facts " may in the process of in- *1 Wigmore on Ev. sec. 2. Miracles Examined Judicially 25 vestigation become themselves " principal facts " to be established by other evidentiary facts until some ultimate evidentiary fact is reached. Here the principal proposition, the miracle of raising Lazarus from death, will be proved if the following evidentiary facts are established : ( 1 ) that the dead body of Lazarus was in a tomb in which it had lain four days; (2) that Jesus, at the open door of the tomb, said, " Lazarus, come forth," and immediate- ly Lazarus came forth from the tomb alive and con- tinued alive. But each of such facts evidentiary as related to the principal fact becomes a proposi- tion proper to be proved by other evidentiary facts. 2. The answer to the second question, viz. the evidentiary facts to be produced to establish the principal proposition if found admissible, will be such portions of the Gospel of John as describe facts that are relevant and material — the separate items of fact — the facts described by the language. Bringing the issue now to trial, we offer, as evi- dence to maintain the issue on behalf of believing Christians, the Gospel of John, especially parts of John (chap. 11) relevant and material to the issue. John does not say in words, A miracle was wrought, but he sets down the facts — facts which, if compe- tent, constitute the transaction a miracle. 26 Miracle and Science opponents' objections examined We here recognize the fact that all opponents in the contention here at issue have jural right to ob- ject to the proposed evidence, on the ground that it is unsworn or uncertified or is incompetent or immaterial — in short, on any and every rational ground. We will assume such objections are now here interposed. We recognize that the proposed evidence is to be held admissible only if, after full and due consideration of the rules and principles of jural science as administered in courts of justice, the evidence is found competent and proper, all ob- jections of opponents to the contrary notwithstand- ing. If those objections are not valid, the evidence must be received and given its due weight. Section II ANCIENT document evidence The Gospel of John is more than thirty years old. This brings it at once into a class of evidence expressly recognized and provided for by jural sci- ence, viz. the class of Ancient Documents. The experience and sagacity of ages have established a body of principles and law in regard to that class of evidence, particulars of which, including reasons Miracles Examined Judicially 27 and grounds of the rule, we now adduce to meet any objections by negators against admitting the Gospel of John, or any part of it, as evidence on the issue on trial. TESTS OF THE VALIDITY OF EVIDENCE We recognize the rule, that ordinarily, when a document is offered in evidence, it must first be proved to have been executed. This proof of its genuineness is properly made by calling living wit- nesses, who were present and knew the execution of the document, to testify to the fact. This pro- cess of proving the genuineness of a document is what is known as confirmation or sanction by the ordinary tests of truth. 1 But jural science long ago established also other tests of the validity of documents as evidence. After a document has been executed, time passes, witnesses die, or are removed beyond the reach of subpoena, or process of courts. Hundreds of years ago, early in the establishment of the science of jurisprudence, it was found wise and just in experience, as well as indispensable for securing justice in its administration, to provide for saving the evidence of documents when death or effectual absence of witnesses prevents sanctioning 1 1 Wharton on Ev. sec. 689, and cases cited. 28 Miracle and Science such documents, by the testimony of living persons — the ordinary test of truth. That great jurist, Lord Mansfield, in a brief but pregnant decision, describes this feature of the law of evidence. A claimant of land, under an ancient will of one Ludlam, offered an alleged copy of the will in evi- dence, not being able to produce the original. His opponent strenuously objected to the alleged copy. In deciding the document was admissible as evi- dence, Lord Mansfield said: " The rule is clear, a man by losing evidence of his title does not lose his estate. If you cannot prove a deed by producing it, you may produce the counterpart ; if you cannot produce the counterpart you may produce a copy, even if you cannot prove it as a true copy. If a copy cannot be produced, you may go into parol evidence." 1 In this decision Lord Mansfield enforced a pri- mary rule of competency of evidence — the rule that requires that the best evidence be produced. "As long ago as the fourteenth century the courts of England laid down the rule that a party must bring the best evidence he can and that if he did this, no more was required." 2 ^udlam's Will, Lofft. Rep. 362. 8 2 Encyc. of Ev. 278. Miracles Examined Judicially 29 " The effect of the rule is, that when, from the nature of the transaction, superior evidence may be presumed to be within the power of the party, that which is inferior will be excluded. But when it is manifest that evidence of a higher degree is not within the power of the party, that of a lower de- gree will be received; and the general rule never excludes the best evidence that can be produced." x The rule requiring the best evidence of which the nature of the case is susceptible is only another form of expression for the idea that when the higher proof is lost or is unattainable the best attainable may be given. " The law of evidence would have a poor claim to the praise justly bestowed upon it, if it did not foresee and provide for such a case as this. That rule which is the most universal, namely, that the best evidence the nature of the case will admit shall be produced, decides this objection; for it is only another form of expression for the idea, that when you have not the higher proof you may offer the next best in your power. The case admits of no better evidence than that which you possess, if the superior proof has been lost without your fault [italics by the Court]. The rule does not mean that men's rights are to be sacrificed and their prop- erty lost because they cannot guard against events Jackson v. Cullum, 2 Blackf. (Ind.) 228. 30 Miracle and Science beyond their control. It only means that so long as the higher or superior evidence is within your pos- session, or may be reached by you, you shall give no inferior proof in relation to it." 1 The Supreme Court of the United States, in a late case, stated the rule in reviewing the action of a lower court: " The rule on the subject does not exact that the loss or destruction of the document [the or- iginal] should be proved beyond all possibility of mistake. It only demands that a moral cer- tainty should exist that the Court had every opportunity for examining and deciding upon the best evidence within the power of the litigant to produce." 2 EVIDENCE ANCIENT DOCUMENT RULE On the ground that the age of a generation was generally thirty years, and witnesses after maturity usually did not survive beyond such a generation of thirty years, it was ordained in ju- dicial science that the lapse of a period of thirty years after a document existed should be sufficient to justify the legal presumption that witnesses to a document of such age were dead or beyond the reach of the court; and it was ordained further 1 Thomas v. Thomas, 2 La. O. S. 166. 2 United States v. Sutter, 21 How. (U. S.) 170, 175. Miracles Examined Judicially 31 that after a document had (1) existed thirty years, (2) been kept in proper custody, it should be an Ancient Document, be dealt with as such when offered in evidence ; and that such age and custody should sanction and authenticate the document without calling- witnesses to prove it. Greenleaf states the law as follows : " Where these instruments are more than thirty years old and are unblemished by any alterations, they are said to prove themselves; the bare pro- duction thereof is sufficient; the subscribing wit- nesses being presumed to be dead." 1 Later, in stating an additional rule, that required generally the production of the identical subscrib- ing witnesses to a deed to prove it, Greenleaf says that there are exceptions to these rules : ." The first is, where the instrument is thirty years old, as we have heretofore seen [ante, sec. 21], the subscribing witnesses being presumed to be dead and other proof being presumed to be be- yond the reach of the party. But such document must be free from just grounds of suspicion, and must come from the proper custody .... and in this case it is not necessary to call the subscribing witnesses, though they may be living. . . . " This exception is co-extensive with the rule *1 Greenleaf on Ev. sec. 21, and cases cited. 32 Miracle and Science applying to ancient writings of every description, providing they have been brought from the proper custody and place; for the finding them in such custody and place is a presumption that they were honestly and fairly obtained and preserved for use, and are free from suspicion of dishonesty." 1 " Documents found in a place and under Care of persons with whom such papers might naturally and reasonably be expected to be found, or in the possession of persons having an interest in them, are in precisely the custody which gives authentic- ity to documents found within it. . . . " So far then as concerns the admission of An- cient Documents without direct proof of their execution, the above rule makes four require- ments : (a) the document must have been in exist- ence for thirty years; (b) it must have been found in the proper custody; (c) it must not have a sus- picious appearance; and (d) there must be (if it purports to convey -title to land) some attendant circumstance corroborating its genuineness — either possession of the land or some item of corrobora- tion. The rule may be applied to any kind of docu- ment. 2 And if the proper showing as above can be 1 1 Greenleaf on Ev. sec. 570 and 575b ; 12 Viners Abr. 84 tit. Evidence A.B. 5. pi. 7. cited by Ld. Ellenborough, G.J., in Roe v. Rawlings, 7 East 291. 2 Doe v. Turnbull, 5 U. C. Q. B. 129 : " Any written document whatever"; Enfield v. Ellington, 67 Conn. 459 ; Smucker v. Penn. R. Co., Pa., 41 Atl. 457 ; Almy v. Miracles Examined Judicially 33 made, a copy may be used where the original is lost. 1 The circumstances above operate as suffi- cient evidence, not merely of the genuineness of signature, but also of other facts, going to consti- tute due execution, such as the existence of a power of attorney to make a deed." 2 WRITINGS UNACKNOWLEDGED AND UNRECORDED As further illustrating the reason of the rule, we quote from the judgment of the Supreme Court of Equity of New Jersey. An ancient writing pur- porting to be a deed but unacknowledged and un- recorded was offered in evidence and objected to. The court held it admissible under the Ancient Document rule of evidence, saying: " Such account must be given of the deed as may reasonably be expected under all the circumstances of the case and as will afford a presumption that it is genuine. This definition has been approved. 1 See 2 Phil. Ev. (4th Am. Ed.) 475, note 430 by C. & H.' . . . Neither party has shown possession ; Church, 18 R.I. 182; Aldrich v. Griffith, 66 Yt. 390: " Though the last requirement is not essential except for documents dealing with land" 1 Greene v. Proude, 1 Mod. 117 ; N. Y. & N. H. Ry. Co. v. Benedict, 169 Mass. 262; Briggs v. Henderson, 49 Mo. 531; Townsend v. Downer, 32 Vt. 183, 211. 2 2 Greenleaf on Ev. sec. 575c, 16th Ed. ; Robinson v. Craig, 1 Hill, S. C. 389 ; King v. Little, 1 Cush. 436. 34 Miracle and Science on the contrary both admit that the land has been vacant for a century so that possession speaks neither for nor against the deed. But the proofs show that just such use has been made of it [the document] and that just such claims have been made under it as would in the usual course of such transactions among men of a very early day have been made, had the persons dealing with it known it to be an honest paper. It has been dealt with, treated and preserved as an honest valid paper. . . . It should be admitted in evidence and full effect given to it." 1 This has been the law of evidence in administer- ing judicial science for centuries. We find it ex- pressly adjudged in 44 Elizabeth, a.d. 1602, in a case cited, approved, and followed, viz. Wright v. Sherrard, 1 Keb. 877. The court says : "An ancient deed is good evidence without proving or seal on it as [a case] 44 Eliz." Many pages might be filled with citations of cases in which this law of evidence has been ex- pressly enforced. We will cite a sufficient number of decisions to show that jurists and courts of first rank in the world, with united voice, sanction and enforce the doctrine; to show the nature of the documents held to be embraced in the rule; the 1 Havens v. Sea Shore Land Co. 47 N. J. Eq. 365. Miracles Examined Judicially 35 kind of custody; that the rule embraces copies; and the cogency and value as evidence of such Ancient Documents, found in such custody. The Bishop of Meath v. Marquis of Winchester was a leading case in England, decided by Chief- Justice Tindall, and his associates on the bench. A simple, unsworn statement, over thirty years old, alleged to have been used by one Dopping, formerly Bishop, for the purpose of procuring an opinion of counsel, was offered in evidence but objected to. It was found in a house Dopping had occupied when Bishop, and which his descendants occupied after his death when the document was found. It was a mere statement of matters affect- ing the diocese and bishopric, but material on the contest between the new Bishop of Meath and the Marquis. Had it been less than thirty years old, it would not be admissible in evidence without being confirmed by the ordinary tests of truth, the sworn testimony of witnesses who knew it was so used by Dopping. But its antiquity, its preservation, and the custody in which it was found, sanctioned and confirmed it, and dispensed with - calling wit- nesses who knew its having been used by Dopping, and, under the Ancient Document rule of evidence, sufficed, instead of the sworn testimony of wit- 36 Miracle and Science nesses, otherwise requisite to make it competent and admissible evidence. As to the objection to the custody, and the sanc- tion and authority claimed for the document by its preservation, its custody, and its age, the court said: " The document was found in a place in which and in the care of persons with whom papers of Bishop Dopping might naturally and reasonably be expected to be found, and it is precisely the custody which gives authenticity to documents found within it, for it is not necessary that they should be found in the best and most proper place of deposit. If documents continue in such custody, there never would be any question as to their authenticity; but it is when the documents are found in other than the proper place of deposit that the investigation commences, whether it was reasonable and natural under the circumstances in the particular case to expect that they should have been in the place where they are actually found; for it is obvious that while there can be only one place of deposit strictly and absolutely proper, there may be various and many that are reasonable and probable, though differing in degree; some being more, some less; and in those cases the proposition to be determined is whether the actual custody is so reasonably and properly accounted Miracles Examined Judicially 37 for that it impresses the mind with the conviction that the instrument found in such custody must be genuine ; that such is the character and description of the custody which is held sufficiently genuine to render a document admissible appears from all the cases." 1 It is this defect, namely, that they do not come from the proper or natural depository, which shows the fabulous character of many pretended revelations, from the " Gospel of the Infancy " to the "Book of Mormon." Chief- Justice Holt says: "An old deed is good evidence without any witness to swear it was exe- cuted." 2 " It is an established rule which holds in the case of every deed that if it is above thirty years old it proves itself." 3 Lord Chief- Justice Kenyon says: "All deeds above thirty years old prove themselves." 4 The Supreme Court of the United States ap- proves and enforces this doctrine, and has done so again and again. In a comparatively late case (1885) it enforced the doctrine as to persons not 1 Bishop of Meath v. Marquis of Winchester, 3 Bing. N. S. 183. 2 Lynch v. Clarke, 3 Salk. 154. 8 R. v. Farrington, 2 T.R. 466, Buller, Judge. 4 Chelsea Water Works Co. v. Cowper, 1 Esp. 275. 38 Miracle and Science parties or privies to the document. Two deeds, each over thirty years old, had been found shortly before the case was tried in the lower court — found among the files of another suit of July^ 1816. These deeds were offered in evidence and strenu- ously objected to, but the court held them admissi- ble under the Ancient Document rule of evidence, without proving their execution. The court held that " the record of the case [including the deeds found in the files] was admissible against persons not parties or privies to prove the collateral fact of the antiquity of the original deeds offered in evidence and ' to account for the custody,' " citing Barr v. Gratz, 4 Wheat. U. S. Rep. 213-220. 1 ANCIENT DOCUMENT RULE APPLIES TO ALL KINDS OF WRITINGS " The probative value of the circumstances of age, custody and the like as evidence of genuine- ness exist equally for all sorts of documents. 2 The rule is not confined to deeds or wills, but extends to letters and other Ancient Documents coming from proper custody. 3 Any instrument of that age, 1 Apple Gate v. Lexington Mining Co., 117 U. S. Rep. 255, 261. 2 3 Wigmore on Ev. sec. 2145. 3 Wyman v. Tyrwhitt, 4 B. & Aid. 376 ; see Doe v. Turn- bull, 5 U. C. Q. B. 129. Miracles Examined Judicially 39 whether deed or will or other instrument, proves itself." 1 All kinds of. documents of the prescribed age and custody have been expressly adjudged competent evidence in unnumbered instances. We note a few as samples of what writings are within the rule: Parish Terrier, i.e. list of tem- poral property of a church, 2 lease, 3 marriage set- tlement, 4 old plan found in hands of man who had been town clerk, 5 a sequestrator's account, 6 en- tries in a Bible, 7 letters, 8 surveyor's memorandum indorsed on a land-warrant. 9 A late and exhaustive work on Evidence devotes a section to showing the kinds of documents that are under the rule, and the persons in whose favor the rule is enforced. 10 1 Do© v. Budett, 4 A. & E. 1, 19. 2 Atkins v. Hatton, 2 Anstr. 386. 3 Rees v. Walters, 3 M. & W. 527. 4 Adams v. Dickerson, 23 Ga. 406. 6 Gibson v. Poor, 21 N. H. 440. 6 Pulley v. Hilton, 12 Price 625. 7 Hubbard v. Lees, L. R., 1 Exch. 255. 8 Bell v. Brewster, 44 O. St. 690 ; Doe v. Benyon, L. R. 4, P. & Dav. 193 ; Bear v. Ward, cited in Starkie on Ev. p. 522 ; Rex v. Inhabitants of Bathwick, 2 B. & Ad. 639 ; Roe d. Brune v. Rawlings, 7 East 279. 9 Holt v. Maverick, 5 Tex. Civ. App. 650. 10 Elliott on Ev. sec. 428. © 40 Miracle and Science "Although the most common use of such docu- ments in evidence is as the basis of some claim of right asserted under such documents, nevertheless they are admissible for any other purpose; and parties not privy to them may bring them into court as any other instruments duly authenti- cated." 1 COPIES EQUALLY WITH ORIGINALS EMBRACED IN THE RULE As already noted, when original documents have been lost, worn out, or injured, or cannot be pro- duced, a copy is competent and admissible in evidence under the Ancient Document rule of evi- dence. Baron Gilbert in his work on Evidence, after stating that generally an unauthorized enrolment, or an inspeximus (an exemplification), is not re- ceivable in evidence, says: " But the inspeximus of an Ancient Deed may be given in evidence, though the deeds needed no enrollment ; for an Ancient Deed may be easily sup- 1 Morris v. Callahan, 105 Mass. 129; Adams v. Stan- yan, 24 N. H. 405 ; Dobson v. Finley, 8 Jones N. O. 495 ; King v. Sears, 91 Ga. 577; Deary v. Gray, 5 Wall. (U. S.) 795; Doe v. Campbell, 10 John (N. Y.) 475; John- son v. Shaw, 6 Tex. Civ. App. 493 ; Fulkerson v. Holmes, 117 U. S. 298; McClusky v. Barr, 47 Fed. 154; Eex v. Long Buckey, 7 East 45. ^ Miracles Examined Judicially 41 posed to be worn out or lost, and offering the inspeximus in evidence, induces no suspicion that the deed is doubtful, for it hath a sanction from antiquity, and if it had been ill executed, it must be supposed to be detected when newly made." x " When the alleged Ancient Document is lost and an Ancient Purporting Copy is offered, made by a private hand and the purporting maker being unknown or deceased, it seems to have been ac- cepted, that this suffices and that the copy may be received under the Ancient Document Rule." 2 The decisions sustain the doctrine. 3 ACCOUNTING FOR LOSS OF ORIGINALS, DISPENSED WITH IN CASES OF VERY ANCIENT DOCUMENTS We note here some instances, to illustrate what copies of instruments have been adjudged admissi- ble under the rule when the original is lost, de- stroyed, worn out, or mutilated; namely, copy of Ancient Power of Attorney to convey land ; 4 copy 1 Gilbert on Ev. p. 99, citing decisions Goodson v. Jones, Styles Rep. 445 (a.d. 1655) and 5 Co. 54 and Salk. 280. a 3 Wigmore on Ev. sec. 2143. 8 Green v. Proude, 1 Mod. 117 ; Almy v. Church, 18 R. I. 182 ; Ludlam's Will, Lofft. Rep. 362 ; Aldrich v. Griffith, 66 Vt. 390 ; Bradley v. Lightcap, 201 111. 511 ; Gibbons v. Poor, 21 N. H. 440. 4 Win v. Patterson, 9 Pet. U. S. 663. 42 Miracle and Science of Ancient Indenture of Apprenticeship, even though the proper office does not show the original had been stamped or recorded as required by law ; x Ancient Copy of lost Vicars endowment. 2 Accounting for loss of an original is done, as the New York Supreme Court says, " by the best evidence the case admits of." 3 In fact, circumstances and conditions, including efflux of time, without direct proof of loss, justify the legal presumption and justify acting on that presumption, that an original Ancient Document once existed but has been worn out or lost, or has perished, and copies in such case are admissible in evidence under the Ancient Document rule, as Lord Mansfield expressly held in Ludlam's Will Case (ante, p. 28), even if you cannot bring wit- nesses to prove that the copy has been compared with the original. This doctrine was decreed by the Supreme Court of Ohio (a.d. 1847) in a case in which an alleged copy of power of attorney to convey land had been acted on for a long time, forty years or more, but no account could be given of loss or absence of the 1 Rex v. Long Buckey, 7 East 45. 8 Tucker v. Wilkins, 4 >Sim. 241. 8 Fetherly v. Waggner, 11 Wend. 599; Havens v. Sea Shore Land Co. 47 N. J. Eq. 365. Miracles Examined Judicially 43 original, or that the alleged copy had been com- pared with the original. In deciding the document was admissible as evidence, the court said: " Those living at its date and who could have testified concerning the original, have departed from the scene of action. It was acted on more than forty years ago, and for many years after its date, and treated as a genuine instrument by those who were interested in knowing it was a valid power. . . . Under this state of facts it may be pre- sumed, and we are satisfied that the presumption is the truth, that there was an original of which this is an exact copy." 1 ANCIENT COPY LIKE BIBLE COPIES On this doctrine, the case of Attorney-General v. Boultbee, decided in the High Court of Chancery of England, a.d. 1794, reported in 2 Vesey, Jr., 380, and on appeal in 3 Vesey, Jr., 220, is highly import- ant and instructive because of the marked identity of character in the conditions (affecting its com- petency as evidence) of the alleged copy of document in that case with the Bible copies of doc- uments as we have them to-day. The case involved 1 Webster v. Harris, 16 O. 490. 'See, too, to same doc- trine, Beard v. Byan, 78 Ala. 37; Allison v. Little, 85 Ala. 512; also Havens v. Sea Shore Land Co. 47 N. J. Eq. 365. 44 Miracle and Science an alleged trust. It was of such importance as to require as plaintiff the highest law officer of Great Britain, the Attorney-General. The alleged date of the trust was a.d. 1653, one hundred and forty- one years before the trial. Those interested in the trust offered in evidence a paper as a copy of an alleged original writing creating the trust, which opponents resisted. We note the identity of conditions of that al- leged copy and that of the Bible documents. In that case, as in the case of the Bible documents, only an alleged copy could be produced. Likewise no witness could be produced to prove the execu- tion or existence of the original, or to account for loss or destruction of the original, or any evidence to account for the absence of the original save the very long lapse of time. The alleged copy in that case, like the Bible documents, as expressly stated in the report, had " neither date nor signature." Furthermore, like the Bible documents, no proof could be given that the alleged copy had ever been compared with the original, but, as in the case of the Bible documents, the paper was more than thirty years old, and those living at the time of the trans- actions described in the copy, and who could have testified concerning the original, had long before Miracles Examined Judicially 45 departed from the scene of action — the paper had been kept in proper custody and from the first when contents of the paper came to be acted on it had been dealt with and acted upon as a valid copy of a valid original. In short, the conditions and circumstances of the paper affecting its competency and admissi- bility as evidence were identical in all material re- spects with the conditions and circumstances of the Bible documents as they now exist. After argu- ment by eminent counsel and thorough considera- tion, the court held the alleged copy competent and admissible, and that it should be received and given effect as evidence according to its full extent and import. On appeal to the Lord High Chancellor of England, that eminent jurist called in the chief- justices of the other National courts of England, the Lord Chief- Justice Eyre and the Lord Chief Baron McDonald, to act in the case. Their decision was unanimous, affirming the judgment of the lower court in all respects. BIBLE DOCUMENTS WITHIN THE RULE GREENLEAF That great jurist, Simon Greenleaf, eminent au- thority on the law of evidence on both sides of the Atlantic, some years ago carefully examined the identical question we are here considering; viz. 46 Miracle and Science Are the books of the Bible, including the Gospel of John, when tested by the principles and rules oc the science of jurisprudence and evidence as ad- ministered in courts of justice, admissible in evi- dence to prove the facts recorded therein? An extended extract from his decision follows. The ample review we have just made of decisions and announcements of the law on the subject by courts and jurists foremost in standing and authority in the judicial world, extending back for more than three hundred years, will enable the reader to see that the judgment of Professor Greenleaf is not only fully sustained, but might have been, if possi- ble, more emphatic in affirming the competency and admissibility in evidence of the Gospel of John, as well as other books of the Bible, under the An- cient Document rule of evidence. Professor Greenleaf says : x " That the Books of the Old Testament as we now have them are genuine; that they existed in the time of our Savior and were commonly re- ceived and referred to among the Jews as the sa- cred books of their religion; and that the text of the Four Evangelists has been handed down to us in the state in which it was originally written, that 1 Test. of the Evang. pp. 7-11. Miracles Examined Judicially 47 is, without having been materially corrupted or falsified, either by heretics or Christians; are facts which we are entitled to assume as true until the contrary is shown. " The genuineness of these writings really ad- mits of as little doubt and is as susceptible of as ready proof as that of any ancient writings what- ever. The rule of municipal law on this subject is familiar, and applies with equal force to all ancient writings, whether documentary or otherwise; and as it comes first in order in the prosecution of these inquiries, it may for the sake of convenience be designated as our first rule. " Every document apparently ancient coming from the proper custody and bearing on its face no evident marks of forgery, the law presumes to be genuine and devolves on the opposite party the bur- den of proving it to be otherwise. "An Ancient Document offered in evidence in our courts is said to come from the proper reposi- tory when it is found in the place where and under the care of persons with whom such writings might naturally and reasonably be expected to be found; for it is this custody which gives authenticity to documents found within it. If they come from such a place, and bear no evident marks of forgery, the law presumes that they are genuine, and they are permitted to be read in evidence, unless the opposite party is able to successfully impeach them. The burden of showing them false and unworthy 48 Miracle and Science of credit is devolved upon the party who makes that objection. The presumption of the law is the judgment of charity. It presumes that every man is innocent until he is proved guilty; that every- thing has been done fairly and legally until it is proved to have been otherwise ; and that every doc- ument found in the proper repository, and not having marks of forgery, is genuine. Now this is precisely the case with the Sacred Writings. They have been used in the Church from time immemor- ial, and thus are found in the place where alone they ought to be looked for. They come to us and challenge our reception of them as genuine writings precisely as Domesday Book, the Ancient Statutes of Wales, or any other of the ancient documents, which have recently been published under the Brit- ish Record Commission are received. They are found in familiar use in all the churches of Chris- tendom, as the sacred books to which all denomi- nations of Christians refer as the standard of their faith. There is no pretence that they were en- graven on plates of gold and discovered in a cave, nor that they were brought from heaven by angels ; but they are received as the plain narratives and writings of the men whose names they respectively bear, made public at the time they were written; and though there are some slight discrepancies among the copies subsequently made, there is no pretence that the originals were anywhere cor- rupted. If it be objected that the originals are Miracles Examined Judicially 49 lost and that copies alone are now produced, the principles of the municipal law here also afford a satisfactory answer. For the multiplication of copies was a public fact in the faithfulness of which all the Christian communities had been in- terested and it is a rule of law that — " In matters of public and general interest, all persons must be presumed to be conversant on the principle that ' individuals are presumed to be con- versant with their own affairs.' " Therefore it is that in such matters the pre- vailing current of assertion is resorted to as evi- dence, for it is to this that every member of the community is supposed to be privy. 1 The persons, moreover, who multiplied these copies may be re- garded in some manner as the agents of the Chris- tian public for whose use and benefit the copies were made; and on the ground of the credit due to such agents and of the public nature of the facts themselves, the copies thus made are entitled to an extraordinary degree of confidence, and as in the case of official registers and other public books, it is not necessary that they should be confirmed or sanctioned by the ordinary tests of truth. 2 If any ancient document concerning our public rights 1 Morewood v. Wood, 14 East 329, n. per Ld. Kenyon; Weeks v. Sparks, 1 M. & S. 686; Berkley Peerage Case, 4 Camp. 416, per Mansfield, Ch. J. ; see 1 Greenleaf on Ev. sec. 128. 2 Starkie on Ev. 95, 320 ; 1 Greenleaf on Ev. see. 483. 50 Miracle and Science were lost, copies of which had been as universally- received and acted on as the Four Gospels have been, would have been received in evidence in any of our Courts of Justice without the slightest hesitation. The entire text of the Corpus Juris Civilis is received as authority in all the courts of Continental Europe, upon much weaker evidence of its genuineness ; for the integrity of the Sacred Text has been preserved by the jealousy of opposing sects beyond any moral possibility of corruption; while that of the Roman Civil Law has been preserved by tacit consent without the interest of any opposing school to watch over and preserve it from alteration. " These copies of the Holy Scriptures, having thus been in familiar use in the churches from the time when the text was committed to writing ; hav- ing been watched with vigilance by so many sects opposed to each other in doctrine, yet all appealing to these Scriptures for the correctness of their faith ; and having in all ages down to this day been respected as the authoritative source of all ecclesi- astical power and government and submitted to and acted under in regard to so many claims of right on the one hand and so many obligations of duty on the other ; it is quite erroneous to suppose that the Christian is bound to offer any further proof of their genuineness or authenticity. It is for the objector to show them spurious; for on him by the plainest rules of law lies the burden of proof. // it were the case of a claim to a fran- Miracles Examined Judicially 51 chise and a copy of an ancient deed or charter were produced under parallel circumstances on which to presume its genuineness, no lawyer it is believed would venture to deny either its admissi- bility in evidence or the satisfactory character of the proof. In a recent case in the House of Lords, precisely such a document being an old manuscript copy purporting to have been extracted from an- cient Journals of the House which were lost and to have been made by an officer whose duty it was to prepare lists of the peers, was held admissible on the claim of peerage." x Section III EVIDENCE COMPETENT The specific question before us is that of the competency and admissibility of the Gospel of John as evidence on the " issue " on the verity of the miracle of raising Lazarus from death to life, which is here on trial, assuming objections have been made to receiving it. The test and standard of competency and admissibility as evidence of the Bible Documents of Professor Greenleaf affirmed by us has been examined. As specifically applied to the present " issue " and the Gospel of John, that standard and test is : " If the Gospel of John as 1 Slane Peerage, 5 Clark & F. 23 ; Fitzwalter Peerage, 10 Id. 946. 52 Miracle and Science an Ancient Document, or copy thereof, supposing it to be relevant and material to the issue in a ques- tion of property or personal rights, between man and man, in a court of justice, ought to be admitted as evidence and have weight, then upon like principles it ought to receive our entire credit here." We have examined the actual decisions of the highest courts of jurisprudence for more than three hundred years last past, decisions rendered by those courts in deciding most momentous questions of property and personal rights between man and man. We have found a consensus of unnumbered decisions by those courts and by judges and jurists of the highest authority and standing in the civil- ized world, and they show that the Gospel of John, like the other books of the Scriptures, is clearly within the Ancient Document rule and law of evi- dence, and clearly satisfies the test and standard proposed, and show that that Gospel, tested by the principles and rules of the science of jurisprudence as administered in courts of justice in controversies between man and man, is competent and admissi- ble as evidence. On like principles (as in any forum conscientiae) it is competent and admissible evidence on the " issue " here on trial and should receive credence accordingly. Miracles Examined Judicially 53 We therefore now introduce in evidence the Gos- pel of John as an Ancient Document, especially parts thereof relevant to the " issue," viz. as partic- ular, subsidiary, evidentiary facts, and cite the verse or verses in which the fact is recorded. FACTS Lazarus was a man residing at Bethany, a vil- lage situated about fifteen fur|ongs from Jerusalem (John 11:18). ^"^ Mary and Martha were sisters of Lazarus, and the three were beloved by Jesus (John 11 :5, 21, 32). Lazarus was sick, and his malady became so se- rious that his sisters became alarmed. Evidently hoping that Jesus would cure Lazarus, the sisters sent a message to Jesus, who was absent (John 11:3, 21, 23). Jesus received the message, and, after receiving it, stayed two days in the place where he received it; during which time Lazarus died (John 11:6). Jesus then informed the disciples that accom- panied him that Lazarus was dead (John 11:14). Jesus announced to his disciples his determina- tion to return again to Judaea, where the home of Lazarus had been (John 11:7, 15). Jesus and his disciples returned to Bethany, and 54 Miracle and Science found that the dead body of Lazarus had been buried and lain in the tomb four days (John 11:17). When Jesus arrived at Bethany he found many of the Jews attendant at the home of Mary and Martha, met to mourn with the sisters over the death of Lazarus (John 11:19, 31). The sisters, Mary and Martha, each met Jesus on his arrival at Bethany, and each said to Jesus, " Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (John 11:21, 32). Jesus told Martha that Lazarus should rise again from death, which Martha said she believed would occur " in the resurrection at the last day " (John 11:23, 24). The grief of Mary over the death of Lazarus, and that of the Jews also weeping with her, was manifested with such intensity that Jesus, sympa- thizing, wept also (John 11:35). At Jesus' request, Mary and Martha and the friends in their company conducted Jesus and his disciples to the tomb, in which lay the dead body of Lazarus. " It was a cave, and a stone lay against it" (John 11:38, Am. Rev.). The document shows that, besides Jesus and his disciples and Mary and Martha, there was a con- Miracles Examined Judicially 55 siderable concourse of Jews met to sympathize with Mary and Martha over the death of Lazarus (John ii). In the presence of this considerable assembly, immediately at the door of the tomb in which the dead body of Lazarus lay enshrouded in grave- clothes, Jesus ordered the stone to be taken away, " Martha, the sister of him that was dead," pro- tested against opening the tomb, because Lazarus' body had been dead for four days, decay had com- menced an44he body stank (John 11:39). In obedience, however, to Jesus' command, those present removed the stone from the door of the tomb (John 11:41). Then, after brief prayer, Jesus at the door of the tomb spoke with a loud voice, " Lazarus, come forth." Immediately " he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin," and Jesus said, " Loose him, and let him go " (John 11:43,44). Between one and two months later Jesus came again to Bethany, " where Lazarus was whom Jesus raised from the dead," and a feast was spread for Jesus, and " Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat" (John 12:1, 2). 56 Miracle and Science At that time " the common people therefore of the Jews learned that he was there ; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead " (John 12:9, Am. Rev.). The chief priests, hostile to Jesus, when in- formed of the raising of Lazarus from death, took counsel to put Lazarus to death, because many Jews were led to believe on Jesus by reason of his raising Lazarus from death (John 12: 10, 11). A few days later, when the Lord made triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the attention of the vast assembly of people at the great feast had been called to the fact of raising Lazarus from death, " the multitude that was with him [Jesus] when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare witness " ; that is, that multi- tude that was present when Lazarus was raised from death, testified to the verity of the miracle to the people gathered at Jerusalem (John 12:17). " For this cause also the multitude went and met him, for that they heard that he had done this sign " (John 12:18). All these separate items, evidentiary facts, are ordinary testimony. Mary and Martha were per- fectly competent witnesses to know and testify to Miracles Examined Judicially 57 the sickness, death, and burial of Lazarus, and that he had been dead and buried four days before Jesus had the tomb opened. The neighbors of Mary and Martha were also competent witnesses to know and testify to the death and sepulture of Lazarus. All of them, and John who wrote the document, were competent to observe and testify to the trans- actions detailed that took place at the tomb when Lazarus came forth from it alive, and that he con- tinued alive. Each and all the items of evidence are of mat- ters plain and simple in their nature, easily seen, and capable of being readily and accurately observed, scrutinized, comprehended, and detailed in testi- mony by witnesses who are of ordinary capacity and observation. The amount of competent evidence is abundant, unimpeached, and uncontradicted. RESULT OF TRIAL The evidence would require, at the hands of a jury, a verdict embodying these facts: (1) that Lazarus was dead ; ( 2 ) that Jesus spoke over the dead body of Lazarus the words " Lazarus, come forth," and immediately Lazarus' dead body was alive; and (3) that Lazarus came forth from the tomb alive, and continued alive. 58 Miracle and Science A juror would violate his oath if he refused to find such verdict on that evidence. A contrary ver- dict would be set aside by a court as not only con- trary to the evidence, but perverse. In short the miracle is proved by competent evidence. The fact that Lazarus was dead and at the fiat words of Jesus he was immediately alive and con- tinued alive, establishes the transaction a miracle as tested by any standard definition; and the proof is by human testimony. Nay, the facts proved constitute the transaction a miracle, tested even by Mr. Hume's own defini- tion embraced in his proposition heie in issue, i.e. "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature." The word " violation " so used seems plainly po- lemic, but cannot rationally mean other than that a miracle thwarts or frustrates the operation of the laws of nature. It is undoubtedly a law of nature that the dead body of a man remains dead. It at once com- mences to decompose, continues to decompose, and returns to dust. But Lazarus' dead body did not remain dead, did not return to dust, but became alive and continued alive. These facts, thwarting, frustrating, the operation of the laws of nature, were clearly and abundantly proved by a multitude Miracles Examined Judicially 59 of competent witnesses — by human testimony. Tested even by Mr. Hume's own definition, the transaction was proved a miracle, and is proved a verity, and the proof is by human testimony. This review of the law and evidence on the " issue " tried justifies the conclusion that the mir- acles of the Bible are capable of being proved, and are proved, by existing available evidence — evi- dence competent, proper, and admissible under the rules and standards of the science of jurisprudence as administered in courts of justice of enlightened nations of the earth; also the miracles of the Bible are verities tested by the same standards by which fact and truth are established on all questions be- tween man and man in which fact and truth depend on and are ascertained and are established through evidence. CHAPTER III FUNCTION OF MIRACLE "The testimonies of God are true: the testimonies of God are perfect : the testimonies of God are all-sufficient unto that end for which they were given." Hookeb, Ecclesiastical Polity, ii. 8. A miracle is the product of the special fiat of Deity. Inherent in the fiat of God is intelligent purpose. Miracle executes that purpose. Hence the function of miracle in each instance is found in, and conforms to, the purpose for which it is wrought. The first miracles recorded — those of creation — seem related to man only prospectively. Their evidential value is indirect or incidental, e.g., " In the beginning God created the heavens" (Gen. 1:1); "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1). The several and successive miracles of creation, including creation of man in the " image and likeness " of God, taken collectively, and con- sidered in connection with the benignant act of Deity in endowing man with dominion over ma- terial creation, with its unmeasured capacities for blessing, in evidential value are profound, and de- monstrate that " God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16). Function of Miracle 61 Miracles inflicting penalty on Adam, on Cain; translation of Enoch; the Deluge; confusion of language at Babel; destruction of Sodom and Go- morrah; staying Abraham's hand from sacrificing his son; feeding the Hebrews in their wilderness journey, and other like miracles, performed func- tions of retribution, reward, administration, mercy, etc. They teach that God's moral government of man is sanctioned by rewards for obeying his law, and punishment for sin, which is the transgression of that law. MIRACLE — THE TESTIMONY OF GOD Pretermitting special examination of other func- tions of miracles as disclosed by the record, we pro- pose to limit our further examination to inquiry as to the function of miracle as evidence, by examining a sufficient number of instances to discover what truth they establish on the questions proposed. It is a doctrine held by Christians from the be- ginning that miracles are the testimony of God when wrought to authenticate his message to men, or his messengers in his service. Do the Ancient Docu- ments of the Bible as evidence prove this Chris- tian doctrine true? More definitely, Has God made his miracles to be his testimony to authenticate his 62 Miracle and Science messages, his revelations to men, and ordained his miracles to be used as such evidence? As revela- tion distinguished from inspiration is involved in this question, we notice the discrimination: Reve- lation, in theology, is that which God makes of himself and his will to his creatures of truths which could not be ascertained by natural means. Revelation differs from inspiration, the latter being an exaltation of the natural faculties, the former a communication through them, not otherwise obtain- able, not otherwise known (Cent. Diet.). At that first meeting with his apostles by the risen Christ, he opened " their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). Revelation gives knowledge affecting man and his eternal as well as present welfare — knowledge man could not otherwise ascertain or know. Recogniz- ing God as supreme and sovereign, one finds in rev- elation that otherwise unascertainable knowledge indispensable for man's deepest need and daily life ; and in honest thought one sees it not irrational nor inconsistent with sound philosophy to believe God has made special revelations of himself and his will to man for man's welfare, or that the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament record such reve- lations. Function of Miracle 63 President Mark Hopkins on this subject says: " That God could give such revelation and con- firm it by miracle every Theist must admit; and the simple question is whether as a free agent and a moral Governor (for I acknowledge no man a Theist who does not admit those characteristics of God) he would think it best to give such a revela- tion I know not why it should be con- sidered so strange a thing that God should make such a revelation to man. If I mistake not, it would have been much stranger if he had not. It may be strange that he should have created the world at all, or put such a being as a man upon it, but if we believe that God made him with a rational and re- ligious nature — a child capable of communion with liim and of finding in him only the highest source of happiness and means of moral perfection — it would be exceedingly strange if God should not re- veal himself to him. Shall not a father speak to his own child? There is nothing strange either in the nature of the case, or in the instincts of humanity with which infidels have invested a revelation of God; but the reverse. It is strange that God is. In one sense everything is strange, and equally so. But supposing God to be and to make such a creature as man, a being capable of religion, requiring it in order to the development of the highest part of his nature and then not com- municate with him as a father in those revelations 64 Miracle and Science which alone could perfect that nature, would be a reproach upon God and a contradiction." x MIRACLE EVIDENCE — ABRAHAM The miracle recorded in Genesis 15 is highly in- structive on the question we are considering. God had called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees into Canaan, and had revealed to him his purpose to give Abraham " this land to inherit it." The reve- lation included inheritance and was plain in its terms, but Abraham was childless and in a sense of ownership was landless. Abraham, therefore, sought from God evidence that should authenticate the revelation. Abraham said, " Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it ? " (Gen. 15:8). God did not condemn Abraham's re- quest as lacking proper trust in God's promise ; but on the contrary respected it, and ordained a miracle to ratify and authenticate the revelation. Scholars inform us that in that ancient time the very sol- emn form of ratifying a contract consisted in draw- ing the blood from an animal, dividing its carcass lengthwise as nearly as possible into two equal parts, which, being placed opposite to each other at a short distance, the covenanting parties approached 1 Hopkins, Lowell Lectures, no. ii. Function of Miracle 65 at opposite ends of the passage, and, meeting in the middle, took the customary oath, a practice by no means peculiar to the Jews. 1 Jehovah ordered Abraham to take three designated animals and two birds for the ceremony. Abraham complied, divid- ing the animals and " laying each half over against the other " ; and in due time God ratified and authenticated the revelation to Abraham. This was done by miracle. When the sun went down and it was dark, the objective features of the miracle — (1) a smoking furnace and (2) a flaming torch — passed between those parts of the three animals, so prepared, as God himself had ordained for that purpose. In connection with that miracle testimony of God, confirming his covenant with Abraham, God re- vealed to him : " Know of a surety " that, after four hundred years and enduring affliction, your seed shall inherit the land. The plain function of this miracle was, as God's evidence, to authenticate and confirm that revelation, which evidence should stand as sure foundation for faith in the revelation to Abraham then, and through renewals to Isaac (Gen. 26:3), to Jacob (Gen. 35:12), and through 1 Bush, Notes on Gen. 27:7. An instance is recorded in Jer. 34:18. 66 Miracle and Science Jacob to Joseph (Gen. 48:3, 4, 21), and through Joseph again to all the patriarchs, his brethren (Gen. 50:24), and through them to all Abraham's seed to the end of the four hundred years, as the record shows it did, even to Moses in his young manhood, and to Israel, through all the vicissitudes of- their foretold afflictions in the dark days of Egyptian bondage and cruel murder of infants, be- fore the Exodus. The evidence here is express and conclusive that God made his miracle to be his testimony to authenticate and verify his great re- velation and promise to Abraham and his seed ; also that God expressly ordained his miracle to be used as such evidence for such purpose. GIDEON — SYMBOLISM When God called Gideon from humble life to raise an army and repel from Israel the marauding army of Midian, the magnitude of the task seems to have so appalled Gideon that he humbly prayed God to enlighten him by God's own evidence. Gideon framed his question: Lord, is this which purports to be thy call to me, verily thy call? If yea, answer by flooding with dew this fleece I lay on this dry threshing-floor, and let the floor be dry. God answered Gideon's question, yea, by depositing Function of Miracle 67 abundant dew on the fleece but none on the dry- floor. The duty was so heavy that Gideon again shrank, and humbly prayed the Lord : " Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once ; let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew." This was Gideon's second question. God by his miracle answered it in the affirmative. " God did so that night; for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground " (Judges 6:36-40). This transaction is proof: 1. That God makes his miracle to be his testimony, and approves its use as such. 2. That the evidence of God by his mir- acle is found in the predesignated purpose or propo- sition it is wrought to prove or to authenticate. Compared with human evidence, a miracle may be likened to the answer, " Yes," given to an interro- gative proposition. All that is embraced in the proposition propounded as a leading or direct ques- tion is affirmed to its full extent and import if answered by a man by the monosyllable " Yes," or by Deity by miracle. 3. That a miracle as evidence is not interpreted by symbolism. Every factor in- volved in the first miracle with the fleece from which 68 Miracle and Science symbolism might be deduced, was expressly and diametrically reversed in the second. Yet each miracle affirmed the same identical truth — the ver- ity of God's command to Gideon. Postponing ex- amination of other instances in the Old Testament for later examination, we notice here some NEW TESTAMENT INSTANCES Consider a date, a.d. 30; and the situation, the millions of men the seed of Abraham then existing ; and the problem, from the human viewpoint, of identifying one of all those millions as the Messiah, for he was to be made flesh and dwell among men, live and be tempted as we are, subject to hunger, thirst, be weary, and bear the common form of a man in his mission as he did. Superhuman and supernatural evidence was indispensable to identify him, for the faet was supernatural and superhuman. John the Baptist testifies that God made him a special, express revelation, accompanying a commis- sion to preach repentance, and " to baptize with water." The revelation was, that, in performing the commission, the Messiah should be made mani- fest to Israel : " He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Function of Miracle 69 him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1: 33) ; "I saw the Spirit descend- ing like a dove, and it abode upon him " (John 1:32; Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22). This fulfilled the special revelation and identified Jesus as the Messiah. But this was to John the Baptist alone. John proclaimed the facts. The Baptist was cast into prison, whence he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. The question in effect instituted an " issue." Jesus so used the question. Whatever moved John to institute the inquiry, it was respected by Jesus, and gave the op- portunity to indubitably, publicly authenticate the revelation and identification of God that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus did not answer, " Yes," to John's question, which to the world would have been only human testimony, but he gave evidence on the issue, namely, in that same hour " he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered and said unto them [John's messengers], Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; the blind re- ceive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings preached 70 Miracle and Science them. And blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me" (Luke 7:21-23). Those miracles, the testimony of God on the issue raised, were given expressly and expressly or- dained by God to be his testimony, and to be used as such, to authenticate and confirm the express revelation of God, and to identify Jesus as Messiah the Son of God. The purpose of the miracle of raising Lazarus from death, as authenticating evidence, is stated by the Master himself. Jesus (John 5:31) recognizes a fundamental law of evidence, that, although one cannot usually put his own declarations concerning himself in evidence in his own favor, yet in this mir- acle he uses a well-established exception. It is this : when an actor controlling his own proceedings, for instance, enters upon land, in order to enforce a right — say of forfeiture, foreclose a mortgage, de- fend a disseizin or the like, or in fine does any other act material to be understood and in itself not une- quivocal, but depending for its true significance upon the purpose and intent with which it is done, the actor's declarations made at the time, and in connection with the transaction, and expressive of its character, purpose, and intent, become an inte- gral part of the transaction and proper evidence of Function of Miracle 71 its character. 1 The record shows that Jesus gave his testimony by miracle, in the case of Lazarus, in accordance with this rule. Before the miracle, Jesus said to his disciples regarding staying away from the sick man until after his death : " I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe " (John 11:15). In a figure of sleep and awakening, he (1) stated to his disciples that he would raise Lazarus from death (ver. 14, 23). Jesus also (2) stated to Martha that Lazarus should be raised alive. This prediction Jesus gave twice, and when the stone shutting the tomb had been removed, Jesus communed with God and said : " Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 11:41, 42). The purpose and intent of Jesus' two proclama- tions, and the miracle as the testimony of God to authenticate and identify Jesus as the Messiah and his mission, were thus particularly preannounced immediately before the miracle was wrought. Its performance was God's testimony, proving the fact proposed ; also it was divinely ordained to be used as such testimony. 1 1 Greenleaf on Ev. sec. 108. 72 Miracle and Science SUPREME INSTANCES The supreme illustrations of the doctrine that Deity has made his miracle to be his testimony to authenticate his revelation and communications to men may be said to be : 1. God's miracle in giving the law at Sinai ; 2. Christ's miracle in demonstrat- ing that in him inhered the transcendent power of resurrection. Jehovah antecedently made his revelations to Moses, that he (Jehovah) at a preappointed third day would in person, in fact, come down upon Mount Sinai, and meet the whole Hebrew nation. On that third day Jehovah came down on Mount Sinai, and " God spake all these words, saying, I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me," contin- uing spoken words through the entire decalogue (Ex. 19, 20). Jehovah, personally present before the whole people, spoke in the first person all the words of the decalogue, with an audible voice, in such manner that the whole congregation could hear. The ten commandments, founded in the im- mutable nature of God, and in the permanent rela- tions of men on earth, were personally, audibly, and immediately communicated by Jehovah himself to Function of Miracle 73 the whole people. The record is, that Jehovah re- garded this miracle of supreme importance, as au- thenticating that pregnant epitome of the whole law. For immediately after the miracle he put special emphasis upon it by commanding Moses: " Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven," an injunction Moses obeyed again and again (Ex. 20:22; Deut. 4:36; 5:24, 26). When Martha, contemplating the death of Laza- rus, spoke to Jesus, voicing the common belief of the Jews that all the dead would " rise again in the resurrection at the last day," Jesus made the amaz- ing revelation : " I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth [at the last day] and believeth in me shall never die." This was a special and express revelation of Deity, and could not otherwise be ascertained or known. It was supplemental to Jesus' revelation: " The hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. . . . Marvel not at this ; for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they 71 Miracle and Science thai have done 111, unto the resurrection of judg- ment " (John 5:25, Jil), K. V., especially vcr. 28 and /'!>) ; " I lay down my life that I may lake it again. . . . I have power to lay il down, and I have power to take it again " (John 10:17, 18). 1 low could this express revelation be indubitably proved, authenticated, to men? Mere Christ's pro- cess of authentication brings into operation a some- what unusual yet clearly established method of proof, designated Antoptic or Real. It is: " Such evidence as is addressed directly to the sense of the | tribunal | court or jury without the intervention of witnesses." ' 'That is demonstrating the truth of the proposition in question by actually performing it before the tribunal.'- 1 1 ere actual demonstration by suffering actual extinction of life-- being dead, laid away in the tomb, and rising alive at a time previously designated would be autoptic evidence and proof of the truth of that revelation. |< SSU B proclaimed again and again that he should be killed, and ari8e from death on the third day thereafter. I le was crucified, dead and buried, and rose from death Oil the third day. The revelation, prophecy, and 1 l (Hreciilcnf on lOv. h<>c. i:Jh, Kith Md. ; People v. Con Btiintiiie, ir>:; n. Y. 21. 2 Aiiicm'Iciiii and IOiikHhIi ICneye. of Law (2d lOd.) p. Function of Miracle 75 God's testimony by miracle combined in autoptic evidence by Jesus himself to authenticate and con- firm indubitably his special and express revelation, that inherent in himself was the power of resurrec- tion of all the dead, and that at the last day, at his command, all the dead shall hear his voice, and come forth to meet the consummation of earthly things. The miracles are constantly in evidence in the four Gospels, and show that God made them his testimony to authenticate Jesus and his mission, and constantly caused their use to prove those facts. The Apostle John at the end of his Gospel sums up the purpose of the miracles recorded by him : "And many other (o-^/teta) signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not writ- ten in this book ; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye might have life through his name " (John 20:30, 31). THE MASTER'S TESTIMONY Jesus himself constantly insisted upon, and ex- pressly asserted, the doctrine. The Jews at one time said to him, " If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." If Jesus had answered, " Yea," or by mere words of affirmation, his questioners would have received 76 Miracle and Science it as merely the testimony of a man in his own favor. Hence Jesus answered : " The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me " (John 10:24-26) ; " If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you be- lieve not me, believe the works " (John 10:37, 38) ; and (in John 14:11) Jesus appeals again to his mir- acles as evidence, " Believe me for the very works' sake." This appeal to his miracles, as a just answer to the question of the Jews as to his Messiahship, remitted their question back to their own honest judgment and national belief; for Nicodemus voiced the common belief of the Hebrews when he said to Jesus, " No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him " (John 3 :2 ; see also Acts 2:22). In the foregoing we have examined only a mea- ger selection from abundant instances of miracles that prove the doctrine announced. We do not pur- sue such examination further now, for that function of miracle will come into notice again, and again, in considering various questions growing out of the general subject, e.g. in the Exodus, and the inquiry whether miracle is integral and constituent in God's economy of grace and revelation. Regarded com- Function of Miracle 77 prehensively, the record shows that, in probative force, every transaction embracing miracle in the record that has a bearing on the question affirms with undeviating unanimity — and especially every such transaction in the Exodus and others yet to be examined on this question affirm cogently and con- clusively — the proposition that God has made his miracle to be his objective evidence, and ordained it to be used as his testimony, to authenticate his special and express revelations to men as well as to authenticate his agents in his service. The record evidence clearly proves that doctrine. The transcendent value to men of that great truth so established by such objective evidence will also appear in examining the rationale of the au- thenticating function of miracle in God's economy of grace and revelation. CHAPTER IV MIRACLE AS OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE IN REVELATION "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the sim- ple.*' Psalm 19 : 7. Section I MIRACLE AUTHENTICATING REVELATION The Bible records numerous instances of mira- cles wrought expressly to authenticate Divine reve- lations. We have already considered those of Abraham (Gen. 15:8) and of Gideon (Judges 6: 36, 40). See also, among others, the case of Man- oah (Judges 13: 2-20), of Moses at the Bush (Ex. 3), and of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:1-11 and Isa. 38). The case of Pharaoh, later to be examined, is es- pecially instructive, because we have in that trans- action express evidence that the Creator in dealing with man, created in his image and likeness, a ra- tional moral being, recognized that when a super- natural and superhuman message purporting to be a revelation of God to man should be communi- Miracle and Revelation 79 cated to one man (Pharaoh) by another man (Moses), Pharaoh as such rational being would be, and was, entitled to have furnished to him appro- priate evidence to authenticate the verity of the revelation and message. Moses was therefore ex- pressly instructed that, when he communicated to Pharaoh God's revelation (that God commanded Pharaoh to emancipate the multitude of Hebrew slaves), and Pharaoh, as foreseen, should require supernatural and superhuman evidence to authenti- cate the Divine message, and should demand of Moses, " Show a miracle for you" (Ex. 7:9), for such authenticating evidence, Moses, in response, should not only perform the miracle of the rod changed to serpent, but should also do before Phar- aoh " all the wonders [miracles] which I have put in thy hand" (Ex. 4:21). But the supreme illustration is Christ as the per- fect revelation and revelator of God, his will, law, and dispensation of grace and truth. Revelation of God as the Father and Sovereign was a work of Jesus during his earthly ministry, and his miracles were daily in authentication of himself, his mission, and that revelation. Such authenticating function of miracle was also the faith of the Hebrew people. John records a special and significant instance illus- 80 Miracle and Science trating this (John 2: 13-23). Jesus at the Pass- over cleansed the temple by force, using a scourge in driving out the defilers and the sheep and oxen, and he overthrew the tables of the money-changers. Understanding that Jesus assumed to act in the matter with the authority of a divine prophet, the Jews — evidently officials in charge of the temple — demanded of Jesus, " What miracle (a-rjpelov) showest thou, seeing thou doest these things ? " Foreshadowing their destruction of his body on Calvary, Jesus propounded the miracle of his res- urrection, as the future authenticating evidence asked for. But at the same feast Jesus gave pres- ent answer, for, as recorded, " Many believed on him when they saw the miracles he did " (ver. 23). These miracles satisfied his accusers, as it appears, for they acquiesced; did not arrest or condemn Jesus for his overt acts of force against the prop- erty and persons that had defiled the sanctuary. THE DOCTRINE RATIONAL The doctrine is in accord with sound reason. When what purports to be a revelation from God comes to man, and in purport imposes obligation on man affecting the alleged recipient or third persons, there inheres in the situation this inevitable ques- Miracle and Revelation 81 tion, Is the purported revelation verity? Plainly God, as purported author, alone knows the truth responsive to that question. He who alone knows the truth is alone able to give true answer. What evidence is indispensably requisite to au- thenticate indubitably an alleged revelation of God to man? Obviously (1) it must be evidence which God alone can give ; ( 2 ) it must be evidence given by such way, means, and conditions that man, using his normal powers, can test it as to its reality, arid understand and apply it. (1) Power to perform a miracle is the sovereign prerogative of Deity ; possible to Deity alone. When man appears officially in performing a miracle, it is merely as agent of Deity. The power that operates emanates from Deity. So the Master testifies (Luke 6:19; Mark 5:30). Miracle as evidence, and miracle alone, satisfies fully the first indispen- sable requisite of evidence, viz. that which can indubitably prove a purported revelation of God to man to be verity. (2) As we have seen in examining the miracle of raising Lazarus from death, the things or matters that, as evidence, constitute and prove a transaction a miracle, and the manner of the production of the evidence, are readily and plainly capable of being 82 Miracle and Science scrutinized as to their verity, tested and known by- ordinary normal powers of men. Hence miracle satisfies also the second, the other indispensable, re- quisite of evidence that shall indubitably prove a purported revelation of God to be verity. This simple yet adequate plan for surely authenticating to man's normal and rational apprehension super- natural and superhuman knowledge, God has graci- ously provided, ordained to be used, and used in fact in communicating his revelations of his will, truth, law, love, and economy of grace to men, and record thereof is preserved for us in God's word — his Tes- taments Old and New. God's miracle evidence not only satisfies all the indispensable requirements that inhere in the problem of so proving and authenti- cating revelations of God to man, but the record discloses no other plan or method, amenable to hu- man scrutiny and test, by which purported revela- tions of God to man can be authenticated; and we know of no other. No other has yet been promul- gated. This rationale of the function of miracle, by which God's special and express revelation to men throughout the Bible has been authenticated, is rec- ognized by theologians as basic, and used in setting forth the divine authority of the Bible. In his work Miracle and Revelation 83 "The Divine Authority of the Bible," Professor Wright brings out the fact : " A miraculous dis- pensation begins with Abraham and ends with the apostles, — with an intermission of about four hun- dred years between Malachi and John the Baptist," and then shows, on good grounds, that all the books of the Bible received as canonical by Protestants were written during those periods of special mirac- ulous intervention, and that " outside of these books there is no trustworthy account of any special di- vine revelation." 1 Reason without revelation has never, in the case of any historical community, availed to lead men to certainty in matters of religion, or to satisfy their needs, or rule their lives. Before leaving examination of this evidential function of miracle, we ought perhaps to notice opposing views, so far at least as they may come within the limitation we have set to our investiga- tion, i.e. as the subject is affected by rules, tests, and methods of jural science in the department of evidence as administered in courts of justice. These will be examined in the next section. 1 G. Frederick Wright, The Divine Authority of the Bible, p. 15; see also A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theologj 7 , pp. 59-61. 84 Miracle and Science Section II UNSANCTIONED SUBJECTIVE CONCEPTIONS MISTAKEN FOR REVELATION There are many negators who, while insisting on their loyalty to the Christian religion, oppose the " conclusions " we have above stated. This loyalty is asserted on their contention that God is inter- ested to benefit human souls now the same as in past ages ; that men now attain or achieve divine inspir- ation and revelation the same every way as that which is set forth as inspiration and revelation in the Bible; that inspiration and revelation were never bestowed, from without, especially or ex- pressly, upon any, but that God is immanent among men and his creations, and through that immanence every one who is adequately attent will attain or achieve revelation. This concept is sometimes called " inner light," sometimes " ethico-religious con- sciousness." In philosophy, in modern times, the word is applied to the operation of a creator, con- ceived as in organic connection with every separate creation — herb, ox, or man — performing for each, alike, the functions of sustaining, upholding, con- tinuing. But what has been called " ethico-religious consciousness " or " inward light " by many of the Miracle and Revelation 85 good and devout is limited, as so well stated by Professor Inge in his Bampton Lectures: " The inner light can only testify to spiritual truths. It always speaks in the present tense; it cannot guarantee any historical event, past or fu- ture. It cannot guarantee either the Gospel history or a future judgment. It can tell us Christ has risen, and he is alive forevermore, but not that he rose again the third day." The contention of these negators is sometimes stated thus: Any person having intellectual and moral qualities like Moses, by seeking and ponder- ing on phenomena, will, by his human spirit itself, achieve and attain special divine revelations the same as that zvhich guided Moses in the Exodus. SUBJECTIVE CONCEPTION OF REVELATION The inherent basis on which these contentions are made, seems to bring the matter directly into the realm of psychology, and demonstrates that the mental and spiritual processes by which they con- tend that alleged inspiration and revelations of God are so achieved, are subjective, ideal, as contrasted with what is objective, real. The results alleged to be obtained and promulgated are distinctly within the definition of " subjective," viz. " especially per- taining to or derived from one's own conscious- 86 Miracle and Science ness." The contrast between " subjective " and " objective," by established usage, is stated by Sir William Hamilton: " ' Objective' means that which belongs to or pro- ceeds from the object known, and not from the individual knowing, and denotes what is real, in opposition to what is ideal; what exists in nature in contrast to [subjective] what exists merely in the thought of the individual." 1. Obviously such contention, that man can, by brooding or pondering, achieve divine revelation, is distinctly and directly in conflict with the essential concept of a revelation of God, viz. " disclosure of truth which cannot be ascertained by natural means." While that conception of revelation of God stands, the contention that man can, by his brooding or pondering, achieve revelations of God, cannot stand a moment ; for achievements so contemplated would be achievement by human powers, which are nat- ural means, certainly not unnatural or supernatural. 2. Such contention is also obviously in direct contradiction of the testimony in the record, of un- impeached witnesses, who knew by personal expe- rience the truth of what they testified. Peter, speaking expressly of inspiration and revelation, says of himself and his associate apostles: Miracle and Revelation 87 " We did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye- witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and this voice we ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount. And we have the word of prophecy made more sure ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed .... knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpre- tation [setting forth]. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man ; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. 1:16-21, Rev. Ver.). 3. The contention that such subjective processes yield verity in results in regard to religion and spiritual life is not only doubly contradicted (1) by the essential in revelation, and (2) by the record, but such subjective concepts are (3) what the record shows were contended for as verity by men professing to be loyal, godly teachers more than two thousand years ago. Such contentions were then condemned, and declared to be the result of self-deception of the very persons who promul- gated them ; not only condemned, but declared cal- culated to foster vanity and self-conceit. Of such 88 Miracle and Science subjective results the record is, " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts .... they make you vain ; they speak a vision of their own hearts .... they are prophets of the deceit of their own hearts " (Jer. 23 :16, 26). 4. It is common knowledge that such subjective concepts, although utterly destitute of truth, are yet capable of becoming imperative over the person by whom they have been evolved, even to the extent of impelling to the commission of capital crimes. One ancient and one modern example may be selected from many to illustrate this. UNAUTHENTICATED SUBJECTIVE CONCEPTIONS Moses. At the end of three hundred and ninety of the foretold four hundred years which should terminate Hebrew oppression by the Egyptians (Ex. 12:40, especially ver. 41), Moses was a ma- ture man forty years old ; had been wonderfully preserved from the death decreed by Pharaoh against every male Hebrew infant; been adopted by Pharaoh's daughter; highly educated, and, as shown by the oration of the martyr Stephen, " was mighty in words and in deeds " (Acts 7 :22). Moses stands in the front rank of the world's great and good men; but that did not safeguard him from the folly and falsity of the seductive Miracle and Revelation 89 power of subjective conceptions of special revela- tions of God. Brooding over phenomena — God's great promises to Abraham, his own unique history, the near approach of time for deliverance of Abraham's seed from bondage — Moses evolved the subjective conception that the whole situation constituted special revelation that God had thereby called Moses to undertake, as he did, the delivery of the Hebrews; for, impelled by that conception, Moses slew the Egyptian (Ex. 2:12). Stephen's testimony shows this, for he says Moses " supposed his brethren understood that God by his [Moses] hand zvas giving them deliverance" (Acts 7:25, Am. Rev.). Moses could not honestly suppose that his brethren so understood, if he did not so believe it himself. Moses' act and belief received no sanc- tion whatever from God, and Moses thereby found Divine repudiation of his subjectively conceived revelation, and became himself a victim of that conviction evolved by " the deceit of his own heart " (Jer. 23:16, 36), and was forced to flee, a criminal homicide and an outlaw. The Man of Cohasset. The records of the Su- preme Judicial Court of the State of Massachusetts for Barnstable County show the prosecution of Charles F. Freeman for the crime of murder, com- 90 Miracle and Science mitted May 1, 1879. On a preliminary hearing, Freeman was adjudged sane; but escaped convic- tion of murder, on final trial, on the ground that at the moment of killing he was not sane. Court and jury seem to have been convinced that, in what Freeman did with the life of his daughter, he was conscientious, sincere. He was condemned to be confined in Danvers Lunatic Hospital during his natural life. Freeman's case was widely published. As to what is here involved, the facts are under- stood to have been that Freeman (called the Man of Cohasset) had a little daughter whom he cherished. But he became dominated by a subjective concep- tion that it was his duty to prove his religious devotion by sacrificing what he most loved and cherished. His brooding centered on his daughter, and he took her life under the dominating influence of that subjective conviction. These two instances of the folly and crime of yielding to, and acting on, unsanctioned subjective conceptions of God and of his supposed revelations, are extreme samples. They shock us because of the cruel consequences wrought thereby on physical life. But evils as great or greater to spiritual lives of men, and evil to the cause of religion, are being wrought to-day by many in the ministry and edu- Miracle and Revelation 91 cational work by promulgating mere subjective conceptions of God, his will, his work, purposes, and rule. It is common knowledge that such teachers, claiming an honest conscience in seeking to know God's will, boldly advocate their subjec- tive convictions, and deny the authority of the Bible and its recorded facts also, if deemed in conflict with their subjective conceptions. But do not the Scriptures exhort men to try to know God's will and conform their lives to it? Yes, doubtless, and great promises accompany the exhor- tation : " Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." While charity concedes and assumes that such vic- tims of such subjective conceptions of God, his will and rule, are honest in following the dictates of conscience, the assumption of honesty carries with it logically the correlative conclusion that, had such victims had in reality the light of truth as to the Divine mind and will to guide them, they would have followed that light and avoided error. How then can the honest inquirer be safeguarded in his quest of truth? Can loyalty to Christ secure him from error? 92 Miracle and Science Section III CHRIST THE WAY AND GUIDE IN CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEITY AND OF DUTY How shall error in subjective conceptions be avoided ? . If in complying with the Master's many exhorta- tions to follow him we may employ, as he so often did, obvious truths of natural law to illustrate truth or principles in the spiritual sphere, in seeking an answer to the above question we may find lesson and light in the mariner's compass. The steel needle, ever so carefully suspended, while unmag- netized, is utterly useless for enabling the sailor to know the course his ship is moving. But when magnetized the needle thereby comes at once into organic relation, accord, and alinement with the in- terpolar magnetic current, which Almighty energy maintains in constant flow north and south between earth's magnetic poles. By that current the needle is held in that alinement. Because, and only be- cause, it is so held in that alinement, does the needle enable the navigator to know his course and guide his craft to the desired haven. Shortly before the crucifixion, at the feast of the tabernacles in the temple at Jerusalem, Christ Miracle and Revelation 93 taught profound basic truths. It was an occasion at which Hebrew law required every male of the nation to be present. Jesus' teaching was to the whole people. The last of those great truths, then announced in the temple to the great assembly, was a proclamation no mere human being could assert of himself without blasphemy. It was a truth which Deity only could rightfully declare. Jesus proclaimed : "Iam the light of the world : he THAT FOLLOWETH ME, SHALL NOT WALK IN DARK- NESS, BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE " (John 8:12). The honest seeker after truth who would come within the benefit of that transcendent prom- ise and pledge, and avoid becoming the dupe of sub- jective conception, must as a disciple follow Christ in a spirit in accord with the comprehensive scope and purpose of the proclamation. The following must be of thought, spirit, and life shown not merely in obeying express precepts, but a following, as far and as fully as a human soul can follow, the example of Christ in everything affecting the soul in its relation to God and the Christian life. Complying with the condition of the promise re- quires the disciple to be in loyal accord and aline- ment with the spirit of Christ, as the magnetized needle is with the interpolar electric current ; so that 94 Miracle and Science the Bible shall be to the disciple what it was to Christ. He must be in loyal accord with Christ in his announcement in his preface to the Sermon on the Mount, " Think not I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil." He must be in loyal accord with Christ's teaching and works done in fulfilment of that older record ; and in like accord with Christ's prayer that his disciples might be one, even as Christ and the Father are one (a oneness of which we know noth- ing outside of what is recorded in the Testaments, Old and New) ; also he must be in accord with Christ's prayer that his disciples might be sancti- fied, and in accord also with the means and process of sanctification embraced in Christ's prayer to the Father : " Sanctify them through the truth : thy word is truth " ; and in accord, by righteous living, with sincere and devout desire to be thus sanctified in life and purpose through the word of God. Only as the follower is in alinement with and conforms to the conditions on which the promise is based, only by holding in check and testing one's thoughts and conceptions of God, his will and rule, by standards set in the Scriptures Christ thus au- thenticated, and exalted as supreme authority, can a disciple bring himself within the proclamation Miracle and Revelation 95 and promise, and have that true illumination of spirit which Christ described as " the light of life," and only so be saved from the falsity and folly of unsanctioned subjective conceptions of Divine things, the conceit and deceit of one's own heart, described by Jeremiah (28:16, 26). In this funda- mental respect Moses and the Man of Cohasset sig- nally failed. They did not hold in check nor test their conception by the light of God's law, that ex- pressly condemns homicide, except in punishment adjudged against a malefactor. CHAPTER V MIRACLE AND DOCTRINE — DEITY OF JESUS " Jesus himself testified." John 4 :44. Not only have we evidence competent and suffi- cient to prove the reality of the miracles, but the miracle, so proved, becomes in turn evidentiary fact to prove the truth of the doctrines of the Chris- tian religion. We select first, for illustration, the doctrine with which the Apostle John opens his gospel narrative, viz. the Deity of Jesus, a central doctrine of the Christian religion. We are aware that theologians and divines of more than national fame have announced an opposite conclusion. 1 1 George P. Fisher, D.D., in his work The Supernat- ural Origin of Christianity, p. 497, says : " It has been sometimes thought that the miracles of Christ were to prove His divinity. But this in our judgment is an error. The miracles of Christ do not differ in kind from those which are attributed to the Prophets of the Old Testament. By the Prophets the sick were healed and the dead revived. . . . The divinity of Jesus is a truth which rests upon His testimony and that of the apos- tles, and not upon the fact that He performed works exceeding human power" (citing, in support, Julius Muller, Essay on Miracles, chap. iii.). Miracle and Dgctrine — Deity of Jesus 97 Speaking with deference to such authors, the rec- ord is before us, and examining it by the rules of evidence administered in courts of justice will show what it proves on the question. Luke (5:15, 17, 18) records that, upon healing a man of leprosy, Jesus charged him to tell no man, but Luke adds, " So much the more went abroad the report concerning him, and great multitudes came together to hear and be healed of their infirm- ities." On " one of those days " when great multi- tudes came together to hear, " a man that was pal- sied " (Am. Rev.) was healed. We propose to examine this transaction by the methods of science, to ascertain its lesson on the subject of the Divinity of Jesus. The transaction is in full harmony with the Bible as a whole. It is reported also by Mat- thew (9:2-8) and Mark (2:1-12). Time. It occurred, as is generally agreed, about one year after the first passover in Christ's minis- try, and after the first cleansing of the temple (John 2:13-25); after the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Matt. 4:12); after Jesus' discourse with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4:4-12); after "leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt at Capernaum" (Matt. 4:13); after Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their syna- 98 Miracle and Science gogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of diseases among the peo- ple; and after his fame went throughout all Syria; so that there followed him great multitudes of peo- ple from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jor- dan (Matt. 4:23-25). Place. It seems that, after the fame of Jesus and his teachings caused such a following and celebrity as Luke records (Luke 5:15), great mul- titudes came together, to hear Jesus preach and teach; that a house at Capernaum was appro- priated for meetings, and was known as such by common report. Of such building or house, Mark records of this very day, and transactions we are to consider, that " it was noised that he [Jesus] was in the house" (Mark 2.-1) 1 and that the house was in Capernaum. Luke says of those meetings, evidently at that house, that it came to pass " on one of those days," " There were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusa- lem " (Luke 5:17). Capernaum was in Galilee, the northern part of Palestine. Judaea was the 1 See too Mark 7 :17 ; 9 :28, indicating the establish- ment of a fixed place of meeting and teaching. Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 99 southern part. So there was a representation of educated men, as Luke says, from " every village " in all Palestine. The record shows that it was a peculiarly comprehensive and representative gath- ering, including the educated, the cultured, as well as the common people. It was during the period of Christ's ministry des- ignated as the period of Public Favor, before the rulers and leaders had commenced their opposi- tion; a period in which the marvelous work and gospel of Jesus had notably arrested the attention of the Jewish people. The good, thoughtful, earn- est, and religious were evidently in a state of anx- ious inquiry as to Jesus himself and his gospel. The audience on that day was familiar with their Holy Scriptures, and evidently held them in rever- ence. JESUS' USE OF JURAL SCIENCE Moreover, it must be kept in mind that the Mas- ter knew perfectly well the intelligent, comprehen- sive character of that audience, and the importance, for his mission, that the truth in regard to himself as Deity, and his mission, should be truly and cer- tainly promulgated and known, then and there, as well as for all men in all time everywhere. Such knowledge and apprehension of the situation fur- 100 Miracle and Science nishes an explanation and reason for the very un- usual practice the Master adopted, and the turn or deflection he gave to the incident when the palsied man was placed before him. It was a course adopted by the Master, as the evidence shows, in order to develop and create " the issue," and so se- cure opportunity to prove to the audience then, and to all men through them, the great truth the deity of Jesus the Christ. With that assembly filling the house, and the multitude thronging and barring the doorways, Jesus within the house having com- menced his discourse, or as Luke says " teaching," four friends of " a man that was palsied " brought him to be presented to Jesus to be healed. The dense crowd at all portals of the house prevented bringing the palsied man into the house by usual entrances. Therefore the four men took the pal- sied man to the roof of the house, and, removing some of the covering, " let him down through the tiles with his couch into the midst before Jesus" (Luke 5:19). This extraordinary, perhaps audacious, inter- ruption of the public meeting and discourse must be noticed, for it inevitably drew the immediate and intense attention of all. What was thus done gave the Master opportunity to improve the inci- Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 101 dent and situation by teaching lessons in innumera- ble ways. But all those various ways of improving the incident were in the hands and control, and available at the discretion, of the Master, to be adopted as he saw fit. The palsied man had been brought to Jesus to be healed. His four friends and the palsied man ardently desired that blessing. The audience knew that, and expected the healing. Jesus knew that also. In view of the usual practice of the Master in such cases, the natural thing, the ordinary thing, the expected thing, was that Jesus would lay his hand on the palsied man, or speak the fiat word, and heal him. Jesus did neither. He simply said, " Man, thy sins are forgiven," and let the sufferer lie on his couch, unhealed, sick, pal- sied. That was not what the palsied man sought, nor what his four friends had exercised such extra- ordinary effort to secure. Jesus left them and the audience disappointed. It must have excited the deepest interest, and drawn earnest attention of all present to what followed. The perfect goodness of Christ, and the doctrine to proving which he turned the transaction in the outcome, compel the conclusion that the Master purposely did not at first heal the palsied man, but said, " Thy sins are forgiven," for the purpose of 102 Miracle and Science evolving the " issue," and leading the thoughts of those present to the great matter he intended then and there to prove for that audience, and through them for all men — his divinity. Christ's assertion later of his divinity, and power on earth to forgive sins, is proof that he exercised, and intended to be understood as exercising, the prerogative of Deity when he declared the palsied man's sins forgiven. Hence the learned doctors of the law, the scribes, and educated Pharisees were not wrong, not mis- taken even, in concluding that Jesus did claim to exercise, and meant to be understood as himself exercising, his own power when he announced the man's sins forgiven. Here the transaction halted. BLASPHEMY CHARGED AGAINST JESUS After sufficient time had elapsed for the strange and unexpected turn the Master had given to the transaction and its significance to take shape in the thoughts of those present familiar with the law of their Scriptures, their thoughts became: Here is blasphemy. This Jesus, a mere man, is guilty of blasphemy. " Who can forgive sins, but God alone? " That this objection was candid, not merely captious, is indicated by the fact that there was no reproof or reproach by the Master, but it was dealt with by him as a wise teacher would deal with Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 103 attentive, earnest students. Instead of reproach, Jesus referred to what they ' reasoned in their hearts/ That reasoning immediately and inevita- bly raised and involved " the issue," the deity of Jesus. As Jesus immediately dealt with the mat- ter on that exact issue " which he had purposely created, and did not attempt to turn the thought otherwise, we must conclude that that " issue " was exactly the outcome the Master intended should be raised, by saying he forgave the palsied man's sins at first, instead of curing his palsy. Although there are not in the record express formal or technical pleadings, the facts and lan- guage used, and the proceedings that took place, and the results involve the elements of a judicial proceeding. Examining the record by the rules of evidence, and terms of enlightened jurisprudence, enables us to see the evolution of the truth which the Master then and there established. The charge in the thought of the accusers of Jesus was blas- phemy, as in John 10 :33, where the Jews said to Jesus, they would stone him "for blasphemy; be- cause that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." The allegations of the objections constituting the charge of blasphemy are seen, when formulated, to be three: 1. That Jesus had publicly formally ar- 104 Miracle and Science rogated to himself power to forgive a man's sins, and had averred the forgiveness was consum- mated; 2. That God alone could forgive sins; 3. That Jesus was only a man, not Deity. Hence the legal conclusion that Jesus was guilty of the crime of blasphemy. Those three allegations of the accusers of Jesus, tendered, and the situation log- ically required that Jesus take issue or deny each of these allegations unless he would admit them to be true. By legal principles constituting rules of evi- dence, unless denied, each of these allegations, ju- dicially regarded, must as to that transaction stand admitted. The record shows that Jesus did not deny or controvert either the first or the second allegation. The result therefore admitted: 1. That Jesus had claimed and asserted that he had himself, exercis- ing his own power in very truth, forgiven the man's sins; 2. That God alone had power to for- give sins. But on the third allegation Jesus assert- ed indubitably, in effect, that he was Deity, and had in fact exercised on earth the prerogative of Deity. That condition presented legally and logically an actual issue between Jesus and his accusers. The proceeding was held in suspense until the " issue " was formed, made available. Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 105 THE " ISSUE " — DEITY OF JESUS The issue was distinct, viz. that Jesus was Deity ; a proposition denied by his accusers, affirmed by the Master. It was an issue of fact; hence, was an issue to be tried, proved or disproved, by evidence to be produced. The record shows the Master took upon himself the affirmative, i.e. insisted that he had power and right in himself to forgive sins. If that affirmative proposition should be proved, it would in its turn be the evidentiary fact that proved that Jesus, " the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," is Deity. All this inheres in what is set forth in the record. The Master himself describes the " issue " as a question of power. He says he will introduce con- clusive evidence, that which gives knowledge evi- dence, by which " ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." That " power " was the prerogative of Deity alone. Je- sus contrasts the " power " to forgive sins with the " power " to work miracles of healing. Miracle power and power to forgive sins are alike preroga- tives of Deity. Each being prerogative power which Deity exerts at will, each is equally easy. Jesus' question, therefore, " Which is easier," to execute the fiat Thy sins are forgiven, or to exe- 106 Miracle and Science cute the fiat Arise healed, answers itself; namely, each fiat is the prerogative of Deity, and each easy alike. Jesus had already issued his fiat, and absolved the sins of the palsied man. That act of Deity, Jesus had in fact performed. But, as so well said by Dr. Taylor, " from the nature of the case, the forgiveness of sins is a divine act in the spiritual sphere, the reality of which cannot be tested by merely human observation. One may declare to another that his sins are pardoned, and no earthly investigation can determine whether he is speaking the truth, for the transaction is in a department beyond the possi- bility of human investigation. Forgiveness is the act of God on the conscience of the sinner, a spirit- ual exercise in a purely spiritual sphere." * In effect, Jesus said, ' You do not know that I have in very truth absolved the sins of the palsied man, and so do not know I have in fact performed what God alone can perform, and which demon- strates that I am Deity, because your human limi- tations are such that you cannot scrutinize, exam- ine, or test the evidence of the fact of forgiveness. I will now perform another prerogative of Deity, a miracle of instantaneous healing of the palsied 1 Taylor, Miracles of our Saviour, p. 127. Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 107 man, by my fiat, an act which you can by your hu- man power scan, scrutinize, and know to be verity. You see the man evidently a neighbor to the dwell- ers in Capernaum, for, when healed, he took up the couch himself and went to his own house. You see this person, a helpless, palsied man; that is a fact you already know.' Further the Master's proposition was : ' In your presence I will issue over the palsied man my fiat, "Arise, and take up thy couch and go to thine house." These words you can hear and observe, and know I speak them when I do so. If, at my fiat, the palsied man immediately arises and de- monstrates he is cured, by himself taking up his couch and departing to his house, that too you can observe and know it as it occurs. If, therefore, these things occur, and you see, hear, and know them as facts by your human senses, open to your scrutiny and inspection, as they occur, you will know that I have in myself, and in your presence, exercised the prerogative of God. The paradox will be proved, namely, that I, a man living in your midst, born of a woman, am also Deity, God Incar- nate/ Therefore, having adequately stated to the au- dience the " issue " to be proved — in legal phrase, 108 Miracle and Science opened the case to the tribunal for trial, and brought the very essence of the " issue " as to his power and authority as Deity clearly and plainly to the attention of the accusers and the whole audi- ence — Jesus addressed the palsied man, lying on his couch before Jesus in the midst of the assem- bly-, and issued his fiat, saying : "I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house." Notice the ego, I say. Instantly, in the presence of all, the palsied man " rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and depart- ed to his own house, glorifying God." Jesus' fiat was in the first person. He did not act in the name of another. The proposition denied by his accus- ers but affirmed by Jesus (that Jesus had in himself the prerogatives of Deity and was Deity) was con- clusively proved by autoptic evidence ; viz. the ac- tual performance by Jesus of the prerogative of Deity in this miracle of instantaneous healing, wrought publicly by Jesus by his personal fiat for the express purpose of proving his divinity. This he did in the immediate presence, observation, and scrutiny of his accusers and the multitude which then constituted the tribunal, that they might then and there decide for themselves, as we must now for ourselves, upon the evidence. The evidence was by Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 109 miracle, the testimony of God, wrought by Jesus as himself Incarnate Deity, having inherent in himself the prerogatives of Deity, — power and authority as Deity to (1) perform miracles, and (2) forgive sins. The proof was like the proof of the truth of a mathematical problem, which is designated dem- onstration. THE VERDICT The tribunal, the audience, not excepting the doctors of the law or the learned, immediately pronounced their verdict. The result of the evi- dence and the verdict are found: "And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to- day " (Luke 5: 26). The effect of the evidence on the audience is described as threefold: 1. They were amazed; 2. They glorified God; 3. They were filled with fear. In the Greek it is " filled full," a plethora of fear. The mere miracle of healing does not account for the " amazement," nor for the extraordinary " fear " or " awe," for many such miracles had before been wrought by Jesus in that same city of Capernaum (Matt. 8: 2- 4, 5, 16; Mark 1:21-26; Luke 4:31, 33, 38). The fame of former miracles wrought by Jesus at Capernaum had reached Nazareth; for, when 110 Miracle and Science Jesus preached there, he said to the Nazarenes, 'You wish me to perform miracles, such as you learn I have wrought at Capernaum.' Something other and different from a miracle of healing is required to account for the amazement and awe that was produced by the transaction with the palsied man. When the situation and facts are duly considered, their awe and amazement are explained. Here, for the first time, our Master brings miracle into the field of view and action, to be employed as evidence, to prove specific fact — in this case, the specific fact of the deity of Jesus, i.e. to maintain " the issue " on that question, which issue the doctors of the law, scribes, and Pharisees had themselves caused by alleging the non-divinity of Jesus. When the issue they had thus participated in creating was proved against them, in their immediate presence, by the miracle, whose function as such proof on that issue Jesus had predeclared, and they realized that Deity, in the person of Jesus, stood in their midst, wield- ing omnipotent and prerogative powers of God, they were awe-struck, astounded. They confessed the reason of their awe and astonishment by the Greek word they used in their verdict, namely, " We have seen irapdho^a to-day." It should have been trans- literated paradox. In view of the transcendent im- Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 111 portance of the transaction, the translation we have in the common version, " We have seen strange things to-day," seems pitiably weak and unfortu- nate, quite missing the force and concept of the original. The verdict when truly translated* fur- nishes the cause and explanation of the amaze- ment, awe, and fear. Literally the verdict is : ' We have seen (irapd- 8oi~a) paradox this day.' A paradox is something which apparently contradicts some ascertained truth, but which, when duly investigated, is found to be true ( Cent. Diet. ) . An apparent improbability is when verified the surest witness to the truth. The verdict in Mark, though not so full, is ex- traordinary. Literally, ' We have not at any time seen thus.' What transpired was something over, above, and beyond any former miracle; and that was what produced amazement, fear, awe, and is described as paradox. Jesus, a being in human flesh and blood, living and being with and among men; born of a woman; a human physical organi- zation; subject to hunger, weariness, joy, sorrow; requiring sleep when exhausted; and yet demon- strating, in the transaction, that he exercised the prerogative of God, power to forgive sin — Jesus, 112 Miracle and Science at once man and God, God-man, was a paradox. The sense of God, holy, then and there in their midst in human form wielding prerogative power of God, created in the mind of devout Jews awe and amazement. It was a paradox. Jesus, appar- ently a mere man, had proved by evidence openly to men that he was Deity by performing the preroga- tives of Deity; (1) by his fiat forgiving sin, and (2) by his fiat healing a palsy. DEITY OF JESUS CONFIRMED Divine confirmation of the deity of Jesus, as shown by the record, seems worthy of note in this connection. If Jesus was not Deity, but merely man, he was clearly guilty of blasphemy in the above transaction, and incurred condemnation of God and punishment for the guilt, as in the case of Moses, who inferentially joined himself, as miracle- worker with God, by the pronoun " we," in draw- ing water from the rock at Meribah, for which blas- phemy God's judgment excluded Moses from the Promised Land. After nearly forty years of subse- quent faithful service, Moses, deeply repentant, prayed the punishment might be remitted, but In- finite Wisdom decided it could not be condoned. God gave answer to Moses' prayer : " Let it suffice Miracle and Doctrine — Deity of Jesus 113 thee ; speak no more unto me of this matter " (Deut. 3:26), and strictly enforced the penalty. But Jesus claimed power personal to himself to raise the dead of all the ages at the last day (John 5 :28, 29), to give eternal life to men (John 10 :28) ; he publicly persisted in making himself equal with God, until the people repeatedly charged him with blasphemy therefor (John 4:11 and 10:16); and claimed he exercised his personal supernatural power in forgiving sin and healing disease by his personal fiat in dealing with the palsied man at Ca- pernaum. Yet, in view of all this, God Omniscient, cognizant of all and contemplating the whole earth- ly course of Jesus, his claims, acts, and teachings, and speaking on the Mount of Transfiguration, pro- claimed of Jesus, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matt. 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35; 2 Pet. 1:17). It was express confirmation, ratification, and approval of all Jesus had claimed, and done, and taught, — confirmation, ratification, and approval to men, by the Almighty, of the deity of Jesus. CHAPTER VI MIRACLE AND DOCTRINE— JEHOVAH " He left not himself without witness." Acts 14 : 17. " He established a testimony in Jacob. . . . His Signs in Egypt, and his Wonders in the field of Zoan." Psalm 7S. Section I SCOPE OF PROPOSED INQUIRY The miracles of the Exodus involve fundamental doctrines regarding Jehovah, which are denied by- three classes: (1) Atheists deny the existence of God. (2) Agnostics deny the possibility of know- ing God or of making proof of his existence. 1 (3) Skeptics, although Deists or Theists, on the alleged hardening of Pharaoh's heart, deny the righteous- ness of God. These are denials of the Word of God, and denials of God as he is disclosed in his Word — Old and New Testaments — which word and disclosure of God constitute the body of faith, " once for all " delivered to the saints, which Chris- 1 "Agnosticism assumes a double incompetence — the incompetence not only of a man to know God but of God to make himself known. But the denial of competence is the negation of Deity, for the God who could not speak would not be rational, and the God who would not speak would not be moral." Principal Fairbairn, Place of Christ in Modern Theology, p. 386. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 115 tians believe, and which they are exhorted to con- tend for earnestly (Jude, ver. 3). Existence of God as fact is fundamental, necessarily primary, in theology and religion. Hence proof of the fact of the existence of God, evidence that establishes that proof, is correspondingly fundamental and impor- tant. No Christian life can commence or continue without genuine belief in God as living, existing in fact, and caring for his creatures : " He that Com- eth to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him " (Heb. 11: 6). But normal rational belief, in a hu- man soul, is produced by the power of evidence, and ought to be by evidence that the individual can test to know to be verity, and that he can under- stand and intelligently appropriate. It is common knowledge that professors and in- structors in theological schools teach that the ex- istence of God is established by a series of argu- ments designated " theistic proofs." As very briefly described by a theologian, these arguments " are derived from the necessity we are under of believing in the real existence of the in- finitely perfect Being," that grounds creating that condition are, namely, necessity (1) "of a suffi- cient cause of the contingent universe," (2) " of an 116 Miracle and Science intelligent author of the order and manifold con- trivances observable in nature," and (3) "of a law- giver and judge for dependent moral beings, en- dowed with the sense of duty and an ineradicable feeling of responsibility, conscious of the moral contradictions of the world, and craving a solution of them and living under an intuitive perception of right which they do not see realized." x Treatises that develop the arguments called " theistic proofs " of the existence of God, based, as they are, on the " necessities " just described, are monuments of vast learning, ripe scholarship, profound reasoning, and are of corresponding value, prized and honored by Christians. But it is obvious that a real, conscious sense of the existence of God, thus deduced from a series of arguments thus wrought out by erudite learning, profound metaphysical reasoning, based on grounds of ne- cessity, can be apprehended by but a few compara- tively of the millions of the race. The mass of men have neither the time, the ability, scholarship, or training, for such original and radical investiga- tion of the question of the existence of God as are by such arguments and reasoning wrought out as " theistic proofs." 1 B. B. Warfield, art. " God," Davis, Bible Diet. p. 252. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 117 Therefore if examination of God's Word by the rules, tests, and standards the science of jurispru- dence has instituted for evolving and establishing truth and fact from evidence shows that God has thereby provided proof of his existence and char- acter, by evidence simple, and such as the non- erudite man can readily comprehend; then such proof of God's existence and character ought to have our reverent respect, and be given its high place of honor in religion, literature, and the coun- sels of men. In view of these denials of atheists, agnostics, and skeptics, the question may be asked, Is there evidence available to men to-day, evidence ever given to men, evidence which ordinary men, using normal human powers, could scrutinize, test, un- derstand, and know to be verity, which then and which now, when tested by rules and standards of jural science, proves the existence of God? The inquiry may be more specific. Has the existence of God been proved as a fact, substantially as facts are proven in administering jurisprudence in courts of justice? The denials of those three classes of oppugners of the Word of God raise issues of fact which seem proper to be subjected to trial and determination 118 Miracle and Science by evidence, examined by the rules and standards of jural science and correct reasoning. We pro- pose such examination. For that purpose we have before us the several Pentateuchal as well as other books of the Bible, each of which is an Ancient Document. Their competency as evidence has been stated in a former chapter. Some preliminary matters first need consideration. We are to consider not only the proof of the ex- istence and supremacy of God, but also the alleged unrighteousness of Jehovah in dealing with Phar- aoh. When the moral quality of the act of an in- telligent being is impugned, jurisprudence requires that the time, situation, and conditions affecting the question involved, and also the purposes of the actor, be ascertained and clearly understood, be- fore condemning the act. Unrighteousness is pre- eminently a matter of religion, which, as generally apprehended, is defined, " Recognition and alle- giance in manner of life to a superhuman power or superhuman powers, to whom allegiance and ser- vice are regarded as justly due" (Cent. Diet.). STATE OF RELIGION — EXODUS ERA The record shows that, from a period shortly after the dispersion at Babel, the race of mankind Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 119 apostatized, and forgot God. Instead of recogniz- ing Jehovah, " the only true God," and observing allegiance to him, the whole world was full of con- ceptions of Deity, utterly false, manufactured by men. Those conceptions of Deity were not only false in origin, but false in purpose, because, being in fact mere figments of the imagination of men, they were palmed off upon the world, and accepted by the race as real, as true. In their conceptions such gods were only human, with unbridled lust, lying and selfish passions, destitute of purity, holi- ness, or righteousness. Every nation and every tribe had its separate god or gods, supposed to have supernatural and superhuman power to oper- ate through the air, the elements, through animals, insects, diseases, and innumerable agencies, to help promote, injure, or destroy men. National gods were each deemed a rival of gods of other nations or peoples. The situation furnished a good illustration of natural evolution. A concrete case may best illus- trate the then prevalent conception of gods. Syria remained unreformed in this respect in the time of Hezekiah. Rab-shakeh, Sennacherib's captain, de- manding the capitulation of Jerusalem, shouted to the people: 120 Miracle and Science " Hearken not to Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand ? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand ?" (2 Kings 18: 32-35, Am. Rev.). The king of Assyria had theretofore conquered Samaria and the Kingdom of Israel, removed the Israelites to Assyria, and colonized the conquered country, including Samaria, with men from Baby- lon, from Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim. The colonists suffered from a plague of lions, which was attributed to the failure of the colonists to fear the god of Israel. So the Assyrian mon- arch caused one of the Hebrew priests who had been carried away, to be returned to Samaria, who, it is said, taught the colonists how they should fear Jehovah (2 Kings 17:28). The Scripture is: " Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 121 Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak ; and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So ... . they feared Jehovah, and served their own gods, after the manner of the na- tions from among whom they had been carried away" (2 Kings 17:29-33, Am. Rev.). We may not affirm the specific rise of such con- ceptions of gods, but we know that, from remote record up to the Christian era, and since even, whenever a wonderful, supernatural, and superhu- man transaction has been, or believed to have been, wrought, men have spontaneously concluded the actor was a god. If the actor was not known, still the phenomenon was attributed to a god ; as witness the altar Paul found at Athens inscribed to "an unknown God " (Acts 17 : 23). When Paul with Barnabas, as God's agents, acted in healing the impotent man at Lystra, the people spontaneously " lifted up their voice, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," and proposed in very fact to offer sacrifice to them (Acts 14:11, 13). But, however originating, the conception of the gods thus set up was at best that of human beings of super- 122 Miracle and Science natural power, with all human passions unbridled, with consequent vices, but destitute of purity, holi- ness, or righteousness. Men worshiping such gods grew like unto them, and corrupted their moral na- ture accordingly. This debasement spread until the race seemed again as described when destroyed by the flood: "All flesh had corrupted their way upon earth" (Gen. 6:12). Such was the conception of God or gods, and the consequent condition of religion, throughout the world at the Exodus. Pharaoh and the Egyptians must be contemplated, with the rest, as imbued and dominated by those false conceptions of Deity or deities. The record discloses that, to meet and overcome that corrupt and deplorable condition of mankind, convert and bring men back in life, love, and obedience to Jehovah, was the purpose of God in the new dispensation, initiated in the call of Abraham some four centuries before the Exodus. We call it the Christian dispensation. The record discloses great purposes in that dispensation, to be wrought out in the Exodus in view of these condi- tions; among them, (1) to establish a testimony to prove to men by objective evidence the existence and supremacy of God in all the earth, and cognate truths; (2) perform His covenant with Abraham to Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 123 judge the nation that had for more than eighty years cruelly wronged Abraham's seed; and, (3) as incidental to that judgment, emancipate the He- brews as a step in promoting the Christian dispen- sation. These several objects cannot, without tedi- ous elaboration in considering the evidence, be kept entirely separate and distinct, because often items of evidence operate on more than one or on all the objects, nor can they be duly considered en- tirely unitedly. This may explain the medial course we propose, and we hope also will excuse, in a few instances, reexamination of any evidence found necessary in duly elucidating one or more ob- jects separately. As already indicated, the record shows that an avowed purpose of Jehovah in the Exodus was to prove to men, that he (Jehovah) exists and is su- preme, " the only true, God " ; that the Egyptian and world's conceptions of God were utterly false, and to prove those momentous facts by evidence just as any other matter of fact is proven to men, and to do this by evidence which men could exam- ine, scrutinize, and test by their normal human powers to be assured of its validity. The statement seems common, if not universal, heard from the pulpit and teachers, that the existence of God (Je- 124 Miracle and Science hovah) cannot be proved. We are aware also that agnostic scholars and philosophers of fame have affirmed the same, and further that, even if God exists, we cannot prove or know the fact or know Jehovah. But, as shown by the record, those things were precisely what was proposed to be proved, and were proved, by Jehovah's evidence in the Ex- odus. The guaranty of Jehovah is : " Is anything too hard for Jehovah? " (Gen. 18: 14) ; and " The things which are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27). Further purpose of Jehovah appears to have been that, in performing his promise to Abraham, that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed, its accomplishment was to be not solely in the advent, work, and mission of Christ. Also, that Jehovah's purpose of securing blessings, through the seed of Abraham, to all nations, should include men and women of that seed from Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and extending down through Joshua and the rest to Malachi; that by and through them Jehovah would commu- nicate truth, revealing himself, his will, plans, and purposes, in the administration of his kingdom in this and the future life; also, that those persons should record such communication in writing, so Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 125 that the whale should be preserved, "A lamp to the feet, and a light to the path," for all men for all times ; and that the whole should constitute a body of truth from God, that could be described by the Master as the " Word of God " as he did in his aforesaid prayer for his disciples, " Father, sanc- tify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth " (John 17:17). Further, and momentous in that record, Jehovah proposed that the evidence by which he should es- tablish his existence and supremacy should be reduced to writing, and preserved in that record forever for men, " in all the earth," even as it was done by Jehovah's recording prophet Moses, who participated in the production of that evidence, throughout not only the Exodus from Egypt, but all through the forty years, until the hosts of Israel were encamped on the plains of Moab in sight of Canaan. Also that Jehovah purposed in the Exo- dus, that the nation that should be born should fur- nish a national organization, a country and dwell- ing-place wherein his prophets and teachers might be raised up of the seed of Abram to be so inspired and endowed, and so work in promoting that new dispensation. In line with and emphasizing those purposes of Jehovah, and others expressly declared, 126 Miracle and Science was his prophecy and pledge, "Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment" (Ex. 12: 12). Section II DEITY — ATTRIBUTES PROVED The record shows that Jehovah announced ex- pressly, repeatedly, again and again, that he would testify and give such evidence of himself and his existence, supremacy, and character, that men should thereby not only believe, but realize and know, that he existed and was supreme. Jehovah also repeatedly announced his purpose, that the evi- dence and proof of his existence and supremacy should be so given and presented that it should be secured for " sons and son's sons," for future ages published and declared throughout the whole earth. All this, as the record shows, Jeho- vah proposed to accomplish, so to speak, juridi- cally, by employing the methods and procedure of jurisprudence, by miracle evidence; for those great purposes were to be accomplished by convincing Pharaoh and the Egyptians by that evidence that Jehovah existed and was supreme, and so secure their consent to obey him. The plan was unique. It seems to have been nothing less than conquering Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 127 a haughty king and stubborn people by convincing them against their will, by the cogent power of evidence. Of the issue between Jehovah and Pharaoh, the particular question of the supremacy of Jehovah over the gods of Egypt was first made prominent and brought to trial. We will examine the record in that order, although existence of Jehovah is in- evitably involved also. We have seen the spontaneous consensus of men to attribute a wonderful, supernatural, and super- human transaction to Deity. The record shows that the correlative of this is also true, viz. that, for a message purporting to come from Deity, there may reasonably be required by men, as ob- jective evidence, a miracle to authenticate the mes- sage. This was recognized by Jehovah as just. He anticipated that would be required by Pharaoh. Hence he instructed Moses, as already noted, that when he communicated Jehovah's command to Pharaoh to free the Hebrews, and Pharaoh should demand " Show a miracle for you" (Ex. 7:9), to authenticate the message and messengers, that Moses and Aaron should perform not only the mir- acle changing the rod to a serpent, but all the mir- acle power Jehovah had intrusted them to call into 128 Miracle and Science operation : " When thou goest back to Egypt, see that thou do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in thy hand " (Ex. 4: 21). Thereupon Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh, the sovereign of a great nation of, as it appears, 7,000,- 000 or more people, of an empire 500,000 miles in area — a nation advanced in civilization, arts, and science — holding 3,000,000 Hebrews as slaves. Moses as Jehovah's commissioner communicated his command to Pharaoh, that he let the Hebrew slaves go. Considered juridically, Jehovah was prosecutor in a contest planned and prescribed by Jehovah himself, with Pharaoh defendant in a con- test to be determined by evidence and its convincing power. The claim and demand of Jehovah, as Deity, Sovereign and Supreme, against Pharaoh was, " Let Israel go." Emancipate them. Pharaoh, as defendant, made answer to that claim and demand. His answer was, " Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken to his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover I will not let Israel go " (Ex. 5:2, Am. Rev.). In the language of jurispru- dence, this on Pharaoh's part was pleading " the general issue " ; that is, considered juridically, it constituted a denial that Jehovah existed, and de- Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 129 nial of any right in Jehovah, if he did exist, to com- mand Pharaoh to let his slaves go. We must contemplate the matter from Pharaoh's viewpoint. That was, that every nation and tribe had its own separate god, and that the god of the Hebrews, if they had one, was the god of Pha- raoh's slaves. Pharaoh denied Jehovah's existence, and refused Jehovah's demand. Pharaoh having denied the existence of Jehovah and his alleged right, the application of the rule of jurisprudence to the situation shows a clear " issue " raised as to the existence and supremacy of Jehovah — an issue proper to be tried and determined by evidence. That trial required, as the first step, that the mov- ing party (Jehovah demanding freedom for the Hebrews) should produce evidence to prove the is- sue on his part, that is, evidence to prove that he existed, — was • Jehovah God, Supreme and Sov- ereign " in all the earth," — and rightfully required obedience to his command. That was an issue involving supernatural and superhuman facts, to be determined and proved or disproved accordingly by evidence of the supernatural and superhuman. Further, although Pharaoh's contention did not in literal words demand, " Show a miracle for you," it did so in effect and by the rules and principles of 130 Miracle and Science jurisprudence; for Pharaoh's answer, in legal par- lance, put the opposite party, Jehovah, to his proof, viz. that he existed and was supreme. That called for evidence to prove the supernatural and super- human, and consequently called for miracle evi- dence to determine it ; miracle evidence by Jehovah to -maintain his claim, and permitting miracle evi- dence by Pharaoh, if any existed, to oppose Jeho- vah's claim. Therefore later, as commanded, Moses and Aaron appeared "before Pharaoh and before his servants" (officials of the empire), and gave evidence to maintain Jehovah's demand. Aaron cast down his rod and " it became a ser- pent " (Ex. 7:10). This was a wonderful and su- pernatural and superhuman transaction, a miracle, the testimony of Jehovah. It sustained " the issue " on the part of Jehovah. It met the contention of Pharaoh's answer and proved the issue against Pharaoh, if the matter stopped there. But, jurid- ically considered, when that evidence was intro- duced, two courses were open for Pharaoh, the defendant. He might (1) accept the proof, make no defense on his part, and confess judgment by emancipating the Hebrews; or (2) he might meet the miracle evidence Jehovah had given, by counter miracle evidence, if any such counter evidence was Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 131 attainable, i.e. by calling on the gods of Egypt to perform supernatural and superhuman wonders, to controvert the supremacy of Jehovah, the (to Pha- raoh) god merely of the Hebrews. The record shows Pharaoh chose the second course. He called Jannes and Jambres, as Paul discloses, 1 as representing the god or gods of Egypt, to perform countervailing wonders. The Hebrew word in Exodus 7 : 11 for the persons Pha- raoh called to testify is Chartumim, and the lexicons give its English equivalent, first, as " scribe," and after that " magician." The same word is found in Genesis 41 : 8, 24, where Pharaoh called on the same class of persons to interpret his dream fore- shadowing the seven years of plenty succeeded by seven years of famine, where, in the American Re- vision, the Revisers give " sacred scribes " as the rendering (see margin). They were a class of per- sons claiming to have been, and believed by the na- tions to be, in relation with their gods, and repre- senting their gods, as (to them and their concep- tions) Moses and Aaron represented Jehovah as God of the Hebrews. Young's Concordance gives " scribe " as the primary English rendering of the word. Clearly the situation and " the issue " in x 2 Tim. 3:8; Davis, Bible Diet. p. 339. 132 Miracle and Science contention between Jehovah and Pharaoh justify and rationally require that Jannes and Jambres be deemed " sacred scribes," or men representing the gods of Egypt, and not merely men skilled in tricks of dexterity or legerdemain. SACRED SCRIBES We must contemplate the proceeding as Pha- raoh did, imbued and swayed as he was by the uni- versal conception of his age, of rival gods. We must also contemplate Jehovah's purpose to teach and convince Pharaoh and the Egyptians the utter falsity of their conception of gods. Therefore, whether we now assume or believe that what was done by Jannes and Jambres was in fact merely trick and legerdemain, or whether we assume or believe that Jehovah, as he did in the case of Job, and as Christ did with the spirits named Legion in the case of the possessed man and the swine at Gadara, permitted Satan or some demon to exercise to some extent wonders under restriction and con- trol of Deity, — on either assumption or belief, the transaction was brought forward by Pharaoh as his miracle evidence, produced on his part to meet and countervail the miracle evidence of Jehovah as, in Pharaoh's conception, simply the god of the He- Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 133 brews, and to show Jehovah not superior to the gods of Egypt. Pharaoh was the sovereign of Egypt, and to Pharaoh the issue was an issue of contested miracle power between rival gods. The maxim of jurisprudence is, that when a transaction is as compatible with honesty as dishonesty, hon- esty is always preferred. 1 Hence conditions com- pel the conclusion that, in calling Jannes and Jam- bres, Pharaoh and his counselors acted candidly, and believed they were calling sacred scribes of the god or gods of Egypt, as Moses and Aaron were such scribes of the god of the Hebrews, and that the acts of Jannes and Jambres were not brought forward dishonestly by Pharaoh as mere tricks of dexterity to cheat and deceive the eyes of behold- ers. Other rules of jurisprudence support the same conclusion. These rules recognize and enforce grades of evidence, evidence of a higher and lower degree in character and value. An agreement re- duced to writing, signed, and sealed, is of a higher grade than oral testimony. For that reason, such sealed document cannot be disputed by oral testi- mony. Oral testimony is not competent to meet or deny such higher grade of evidence. So here miracle 1 Chapman v. Mclllwrath, 77 Mo. 38, 44. 134 Miracle and Science evidence could be met only by what was believed to be produced as miracle evidence. The dignity of Pha- raoh's office and the dignity and seriousness of the issue of supremacy, as Pharaoh and his people un- derstood it between the god of the Hebrews and the gods of Egypt, as Jehovah had himself planned the issue, requires us to conclude that the evidence Pharaoh produced was produced as being in his conception, and the conception of his people, evi- dence given by the gods of Egypt. It was plainly a principal purpose of Jehovah in the Exodus to refute and prove the falsity of that conception. It is only as Pharaoh and the Egyptians deemed Jan- nes and Jambres' acts wonders wrought by gods of Egypt that the false conceptions of king and peo- ple could be affected. Hence, when the rods of Jannes and Jambres, cast down, assumed the same appearance of serpents that Aaron's rod did, Je- hovah's case, considered juridically, was appar- ently met and countervailed by the evidence pro- duced by Pharaoh. Hence, if the trial had stopped there, the claim of superiority of Jehovah over the gods of Egypt would be held to have failed. The preponderance of evidence that the rule on that subject requires would be lacking. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 135 JUDGMENTS EXECUTED AGAINST THE GODS OF EGYPT But, by the rules of jurisprudence, Jehovah, as prosecutor or moving party, had the right to pro- duce evidence to rebut that produced by Pharaoh. That was done by the new miracle of Jehovah, when Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of Jannes and Jambres (Ex. 7:12). So here, at the begin- ning of the trial of the existence and supremacy of Jehovah, he " executed judgment against the gods of Egypt." Following this were the miracles of Jehovah changing waters of Egypt to blood and bringing a plague of frogs upon Egypt. Again, like results at Pharaoh's order were at least apparently wrought by Jannes and Jambres. What Jannes and Jambres did was put forward as wrought by the god or gods of Egypt to meet and confute the evidence of Jehovah. Here again, by the rational rule of jurisprudence, unless met by rebutting evi- dence of Jehovah, holding the affirmative of the is- sue, the case of Jehovah would fail. When Pharaoh could get no relief from the plague of frogs from the gods of Egypt, he called Moses and Aaron, and besought them to entreat Jehovah to remove the plague of frogs. Moses in 136 Miracle and Science reply took a step which made the next miracle of Jehovah to be express evidence of supremacy and also of his existence. For Moses proposed to Pharaoh that he fix a definite time at which Jeho- vah by his miracle should remove the plague of frogs. Pharaoh named " to-morrow." Moses' re- ply was, "Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto Jehovah " (Ex. 8:10). On Moses' prayer "Jehovah did ac- cording to the word of Moses," and removed the plague (Ex. 8:13). Here again Jehovah "exe- cuted judgment against the gods of Egypt." But when Pharaoh saw there was respite, he hardened (strengthened) his heart and refused to let Israel go (Ex. 8:15). Thereupon Jehovah wrought the miracle of a plague of lice upon men and beasts of Egypt. Pharaoh attempted to meet this miracle evidence, by like evidence by the gods of Egypt, but such evidence could not be obtained. Jannes and Jam- bres, believed by Pharaoh to be servants of the gods of Egypt, confessed that such evidence could not be produced, and expressly acknowledged, "This is the finger of God" (Ex. 8:19). Here again Jehovah " executed judgment against the gods of Egypt." Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 137 All the miracles wrought upon the Egyptians by Jehovah at the Exodus in effect constituted judg- ments executed against the gods of Egypt. But we notice one more that is express, the miracle of boils. It caused Pharaoh to call again on the gods of Egypt to protect Egyptians against Jehovah's " miracle of boils " ; but the record is, " The magic- ians [sacred scribes] could not stand before Moses, because of the boils ; for the boils were upon the " men representing the Egyptian gods (Ex. 9: 11) ; and here again Jehovah " executed judgment against the gods of Egypt." It is recorded that Jethro visited Moses his son- in-law after the emancipation of the Hebrews. Moses recounted to Jethro all that Jehovah had done in the miracles in Egypt. Jethro's verdict on that evidence was : " Blessed be Jehovah, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh ; who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods ; yea, in the thing wherein they dealt proudly against them." Jehovah executed judgment against " all gods " as gods of nations and peoples as nations and peoples conceived such gods at that time. 138 Miracle and Science Section III EXISTENCE OF GOD The contention of agnostics is that the existence of God cannot be proved by evidence. But that seems plainly what the record shows Jehovah pro- posed to do, and did do, by his miracle evidence at the Exodus, as already mentioned and shown indi- rectly. The " issue " Pharaoh made by his denial is stated ante (p. 128). We propose to examine the evidence on that issue, specifically, by the rules of jurisprudence. Proof of the existence of Jehovah began at the Burning Bush, the initial communication of God to Moses. That communication deserves careful and discriminating attention, because the record shows that Jehovah, then and there, with peculiar elabora- tion and detail, communicated a conception of him- self to Moses, so that Moses could thereafter truly represent Jehovah to men, especially in the Exodus, as he did as God's ambassador and spokesman, in giving Jehovah's words to Pharaoh and the Egyp- tians. Moses' memory of his fiasco, forty years be- fore, when he vainly tried to induce his brethren to believe he was then called by Jehovah to de- liver them, as heretofore noted, may have inspired Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 139 the particular question by which Moses asked the name of God. God answered, " I am that I am," and directed Moses to say to the people, " I am hath sent me " (Ex. 3 : 14). The expression " I am/' in its plain, simple import, stands for the concept of " existence," — I am, I exist. The Hebrew word translated " I am " is 'ehyeh, identical in root derivation with yahve or Jehovah, — Jehovah meaning " the existing one." In essence and substance, as scholars announce, 'ehyeh is, " He who in the absolute sense exists, and who manifests his existence." * Jehovah existing in fact is the essential content of the language. A mir- acle becomes proof of any fact or truth when it is wrought professedly to attest such fact or truth. Hence, to make a miracle such proof, the purpose for which it is wrought is predeclared, or predeter- mined, and such prestatement communicated to the persons to be affected by, or the tribunal to act on, the evidence. SPECIFIC PROOF Applying rules and principles of jurisprudence to the evidence, we find that the predeclared pur- pose in ten, at least, of the miracles wrought in Egypt, as announced by Jehovah himself in the first 1 Davis, art. "Jehovah," Bible Diet. 140 Miracle and Science person through Moses, was to prove his existence as fact — to men as facts are usually proved by evidence — and to prove that fact so that both Hebrews and Egyptians should be fully convinced, and in fact should know, that God exists, and that they should know him as Supreme, as Deity. To the Hebrews : Jehovah announced he would eman- cipate the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage by his miracles — " an outstretched arm, and with great judgments," whereby " ye shall know that I am Jehovah" (Ex. 6:6, 7). The miracles were wrought accordingly, the Hebrews emancipated, and God's existence was thereby proved as fact to the Hebrews. To Pharaoh and the Egyptians: 1. The first miracle of the Exodus whose pur- pose and function as evidence was particularly pre- declared to be to prove to the Egyptians the existence of God, was that of changing the waters of Egypt to blood (Ex. 7: 17). Stating that trans- action with some fullness will suffice as to formal statements in the other instances. Embodying the conception of God as given to Moses at the Burning Bush, the function prede- clared to Pharaoh of that miracle turning water of Egypt to blood was, " In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah " — 'ehyeh — this in connection Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 141 with Jehovah's revelation of himself to Moses at the Burning Bush was : 'ehyeh " who in the abso- lute sense exists, and who manifests his existence and his character." The miracle was wrought ac- cording to its professed and declared purpose, and it established the truth it was professedly wrought to prove, namely, the existence of God, Jehovah. 2. In connection with the second miracle proof of the existence of Jehovah, when the plague of frogs became a scourge, as already noted, and Pharaoh could get no relief from the gods of Egypt, he called for Moses and Aaron and said, " Entreat Jehovah, that he take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go" (Ex. 8:8). This prayer was com- plied with, and the new miracle, wrought in re- sponse, was added proof that Jehovah existed, and, as heretofore stated, proved the existence and supremacy of Jehovah as fact by autoptic evidence, i.e. evidence of Jehovah immediately without the intervention of witnesses (see p. 74). It was evidence which only God could give; and, being given pursuant to its predeclared purpose to prove existence of God to the immediate senses of the Egyptians, it proved Jehovah existed and was then and there acting in the matter. 142 Miracle and Science 3. The third miracle proof of the existence and supremacy of Jehovah was the plague of lice (Ex. 8:16-19). Its function and force as evidence is stated in the verdict of Pharaoh's people, " This is the finger of God" (Ex. 8 : 16, 19), i. e. that the miracle was wrought by the hand of God, then and -there actually living and acting in the matter, and proved his existence and supremacy. 4. The fourth miracle proof of God's existence was the plague of flies. To emphasize the proba- tive function of the miracle, as to both the existence of God and his supremacy, Jehovah predeclared not only the probative purpose of the miracle of swarms of flies, that roam freely in the aerial re- gions, but declared through Moses, " I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there ; to the end thou mayest know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth." The miracle plague was wrought, flies afflicted all Egypt, excepting the land of Goshen, and proved the existence of Jehovah, the predeclared and professed purpose for which the miracle was wrought (Ex. 8:21, 22, 24). 5. The fifth miracle was a like divided or dis- criminating miracle, proof of God's existence and supremacy, namely, disease, a murrain upon the Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 143 beasts of Egypt, inflicted as predeclared. The mir- acle was wrought accordingly, and the cattle of Egypt died, "And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israel- ites dead" (Ex. 9 : 2, 3, 6, 7). It established the fact which it was wrought to prove, the existence in fact of Jehovah. 6. The sixth miracle evidence was predeclared disease, a boil breaking forth upon man and upon beast. It proved Jehovah's existence and superi- ority over the gods of Egypt as admitted by the Egyptians, for the sacred scribes, representing Egyptian gods, were helpless, could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were upon them (Ex. 9:8, 9, 11). 7. The seventh miracle plague of hail and light- ning was made God's testimony by predeclaration that it should be wrought the next day for the pur- pose of proving Jehovah's existence and supremacy, "that thou [Pharaoh] mayest know there is none like me in all the earth " (Ex. 9 : 14). The miracle was again divided and did not harm the Israelites. Pharaoh could get no relief through the gods of Egypt, and again sent for Moses and Aaron, and confessed, " I have sinned this time : Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 144 Miracle and Science Entreat Jehovah; for there hath been enough of these mighty thunderings [marg. " voice of God "] and hail; and I will let you go." Moses, as Jeho- vah's agent, said he would go out of the city, and then would petition Jehovah that the thunders should cease and there be no more hail, " that thou .[Pharaoh] mayest know that the earth is Jeho- vah's." The miracle was wrought accordingly and proved the proposition (Ex. 9 : 27-29, 33). 8. The eighth miracle evidence was the plague of locusts. The gods of Egypt believed in by the Egyptians could give no deliverance. The evidence convinced Pharaoh of the fact that Jehovah ex- isted, and he confessed to Moses and Aaron, " I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God, that he may take away from me this death only " (Ex. 10:4, 16, 17, 18). This was done, and the new miracle evidence intensified the proof that Jehovah existed, and acted then and there. 9. The ninth miracle evidence was the prede- clared plague of darkness, that was felt for three days in Egypt, " but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings" (Ex. 10:21-23). It proved Jehovah existing and acting. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 145 summary — jehovah's existence proved All through these instances of miracle evidence, the personality as well as the existence of Jehovah is constantly in proof. Jehovah exists, and is acting in every miracle. Jehovah constantly speaks in the first person and in present time, in predeclaring the miracle and its function and purpose, i. e. as his testimony to prove his existence and his su- premacy. The miracles were wrought according to the prediction, and professedly to prove the transcendent truths the existence of God and the supremacy of God. The factum probans, or evidentiary facts, consti- tuting the miracle in each case to establish the factum probandum, or fact to be established or proved — the existence of Jehovah and his suprem- acy — were simple. Each evidentiary fact or item of evidence was easily understood, entirely amenable to scrutiny and tests by normal powers of ordinary men, whereby they might be assured of the verity of the evidence. The record shows no dealing with Pharaoh's heart until after the harmless miracle of changing the rod to a serpent and his rejection of that proof. As the predeclared miracles of Jehovah succeeded each other, the Egyptians knew the fact — knew the waters of their river were changed to 146 Miracle and Science blood, for they could not drink it — the fish died and the river stank — the frogs swarmed into their bed-chambers, into their ovens and kneading- troughs ; they knew the flies corrupted their land ; they knew lice, boils and blains were, as foretold, inflicted upon their sacred scribes; they knew murrain destroyed their cattle, hail destroyed their crops, and locusts devoured them, and men remained each in his place three days of darkness that was realized with horror. The people knew those predeclared facts, which were personally addressed to their immediate physical senses and apprehension. When the plague of locusts was predicted the people said to Pharaoh, " Let the men go ... . knowest thou not yet that Egypt is de- stroyed ?" (Ex. 10:7). The testimony of God's miracles was pressed and inflicted on the attention of Pharaoh and the Egyptians until they could neither disregard it, obviate it, or flee from it, or in any way escape from its presence, its persistence, its meaning, or its con- vincing potency. Against their will, against their pride, and against what they deemed their pecuni- ary interest, the evidence of God by the miracles compelled attention and produced conviction in Pharaoh and the whole nation, and compelled them Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 147 not only to believe, but, as Jehovah over and over again declared they should, they were made to know Jehovah existed — was acting and was su- preme. They confessed it in express words, and indisputably by their deeds, in surrendering the enormous wealth of that age of services of 3,000,000 slaves, after an additional miracle, to be examined in another connection. The existence and supremacy of Jehovah were indubitably proved as facts by that evidence, as Moses said later in a great oration, " Our enemies themselves being judges" (Deut. 32:31). Section IV PERPETUATING EVIDENCE Another rule and principle of jurisprudence should be noticed in connection with the evident purpose of Jehovah in the miracle evidence he gave of his existence and supremacy at the Exodus. It is this : When any fact or truth may be proved by evidence, and may or will affect persons or people in the future (persons or people it may be not yet born), jural science provides that, on public notice being given, the evidence may be produced, put in written form, denominated deposition, and then 148 Miracle and Science committed to proper custody to be evidence of those facts or truths forever thereafter, whenever any person or people may be interested in or affect- ed by that evidence. In human affairs it is called " perpetuating testimony." 1 Here, in giving the miracle evidence we, have been examining, public notice that God's testimony by the miracles would be given was served with earnest warning and given to a whole nation as the evidence progressed — given in such terms and effect that it could not be ignored — given at the seat of government of the nation, at the palace of Pharaoh, to king and to counselors on whom rested the official duty to prevent error or aught of anything that was wrong in the evidence. In each instance the evidence was given as notified. Thereupon God's agent and prophet Moses, as required by Jehovah, reduced the evidence to writ- ing as part of the word of God. The preservation of facts and evidence by writing which pervades the Pentateuch from the fundamental law on tables of stone " written by the finger of God," to the itin- erary of their journey from Egypt which " Moses wrote .... by the command of God," carries con- viction that God's command to Moses to preserve 1 S Blackstone, Com. 450. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 149 for " sons and son's sons " — future generations — the evidence of the miracles God wrought' in the Exodus required Moses to do so in writing in a book or scroll as God expressly commanded Moses in regard to that relatively unimportant matter of Amalek, " Write this for a memorial in a book," or "the book" (Ex. 17:14, Am. Rev. marg.). Speaking reverently, but juridically, that evidence of the existence of Jehovah was the deposition of Jehovah himself, proving then and proving now the fact, as fact, by legitimate and conclusive evi- dence, produced therefor on due issue and actual contest, the existence and supremacy of Jehovah, and proving it to all men everywhere throughout the world, to the end of time ; for a proposition once duly proved is forever proved. That inestimable proof could not be made or given by other than Jehovah himself. It was Supernatural and Super- human Evidence, given to prove Supernatural and Superhuman facts, the Existence and Supremacy of God. CUSTODY OF THE EVIDENCE That deposition — deposit of truth — as a docu- ment was committed to the custody of the Hebrew Church, and the Church of Christ since its institu- tion; and in that custody it remains. It should be 150 Miracle and Science deemed, as the fact is, proved " once for all." That great and Ancient Document — the book of Exodus — is to-day, as shown by extended examinations of the law on the subject in a former chapter, com- petent evidence, by the rules and laws of jurispru- dence, as an Ancient Document, to prove the, facts narrated in it. It is the testimony of God, gracious- ly given to men, once for all, on a scale of magni- tude appropriate for the great truths thereby proved, the existence of God and his supremacy, proved in an actual controversy, in a real contest, which Jehovah himself formulated and employed to be tried and proved by his miracle evidence; an issue between Jehovah and a great nation and its king, which involved the emancipation from slavery of 3,000,000 human beings, and the making of a na- tion formed from that emancipated people. The transcendent and inestimable value and importance of that proof was noticed at the beginning of the examination of this part of our subject. Tested by the rules and standards of science, these mighty purposes of God in the Exodus were accomplished by the evidence he gave by his mir- acle object-lessons; viz. 1. God's existence and supremacy as facts, proved to men, by evidence, as facts are proved to Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 151 men in administering the science of jurisprudence in courts of justice. 2. Those proofs were written in the record of the Word of God. 3. The record was committed to and has con- tinued in proper and adequate custody established in the Exodus and in the Church of Christ since it was founded to the present time. 4. By all these the Name, Character, and Su- premacy of Jehovah " the only true God " were, have been, and still are constantly " declared " more and more " throughout all the earth." The profound importance in religion and the- ology of these truths, proved and established by the evidence of Jehovah at the Exodus, we have al- ready noted for reasons then briefly stated. But the preservation of that evidence and that proof in writing embraced in the Word of God deserves special notice in estimating the importance of that evidence and proof. Before the Exodus, evidence and proof of those great truths given to Adam, Enoch, Noah, and other servants of Jehovah (so far as appears) existed in oral tradition. In contrast to even carefully preserved oral tradition, the record shows that, at the Exodus, those truths were wrought out purposely and formally as the 152 Miracle and Science evidence established them, so that the proof of those truths might be recorded and surely preserved, and truly promulgated throughout all the earth. To this should be added Jehovah's special com- mand, given through Moses to the Hebrews, to stand by and adhere to that evidence and those proofs which Jehovah had thus made of his exist- ence, supremacy, and character at the Exodus, including the decalogue spoken by Jehovah per- sonally and audibly to all the people at Sinai : " If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the won- der come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams ; for Jehovah your God proveth you, to know whether ye love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death ; because he hath spoken rebel- lion against Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, to draw thee aside out of the Miracle and Doctrine — - Jehovah 153 way which Jehovah thy God commanded thee to walk in " (Deut. 13 : 1-5, Am. Rev. ; see, too, the exhortation of Christ to the same effect in Matt. 21:24; Mark 13:22). In view of the whole situation, that command and exhortation of Jehovah seems basal, and to plainly proceed upon the proposition that at the Ex- odus those great fundamental truths the existence of God and the supremacy of God, he purposely, formally, fully, and conclusively proved to stand embraced within the doctrine of aira};, " once for all," the doctrine that transactions or truths that are basic, fundamental, primary, in religion, when once accomplished or established, and record thereof made, are not to be, or need not be, repeated. This doctrine is illustrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the imperfection of human priests and their sacrifices is contrasted with the perfection of Christ as high priest, " who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people ; for this he did (avraf) once for all" (Heb. 7:23-28). Again, contrasting Christ's offices and sacrifice with the tabernacle sacrifices, the record is, Christ, " through his own blood, entered (a7raf ) once for all into the 154 Miracle and Science holy place, having obtained eternal redemption " (Heb. 9:11, 12, Am. Rev.). Again, in further contrast, " But now (aira^) once [for all] at the end of the ages hath he [Christ] been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself " (Heb. 9 : 23- 26, Am. Rev.). Again, connecting Christ's sacri- fice with the Old Testament Scriptures, the record is, " We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ (aira%) once for all" (Heb. 10:5, 10, Am. Rev.). Christ's express teaching is, he came not to de- stroy the law : "I came not to destroy but to fulfil " (Matt. 5:17, 18). Christ's work in fulfilling the Old Testament Word of God is pictured and pre- served to men in the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation, supplementing the Old Testament, the whole constituting the Manual of Christianity, what believers from the first have agreed in calling " the Faith," because the cardinal virtue in the system is faith, and because, for men, all depends on faith. But, even in the times of the apostles, men had crept into Christ's Church claiming to be godly men, but whose teachings tended to sap the very founda- tions of truth. Jude tells us that, upon reflecting carefully upon what he should communicate to dis- ciples in view of that defection and evil attempted Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 155 against the Christian religion, he was constrained to write and exhort believers " to contend earnestly for the faith which was (aira^) once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude, ver. 3, Am. Rev.). Addi- tional illustrations of the doctrine are: " Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died unto sin (aTraf ) once for all " (Rom. 6 : 9, 10, Am. Rev. margin). " Because Christ also suffered for sins (aira^) once [for all], the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God " (1 Pet. 3 : 18). That great purpose of God in the Exodus — proof of his existence and supremacy having been thus in- dubitably given by Jehovah himself openly before the world on a scale of commanding magnitude, be- fore and upon two nations, by his prerogative mi- racle evidence, profoundly affecting every house- hold, every family, and every one of 10,000,000 people throughout one of the great and foremost empires then in the world, preserved to be promul- gated throughout all the earth in the very nature of the case and on rational grounds the proof from a human point of view — is also within the doc- trine of (aWf ) " once for all." 156 Miracle and Science Section V RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JEHOVAH DENIED BY SKEPTICS Christians contend that " the judgments of Jeho- vah are true and righteous altogether " (Ps. 19 : 9). Skeptics deny this, and allege that God in dealing with Pharaoh was unrighteous. The skeptics' ac- cusation regarding God's dealing with Pharaoh, as stated, we believe accurately, by Bishop Home, is, "A just God could not punish the Egyptian mon- arch for a hardness of heart of which he himself was evidently the cause. This is the objection in all its force." x Bishop Home's caution regarding the alleged Scripture basis of this accusation may be repeated here : " When we meet with an assertion apparently contrary to all the truth and equity in the world, it is but common justice to any writer, human or di- vine, to suppose that we mistake his meaning, and that the expression employed to convey it is capa- ble of an interpretation different from that which may first present itself." 2 This accusation of skeptics has been a frequent sub- ject for commentators and theologians. They have 1 Home's Introduction, vol. i. p. 558. 'Home's Works, vol. vi. p. 481. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 157 met the skeptics' charge with great learning and ability. Their works are prized, and their conclu- sions refuting the skeptics are adopted, by the mass of disciples in the Christian connection. We do not discuss nor criticize their works. We simply do not follow in their path, but, as at present advised, we approach the examination of the question from a different base and by different methods. We say this because our reason and excuse for dealing with this charge of the skeptics is, that we have under- taken to examine the Bible record of miracles by rules, tests, and standards which jural science as administered in courts of justice has established for discriminating truth from error, and this contention of the skeptics, accusing God of unrighteousness, cannot be disengaged from the miracles of the Ex- odus. The profound gravity of the accusation charging God with unrighteousness justifies any elaboration or thoroughness of detail in the examination that may be necessary to elucidate the truth. That may not be avoided. The facts, the situation, and the circumstances disclosed by the whole record re- quire contemplation and examination from several points of view. These, when isolated, may not at once appear to be closely related; but when they 158 Miracle and Science have been severally examined, and we are prepared for rational induction in regard to the question at issue, we believe logical relations will be shown and the truth evolved. The issue made by the skeptics' accusation is an issue of fact to be determined by evidence and reasoning applied thereto. Consideration of the record of deal- ing with Pharaoh's heart is deferred to an- other section. Jural science requires that, before considering the evidence, the "issue" be made clear and distinct, showing the grounds of dispute, and that it be clarified of aught that might hinder or prevent a right decision. skeptics' accusation analyzed Stated in propositions that may be examined and dealt with by jural science, the skeptics in charging God with unrighteousness allege three propositions, logically connected: viz. 1. God's destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians was inflicted es- pecially as punishment for Pharaoh's refusal to let the Hebrews go; 2. Pharaoh's refusal was caused by his being hard-hearted, or caused to stand ; 3. God caused Pharaoh to be hard-hearted or to stand ; hence, God was himself the responsible cause of Pharaoh's refusal to let the Hebrews go. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 159 On those alleged propositions the skeptics con- tend that God is unrighteous, because a just God could not inflict punishment for conduct he himself had caused. Maintenance of all three of these propositions is indispensable for establishing the skeptics 5 accusation, for the grip and force of their accusation center in their contention that God pun- ished conduct which he himself had caused. To illustrate ; consider the first of their three proposi- tions. The skeptics must maintain that the destruc- tion of the first-born of Egypt was specially and expressly punishment for Pharaoh's refusal to let the Hebrews go, in order to fix on God their charge that God inflicted punishment for a specific refusal of Pharaoh, which specific refusal God himself had caused Pharaoh to make. For that charge is, by necessity of the skeptics' logic and reasoning, made to hinge expressly and directly on their contention that God's act inflicting the punishment was spe- cifically for specific refusal to let the Hebrews go — a refusal which God had himself caused. Analysis and examination of each of the other propositions yield the same result, for each, like the first, is a necessary and indispensable link in the chain of logic and reasoning by which the skeptics contend that they show God unrighteous, because, as al- 160 Miracle and Science ready noticed, he punished conduct which he him- self had caused. The skeptics' first proposition will be first exam- ined. It is : " God's destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians was inflicted especially as punishment for Pharaoh's refusal to let the Hebrews go." Is this true ? We deny the proposition, and allege, on the contrary, that the destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians was punishment inflicted on that nation for the atrocious crimes perpetrated on the millions of Abraham's seed, in enslaving them and murdering their children, during eighty years or more before the Exodus era. And it was punish- ment inflicted in performance of God's covenant with Abraham, that for those crimes he would judge that guilty nation. The nine plagues so called inflicted on the Egyptians were not, nor was any of them, performance of God's judgment cove- nant with Abraham, but each of the nine was dis- tinctly dissevered from that judgment, a fact to be noticed later. Examination of the record, Old and New Testaments, shows that that covenant was made in immediate connection with, and to pro- mote, and in due time especially advance, the Christian dispensation, initiated a generation before the making of the covenant, as Stephen says, when Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 161 Abraham was still " in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran " (Acts 7:2). For present purposes that dispensation may be briefly described as contemplating the making one man the spring-head of millions of descendants, imbued with a common trust and purpose, until sufficient in numbers to constitute a nation, and then to be invested with sovereignty over the land of Canaan, and made a government, a home and dwelling-place, where God should raise up teachers and prophets, through whom his law and love and plans of redemption should be revealed and com- mended to mankind, culminating in the advent of Jesus the Messiah, his life, teaching, revelation of God, his sacrifice, resurrection, and mission of sal- vation. This dispensation is described by its Sov- ereign author, in initiating it in Abraham, by ten words of our English translation — " in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12: 3). This brief but cogent characterization of the Christian dispensation is constantly made its dis- tinguishing feature in describing it afterwards to Isaac (Gen. 26:4), and to Jacob (Gen. 28:14). Humanly speaking, the record shows that the om- niscience, omnipotence, and love of God as Sover- eign were pledged for the promotion, advancement, 162 Miracle and Science and triumph of the dispensation in its foreseen vicissitudes and emergencies. GOD'S JUDGMENT COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM A generation after his call, Abraham sought of God evidence by which he should know that he and his seed should inherit the land. In immediate con- nection with giving Abraham objective miracle evidence, assuring Abraham that that part of the dispensation should in due time be surely consum- mated, as seen in a former chapter (p. 64), God made a further new covenant with Abraham in re- gard to that dispensation. God " said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, (and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them) four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterwards shall they come out" 1 (Gen. 15:14, Am. Rev.). The record is, that the nation in which Abraham's prolific seed should sojourn, would afflict them, and 1 "According to the Hebrew accents, which we believe to be as correct indices of the sense as the Hebrew vowel-points, the middle clause of the verse, 'and they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them,' is to be read as parenthetical." Bush, Notes on Genesis, p. 250. From this the sojourning was to be four hundred years, not the affliction. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 163 for that oppression God covenanted with Abraham that he would execute his judgment on the guilty nation. If now we can trace this judgment covenant down through the centuries, and the history, to the Passover night, we shall have evidence and means by which we may determine whether the destruc- tion of the first-born of the Egyptians was pun- ishment of that nation for their affliction of the millions of Abraham's seed, by enslaving them and murdering their innocent children, for eighty years immediately before the Exodus, and done in per- formance of this judgment covenant of God with Abraham, or whether, as the skeptics contend, that destruction of the first-born was specially punish- ment of the negative offense of Pharaoh's simple refusal to stop sinning by letting the Hebrews go. The normal factors or indicia that furnish data for tracing a covenant are its essential elements, that is, the " subject-matter," the " obligation," and the parties — covenantor and covenantee. In the compact the covenantor agrees to perform designated " obligation " in regard to designated "subject-matter." The "subject-matter" and the " obligation " are rigidly correlated and interdepen- dent, not separable. Recognition or consideration 164 Miracle and Science of either factor, subject-matter or obligation, inev- itably involves the other, for neither obligation nor subject-matter has function or vitality in the cove- nant, except in its relation to the other. Hence the bringing of either the subject-matter or the obli- gation of a covenant into the field of observation or action inevitably brings the other also into such field of observation or action. In the judgment covenant, slavery and affliction suffered by Abra- ham's seed from the Egyptians was the subject- matter of the covenant. The obligation of the covenant which the record shows God assumed was the infliction of proper and adequate judgment upon the guilty nation, in punishment for the oppression they should be found to have perpetrated upon Abraham's seed. God's covenant obligation in this compact with Abraham was, that guilty nation " will I judge." Inherent in a covenant for judg- ment by one having adequate power is the assur- ance by the covenantor, that the judgment shall be adequate and commensurate with the greatness of the wrong or evil that calls for the judgment. Be- sides the foregoing indicia for identifying this judgment covenant, we have another in the inci- dental result, the covenant asserted would be pro- duced by the judgment, namely, that, as a result of Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 165 the judgment, Abraham's seed should be emanci- pated. This is stated incidentally as a result after the judgment has been executed, " afterward shall they come out." A REVELATION The passage describing the judgment covenant, when examined in view of the Christian dispensa- tion as disclosed in the record, is seen to be a reve- lation. It reveals the fact that, before announcing that covenant, God had contemplated the Exodus era, and the exigent condition which the Christian dispensation would then be in, and also the condi- tion of enslavement of Abraham's seed, — conditions which if unrelieved implied failure of that dispen- sation. The record shows, that God had definitely determined to overcome these conditions, by pun- ishing the Egyptian nation for their guilt, and by devising and executing upon that nation such judg- ment as should incidentally result in freeing Abra- ham's seed from thralldom, bring them out of the house of bondage, and start them on their career to nationality in the promised realm, and thereby ad- vance in fact the Christian dispensation to that stage of its evolution. Such definite determination of Jehovah in regard to specific action constitutes Divine Decree on that 166 Miracle and Science subject. The plain language and import of the pas- sage recording the judgment covenant compels the presupposition of the above conclusions, for they are the indispensable bases on which the covenant pro- ceeds and stands. It is that the oppressions of the Hebrews should be punished by a judgment,, the incidental result of which should be the emancipa- tion of the Hebrews, and consequent advance of the Christian dispensation, dependent as it was on deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery. Thence- forward that divine decree made the judgment covenant integral, and brought it into direct and actual relation, to the advancement of that dispen- sation, as a fact and factor, in the way and method by which it should be promoted, by the effect and operation of that judgment. That the judgment covenant God made with Abraham is integral and constituent among the facts and factors by which the record shows God planned to, and did, promote the Christian dispen- sation is shown by Stephen when he was brought before the council on trial for his life. Stephen de- fended preaching the gospel of Christ by contend- ing from the Scriptures and the nation's history, that the Christian dispensation was ordained and had been brought onward by God, and that Jesus Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 167 Christ was its culmination. Stephen established his contention and defense by producing in his address to the council the great and dominating facts and factors whereby God had ordained, delivered, upheld, and promoted the Christian dispensation. Stephen stated briefly, first, the initial fact in the dispensation, the call of Abraham ; then, as the fore- most fact and factor, he brought forward this judg- ment covenant, made when, as yet, Abraham had no inheritance in Canaan, " not so much as to set his foot on." Stephen says: "And God spake on this wise, that his [Abra- ham's] seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them ill. . . . And the nation to which they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God; and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place " (Acts 7:6, 7, Am. Rev.). This judgment covenant was made with Abra- ham, but was for his posterity, and passed to his descendants at his decease. The record shows this, conspicuously so, in the case of his immediate de- scendants, Isaac and Jacob, as will be seen as we progress. TRACING THE JUDGMENT COVENANT A generation after the judgment covenant was made, Abraham's faith was tested by God's com- 168 Miracle and Science mand to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice. When Abraham's faith triumphed, the record shows that, in recognition of that triumph, God by a new and unique way reassured Abraham that all the good and blessings for all mankind he had promised should be fully performed, that is, this was assured by God's oath, in which he swore by himself, because " there was none greater." That included the judgment covenant (Gen. 22:16-18). When the voice of Jehovah giving that assurance called " out of heaven," Isaac, just delivered from death, was present. It is not recorded that Isaac heard what was called to Abraham out of heaven, but Isaac seems to have known what Jehovah then promised to Abraham, for, after Abraham's decease, a fam- ine afflicted Isaac. God then appeared to Isaac and counseled him to refrain from going to Egypt, as Isaac proposed. In that interview God assured Isaac, " I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father." The quotation does not state what the oath comprehended. Of course Abraham may have told Isaac; but the situation, and Isaac's most serious part in the trial of Abra- ham's faith, would seem to justify believing he heard that oath, and what it comprehended, when it was spoken on Mount Moriah. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 169 A generation later God appeared to Jacob at Bethel, and confirmed to him what he had promised to Abraham and to Isaac, including all that was to be efficient in bringing to success the dispensation that should give blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen. 28:13-15). The judgment covenant was integral in that. The comment of the Psalmist on these transactions in that dispensation is: " He is Jehovah our God : His judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant forever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations, The covenant which he made with Abra- ham, And his oath unto Isaac, And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a statute, To Israel for an everlasting covenant." God's judgment covenant with Abraham descended to and became his covenant with Isaac and with Jacob in the line of descent and was confirmed to them, as the evidence shows, and as the Psalmist records (Ps. 105:7-10). JUDGMENT COVENANT EXODUS ERA Coming down in time to the Exodus era, and in- quiring regarding the judgment covenant, we find 170 Miracle and Science the Exodus movement initiated by Abraham's seed, groaning by reason of bitter slavery and murdered offspring. "And their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage" (Ex. 2:23). This afflic- tion of Abraham's seed by the Egyptians was ex- actly and expressly the " subject-matter " of the judgment covenant. Inevitably it brought with it, into the field of view and action, its correlative the " obligation " of God in the covenant to judge the Egyptians for that affliction. Of that prayer and appeal to God the record is: "[1] And God heard their groaning, [2] and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob .... and [3] God took knowledge." That is, (1) the prayer of Abraham's descendants brought before God especially their afflictions perpetrated on them by the nation in whose land they were sojourning. This was the identical subject-matter of the judgment covenant, and inevitably brought into the field of view and action the counterpart of the covenant, i, e. the obligation of God, the covenantor. (2) Of this the record is, " God remembered his covenant." This can mean nothing less than his covenant made with Abraham in regard to that identical subject-matter, the cruel affliction of Abraham's seed by the nation Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 171 in whose land they were sojourning. The stated facts and the situation and history identify the cov- enant that, it is recorded, God then, on hearing that groaning and prayer, remembered as the judg- ment covenant. The subject-matter identifies it as that covenant of which the obligation was, that, for that cruel oppression of Abraham's seed, God would judge the guilty Egyptians. But the judgment was, in course of time and successively, God's cov- enant with Isaac, and with Jacob; and so it is named in the passage quoted. But (3) the further record of the prayer and God's action in regard to it is, "And God took knowledge." This statement in the Hebrew seems to have perplexed translators, for their versions differ. They add, in the Amer- ican version, in italics, " of them." But there are no words in the Hebrew for which the words " of them " stand in the English translation. But that sentence, "And God took knowledge," when examined, by standards and principles of jural science, in connection with the conditions and situation, is plain and highly important; for it not only identifies the covenant which the record says God " remembered " as the judgment covenant, but it also shows that God then and there took in hand, and commenced performing, the obligation 172 Miracle and Science of that covenant. For the sentence, " God took knowledge," describes the indispensable act of the just judge, in commencing performance of his judi- cial functions, in any given case. His act and duty in every case is first to take all necessary means, by evidence, by observation and due investigation, by which the judge shall come to know, and be duly informed of, all facts and matters whatsoever that ought properly to be considered by him in mak- ing up his judgment to be executed, as to its severity or its operation or effect, and in all proper respects. Although Christians understand God al- ways knows, yet the formality of due procedure is not omitted from the record, that, in commencing to perform the obligation of his covenant to judge the Egyptians for their atrocities inflicted on the Hebrews, God took knowledge of all that ought to be considered in determining what that judgment should be, in order that it should accomplish the purposes predicted, and also any further purpose which Infinite Wisdom might deem proper. Addi- tional evidence that God then took in hand perform- ance of the judgment covenant is shown in Exodus 9:15, 16, in which judgment cutting off from the earth by pestilence Pharaoh and his people was contemplated. While that judgment would have Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 173 resulted in emancipating the Hebrews and in pun- ishing the guilty Egyptians, it would not have furnished proof of the supreme attributes of Dei- ty, Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence, whereby God's revealed character, or " Name," should be declared throughout all the earth, which proof was a further purpose of God expressly named in verse 16. This will be specially consider- ed later. Although considered it was rejected, and a less severe judgment was finally adopted, smiting one at least in every Egyptian house. The foregoing clearly identifies the covenant that, it is recorded, God then remembered. It was the judgment covenant he made with Abraham, more than four hundred years before, to judge the Egyptians for the wrongs they had inflicted on Abraham's seed through the generations imme- diately previous to the beginning of the Exodus era. It was to be a judgment that should have the incidental result of delivering Abraham's seed from servitude, and take them out of the house of bond- age. Further tracing the judgment covenant, we find that, when Moses first communicated God's command to Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go, Pharaoh refused and, in defiance of the command, imposed heavier burdens upon the Hebrews. When 174 Miracle and Science they failed to perform the increased burden, Pha- raoh had them scourged. The added affliction seems to have driven the Hebrews almost to despair. They bitterly reproached Moses, as the cause of the added affliction, and called on God to judge Moses for making them abhorred by Pha- raoh, and putting a sword into the hands of the Egyptians to destroy them (Ex. 5:20, 21). Moses took the agony of the Hebrews to God. It was again the very subject-matter of the judg- ment covenant, and brought again, into the field of view and consideration, that covenant and God's obligation therein. God's answer to Moses recog- nized all this. It was: " I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage ; and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments " (Ex. 6:5, 6). This was not only express recognition of the judg- ment covenant, as the matter then in hand, but it was express recognition of the obligation of God, under that covenant, to deliver the Hebrews, as a result of the judgment he would inflict upon the Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 175 Egyptians for oppressing the Hebrews. The answer of God to Moses, spoken in the past tense, referred to God's former remembrance of that covenant, and his commencement to perform its obligation, to punish the Egyptians. It may be worthy of notice that the mention of " great judg- ments " in the message God sent to the Hebrews by Moses shows that a comparison is suggested between lesser and greater punishments, inflicted upon the Egyptians in the Exodus epoch. Two great judgments, and only two, in the comparative character of greatness, are described and recorded : one, smiting the first-born of the Egyptians; and the other, judgment executed against " all the gods of Egypt" (Ex. 12:12). These two great judgments are mentioned again in Numbers : " On the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were bury- ing all their first-born, whom Jehovah had smitten among them ; upon their gods also Jehovah execu- ted judgments" (Num. 33: 3, 4, Am. Rev.). NINE PUNISHMENTS OF EGYPTIANS Incident to tracing the judgment covenant, it is necessary, at this point, to examine nine punish- ments inflicted on the Egyptians, for disobeying 176 Miracle and Science God's command, issued subsequently to the com- mencement of the Exodus epoch; because accus- ing skeptics contend that the destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians must be classed with, and considered and dealt with as one with, the nine punishments we are now to consider. The distinction and difference between these nine punishments and the judgment destroying the first-born of Egypt are so radical — the contrast is so broad, vast, and fundamental — that the skeptics' contention cannot be maintained. The nine pun- ishments are conclusively dissevered from being punishments for crimes perpetrated on the Hebrews by the Egyptians before the Exodus, by the fact that, in each and every of the nine cases, the pun- ishment was inflicted, specifically and expressly, for disobedience occurring after the Exodus epoch com- menced. God issued his command to Pharaoh, in those nine cases, to let the Hebrews go, and accom- panied his command with express warning, that, if Pharaoh disobeyed, specific punishment for that specific disobedience should be inflicted, and it was inflicted accordingly. To illustrate: Jehovah mer- cifully considered Pharaoh's ignorant conception concerning God, and, with his command, provided the harmless miracle with Moses' rod to meet Pha- Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 177 raoh's demand for miracle evidence, to authenticate God's messenger and command heretofore con- sidered. When that failed, the record is, because Pharaoh had not hearkened, God wrought the mir- acle upon the waters of Egypt. When that failed, God said of the future action of the Egyptians, " If thou refuse to let them [the Hebrews] go, I will smite " the land with frogs (Ex. 8:2). When Pha- raoh gave his word as sovereign that he would let the Hebrews go if the frogs were removed, as they were, and then forfeited his word, God wrought his miracle of lice. This failing, God warned Pharaoh of the future that he let the Hebrews go, " Else, if thou wilt not .... I will send" plague of flies (Ex. 8:21). That failing, God repeated his command, and said again of the future, " If thou refuse," murrain upon the cattle of Egypt should be inflicted. This failing, chas- tisement of boils was inflicted, and after that the chastisement of hail was conditionally threatened, i. e. " Exaltest thou thyself ? " etc. " I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail " to destroy your crops (Ex. 9:17, 18). That chastisement failing, God repeated his command to let the Hebrews go, and said, " Else, if thou refuse," plagues of locusts shall be inflicted (Ex. 10 : 14). 178 Miracle and Science Characteristic of these punishments is the fact that they were announced to be inflicted, if later Pharaoh or his nation disobeyed God's command. Punishment was the alternative of obedience. The punishment could in each case be wholly avoided, if Pharaoh obeyed God's command. Each of the nine punishments announced, was announced as contingent, conditional. None was absolute or positive. Each could have been obviated by obey- ing after the warning was announced. Each was preannounced specific punishment for specific wrong subsequently committed. The judgment destroying the first-born of Egypt had none of these characteristics. It was announced as abso- lute, independent, no alternative. The last of those nine punishments was that of thick darkness in all the land of Egypt, such that the Egyptians " saw not one another, neither rose any one from his place for three days " (Ex. 10: 23). FURTHER TRACING OF THE JUDGMENT COVENANT If now we bring the tracing of the judgment covenant down to the end of those three days of darkness, what does the situation disclose in regard to that covenant ? It shows that, up to that time, the Egyptians had not yet been judged for their Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 179 enormous crimes which they had inflicted on the Hebrews, through the eighty years preceding the Exodus date. All the conditions show that God's covenant that he would judge the Egyptians for those crimes had not been performed. Yet the misery, woe, and agony of slavery of the millions of the Hebrews, and murders of their children, constituted most urgent call for performance of that covenant, and most potent protest against de- lay. Then with those conditions, imperative and importunate, calling for performance of God's covenant to judge the guilty Egyptians, and in im- mediate connection with instituting the Passover, God announced his judgment that he would inflict on the Egyptians. He communicated the announce- ment to Moses, that he might cause the blood- sprinkled door-posts of the Hebrews to furnish the sign that secured their immunity. GOD JUDGED THE EGYPTIANS The judgment is designated generally in Exodus 11 : 1, 4, 5. It was to be a smiting of the Egyp- tians. The added statement of the incidental effect of the judgment, viz. " afterwards he will let you go hence," identifies the judgment as the one stipulated for in the judgment covenant. The detail is: 180 Miracle and Science "About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill ; and all the first-born of cat- tle." That judgment at the midnight hour of the Pass- over night was executed throughout the empire of Egypt. The first-born was smitten, and there was not a house in Egypt where there was not one dead, nor field or flock without the first-born dead. If considered from the viewpoint of its being pun- ishment of the Egyptians commensurate and pro- portionate to their crimes perpetrated on the Hebrews for more than eighty years, it was a mighty punishment for gigantic crimes. As affect- ing the nation, it penetrated to every house and home in the realm, smiting, in each, at least one with death. For more than eighty years the Egyp- tians had enslaved, with cruelty, not merely one in a home, but the entire Hebrew people, of several millions, and murdered thousands upon thousands of innocent children, for the malignant purpose of more effectually fastening the fetters enslaving the Hebrews. That it was punishment proportionate to the enormous crimes of the Egyptians cannot Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 181 be denied. It was a judgment adequate, and a just performance of God's covenant with Abraham, that he would judge the Egyptians for their atrocious, long-continued crimes perpetrated on Abraham's seed. JUDGMENT COVENANT PERFORMED Tracing the judgment covenant down through the centuries and the history to the Passover night, and reading the record it involves, and simply ap- prehending the evidence, impel the unbiased mind to the conclusion, that the destruction of the first- born of the Egyptians on the Passover night was God's punishment of the Egyptians for their crimes perpetrated on the Hebrews for more than three generations; also, that it was God's performance of his covenant to judge the Egyptian nation for those crimes — covenant made with Abraham four hundred and more years before. Plainly, if that was not God's performance of his covenant with Abraham to judge the Egyptians, then God did not perform that covenant, a conclusion that cannot be permitted, especially when, as here, a judgment of God executed upon the Egyptians is recorded, which in all respects constitutes performance of that covenant. It was punishment of the Egyp- 182 Miracle and Science tians for their cruel oppression of the Hebrews during three generations. If, as has been believed, the Egyptians numbered 7,000,000 at the Passover, and it not being unrea- sonable to assume one in seven was a first-born, that would show that 1,000,000 human beings were smitten with death in one midnight hour, and num- berless cattle were then smitten with death also. To contend that that appalling judgment must be classed with, and considered, and dealt with, as merely one more chastisement for the negative of- fense of mere refusal to stop sinning, by letting the Hebrews go, like troubling the Egyptians with frogs, flies, hail, boils, lice, etc., and by that classifi- cation and treatment claiming to prevent the judg- ment from being God's performance of his covenant with Abraham, seems an affront to common reason. For common reason apprehends instinctively that such appalling judgment calls for proof of propor- tionate guilt. Such guilt is found in the eighty years of continuous enslavement and murders of Hebrews, for which God covenanted he would ade- quately punish that guilty nation. No other crimes of the Egyptians against Abraham's seed are shown that measure up to that appalling judgment, but those continuous crimes of eighty years do. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 183 On the question of the identity of the destruc- tion of the first-born of Egypt with the judgment God covenanted with Abraham that he would in- flict on the guilty Egyptians, we have traced the judgment covenant through the centuries, and reached our conclusion, but have not definitely ex- amined the first verse of Exodus 11. The King James'" Version shows that the translators, with nothing in the Hebrew to justify it, injected a notion of their own into the translation by the word " more " in italics, making the clause read " one plague more," instead of the plain Hebrew. By that deplorable injection of the translators'* notion into the English version, instead of holding to the plain original, the translators classified God's judg- ment smiting the first-born of Egypt, with the nine punishments we have above described, apparently making that appalling judgment one more punish- ment inflicted specially for Pharaoh's refusal to let the Hebrews go: and thereby the translators have furnished skeptics, apparently, with Scripture basis for alleging their accusation that God is un- righteous. Hebrew scholarship informs us that the Hebrew of the first clause of the first verse of the eleventh chapter of Exodus, rendered literally into English. 184 Miracle and Science is, " One smiting will I bring upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians." That is the distinct, independent proposition. The judgment announced is, in the Hebrew, distinctly one potent smiting. It is not one more. It is independent, unrelated to any other judgment. It is positive, and not contingent. It is absolute, and not conditioned. It was an- nounced as certain, with no alternative. It was not to be avoided or obviated by any act or course of action by the Egyptians. When the literal render- ing from the Hebrew into English is understood as embodied in our English version, the Bible does not antagonize, but harmonizes and cogently cor- roborates, the conclusion, that the destruction of the first-born of Egypt was God's performance of his judgment covenant with Abraham, and was punishment for the crimes and guilt of the Egyptian nation for their appalling oppression of Abraham's descendants through three generations. It shows that the skeptics' first proposition, viz. that God's destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians was inflicted especially as punishment for Pharaoh's refusal to let the Hebrews go, is unfounded and untrue; also, that the skeptics' accusation, that God is unrighteous, based on that unfounded and untrue proposition, is also unfounded and untrue. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 185 Section VI DEALING WITH PHARAOH'S HEART This subject, deferred from a former section, remains to be examined. A general statement of conditions and matters involved in and affecting this and the other issues growing out of the mira- cles of the Exodus has already been made (pp. 118- 122), and though not repeated here, is essen- tial and should be kept in mind. But another material fact, especially affecting the subject, should also be noticed in clarifying the issue. The original record of Jehovah's dealing with Pharaoh is in the Hebrew language. The skeptics' denial of the righteousness of Jehovah is based on the En- glish translation. In the Exodus there are sixteen passages de- scribing conditions of the heart of Pharaoh before the destruction of the first-born of Egypt. In our old translations, the word " harden " is employed. In the new or revised translation, the word "strengthen" is named by the Revisers (see mar- gin). The original Hebrew word so translated is chazaq. In its variation, it is translated more than one hundred times by words signifying firmness, resoluteness, as " strengthen," " might," " courage," 186 Miracle and Science and only twenty-eight times by the word " harden," nearly all of these instances being in the translation of Exodus. Our citations in this section are from the American Revision. The lexicons show the primary sense of the Hebrew word is " to bind fast," " to gird tight," " to make strong." Applied to men, it expresses the idea of firmness, courage, resoluteness, which, when excessive, becomes stubborn insistence against opponents. But the word so translated does not in its primary sense embrace the idea of malevolence, personal hatred, enmity of heart, cruelty, or ma- liciousness, which qualities are easily recognized in the English words " hard-heartedness " or " hardness of heart." The record itself shows that the reluctance of Pharaoh to letting the Hebrews go was reluctance not based on losing opportunity to gratify malevolence, but on reluctance to losing the wealth of nations of that age — the service of 3,000,000 slaves. This appears in the record, where 3 after having let the Hebrews go, Pharaoh and the Egyptians changed their minds, and said, " What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" (Ex. 14: 5). The legal maxim seems plainly applicable here: " Expressio unius exclmio alterius." Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 187 RULE CONSTRUING INTENT The sense in which the Hebrew word is used in Exodus is clearly shown, also, by applying to the record the rule of jurisprudence, that when, in a transaction, an actor declares his intention or pur- pose in his act, that intent and purpose becomes res gestae, part of the transaction itself, and es- tablishes its character accordingly. 1 Here Jehovah, the actor, says, in an express message to Pharaoh, that he might have emancipated the Hebrews by smiting Pharaoh and all his people with pestilence, cutting them off from the earth ; " but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth" (Ex. 9:16). Although critical linguistic examination of each separate one of the Hebrew words translated by " harden," " strengthen," etc., might disclose varied shades of meaning, the statement of Jehovah him- self, in his use of the several words, merges all in one meaning in one common purpose, that of caus- ing Pharaoh to " stand " so that Jehovah might accomplish his avowed purpose, of then and there 1 Whart. on Ev. 258, 259, cases; 1 Greenleaf on Ev. sees. 108-123; United States v. Noelke, 17 Blatch. 554, 570. 188 Miracle and Science proving his existence and supremacy, and that his Name might be proclaimed throughout all the earth. Jehovah himself here interprets the lan- guage he used, as the poet says: " Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work in vain, God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain." Strengthening Pharaoh's firmness, causing him to stand to the issues he made by his denials, and not hardening his heart in the line of malevolence or viciousness, is the real record in the matter in the Hebrew ; and so it should be translated, and so it should be considered in our examination. APOLOGETICS Christian apologists, in meeting the charge of unrighteousness of Jehovah in dealing with Pha- raoh's heart, sometimes urge the proposition that one's act, in refusing to obey a known command of God, as Christians in our day apprehend him, puts the soul in conscious rebellion against God, and, when persisted in, operates to harden the heart in sin. The psychological fact is not disputed. But does not apology on the basis of that doctrine, i. e. hardening a man's heart, seem unjustly to assume Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 189 that what God produced in Pharaoh's heart was viciousness and sin, an assumption not in accord with Jehovah's declared purpose, and not support- ed by the evidence ? Also, further analysis of the aforesaid sixteen passages, regarding Pharaoh's firmness, shows that in three instances the firmness is attributed to Pha- raoh himself, stimulating his own fortitude (Ex. 8 : 15, 32 ; 9 : 34) ; two merely proposed (Ex. 4 : 21 ; 7:3); in six no personal agent in the operation is indicated (Ex. 7:13, 14, 22; 8: 19; 9: 7, 35). But in five Jehovah is designated as the actor (Ex. 9:12; 10 : 1, 20, 27 ; 11 : 10 ) . It should be noticed that these five instances occurred after, and not until after, the first six miracles had been wrought clearly proving Jehovah's existence and supremacy. But in addition to the plain meaning of the lan- guage in the record, reasons are given why in these five instances it was done, namely, in order that the testimony of Jehovah by his miracles might be given, fully produced then and there, to prove the existence and supreme attributes of Jehovah, and that that proof might be declared throughout all the earth. Deferring present examination of the phrase " caused to stand," we examine the other, " hardening Pharaoh's heart." 190 Miracle and Science HEART HARDENED The skeptics' charge that God punished conduct that he had himself caused, rests on their contention that the true sense of the clause which states Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart, when rightly interpreted, is, that thereby Jehovah produced superhuman and supernatural effects upon Pharaoh, depriving him of freedom of will and of action, coerced him to refuse to let the Hebrews go, and thereby took off from Pharaoh responsibility and culpability for that refusal, and fixed upon Jehovah responsibility therefor. The clause in question is a figurative expression, describing effects produced upon Pha- raoh, and occurs a number of times in Exodus, the hardening of heart caused sometimes by Jehovah, and sometimes by Pharaoh himself. The clause is therefore a proper subject for interpretation. The Cardinal Rule of interpretation, established in jural science for discriminating truth from error, is that when the same words occur in different parts of the same written or printed document, " they must be taken to have been everywhere used in the same sense." 1 The reason for the rule is intensi- x Dwarris on Statutes, 574 (2d Ed. London) ; Car- dinal Rules of Legal Interpretation, 148 Beal, London; The Queen v. Poor, L. Com. 6 A. & E. 56; Cortauld v. Legh L. R. 4 Ex. 126, 130. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 191 fied when, as here, the words are applied in every instance solely and specially to one subject, the heart of Pharaoh. The rule requires that one and the same sense and meaning designating what is identical must be given to the clause in question in every instance where it occurs in the document — Exodus in this case. Whatever the effect was that was produced on Pharaoh by what is described as hardening his heart, the rule requires that the sense and meaning of the effect as described in the clause shall be identical, one and the same, in every instance in which it occurs, whoever is the actor, Pharaoh or Jehovah, in causing it. That requires such an interpretation of the clause as shall describe what a human being, using human power and natural forces, could thereby produce in Pharaoh; for the hardening of Pharaoh's heart is recorded expressly as done by Pharaoh at least three times (Ex. 8:15, 32; 9:34), and in two of those instances before it is recorded as caused by Jehovah (Ex. 9:12). Pharaoh could, as he did. stimulate his firmness, brace his fortitude, nurse his natural wilfulness. The whole evidence shows Pharaoh was haughty, wilful, inordinately stubborn and obstinate. When his sacred scribes knew that the proof of God's 192 Miracle and Science existence and supremacy was conclusive, they counseled Pharaoh to yield, saying of the plague of lice, "This is the finger of God" (Ex. 8:19); and when the plague of locusts was imminent, his other counselors, speaking for themselves and their fellow-Egyptians, earnestly entreated Pharaoh to yield, saying to him, " Let the men go, that they may serve Jehovah their God; knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed ?" (Ex. 10:7). But in each case Pharaoh stubbornly rejected the wise counsel and urgent entreaties of his own people, and " hearkened not unto them." But Pharaoh, a human being with the limitation of humanity, could not, in what is described as hardening of the heart, produce either superhuman or supernatural effects, and the clause must be so limited accordingly ; for a sense and meaning must be given to the clause limiting the magnitude of what is described as hardening Pharaoh's heart to what is possible to humanity. This is indispen- sable in the case, because the sense and meaning given to the clause must not be so great as to in- clude what is impossible for a human being to produce, for it must be limited to what Pharaoh could do and did do as recorded in the instances cited, and there can be but one interpretation, Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 193 whoever, whether Pharaoh or Jehovah, is actor in hardening the heart. This indispensable limitation therefore refutes the claim of the skeptics, for it precludes interpreting the clause regarding harden- ing Pharaoh's heart, to have the sense or meaning that Jehovah thereby produced superhuman or supernatural effects upon Pharaoh, and precludes the skeptics from claiming the results they allege as produced, as they contend, by superhuman and supernatural effects, namely, depriving Pharaoh of freedom of will and action, and coercing him to refuse to let the Hebrews go, and their other claims consequent thereon. The clause alleging hardening of the heart of Pharaoh, when duly in- terpreted by the cardinal rules and principles of jural science, shows that the skeptics' interpreta- tion is unsound and untrue, and that their accusa- tion of unrighteousness of God, based on such false interpretation, is also untrue. That accusation of unrighteousness, based on the skeptics' false interpretation of that clause, is also shown to be untrue, when we examine, on its merits, the evidence of what the effect of harden- ing his heart was on Pharaoh in fact. It would be tedious, and it is not necessary, to examine each instance alleging the hardening of Pharaoh's heart 194 Miracle and Science By examining two prominent and representative instances, in which Pharaoh is represented as under the effect described as hardening of his heart, — one in which it is caused as recorded by Jehovah, and the other in which it is caused by Pharaoh himself, — we may get at the truth in the matter. We select for this purpose two episodes — the plague of hail and the plague of locusts. PLAGUE OF HAIL Immediately in connection with the plague of hail, it is recorded Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Ex. 9:22). When the horror of the plague became unendurable, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron (Ex. 9:27), and an interview was had. Our question here is, Was Pharaoh's will then, after the record says Jehovah hardened his heart — was his freedom of will taken away, and he not responsible for refusing to let the Hebrews go ? Pharaoh was solely the one single and only human being that knew what the fact was, and so the only one able truly to answer that ques- tion. Pharaoh's testimony at that interview was direct answer to it. It was not given secretly or covertly to friends, but openly to those deemed hostile to him and his nation. His testimony was Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 195 direct, explicit, and unequivocal. He testified, " I have sinned this time " ; also, " Jehovah is right- eous, and I and my people are wicked " (Ex. 9 : 27). Consider Pharaoh's condition, — proud, haughty, stubborn, and a king of a great nation, — and the humiliation he must have experienced in making this abject confession. As the record discloses Pharaoh's character, the conclusion is forced upon us, that, if any possible excuse could have been given to relieve him from the responsi- bility of his refusal to let the Hebrews go, he would have brought it forward, and stated it, be- fore he would make that abject confession to men he and his nation deemed their slaves. He did not excuse himself, or cast blame upon any one else, because no such excuse existed in fact, and he of all men in the world knew it. His confession is that of a man knowing his mind and the situation, his duty, and his voluntary and wilful disobedience, and conscious guilt, and it was unequivocal, open, public confession. Pharaoh then and there admitt- ed his full conviction and belief that Jehovah ex- isted and was supreme, for he presented, through Moses, to Jehovah his prayer, and as part thereof his promise. He prayed that Jehovah would abate the plague of hail ; and with the prayer, as king, 196 Miracle and Science solemnly promised Moses and the Hebrews, " I will let you go " (Ex. 9 : 28). The promise was proof that Pharaoh knew that he could, and assumed that he would, emancipate the Hebrews, and was under no restraint that prevented, or could prevent, him from effectually decreeing their emancipation; and that evidence of Pharaoh refutes the conten- tion of the skeptics that Pharaoh was coerced, and not responsible for refusing freedom to the Hebrews. If it should be contended that this promise of Pharaoh was a lying promise, made to secure abate- ment of the plague of hail, there are several answers that would refute such contention. Jural science es- tablishes the maxim, that when a transaction is as consistent with honesty as with dishonesty, honesty must be presumed, and the presumption must be held to be the truth unless the evidence disproves the pre- sumption. 1 Here there is no evidence, not the least, to contradict the presumption that Pharaoh's pledge was candid, intelligent, and honest. On the con- trary, there is potent evidence to corroborate its honesty, intelligence, and candor. The promise went with, and was part of, Pharaoh's prayer to Jehovah. " Lying lips are an abomination to 1 Chapman v. Mclllwrath, 77 Mo. 44. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 197 Jehovah," and he does not grant prayer to mendac- ity. But here Jehovah, who knew Pharaoh's heart and his candor, or hypocrisy if it existed, accepted that pledge of Pharaoh, and stopped the plague of hail. This is not all. After the plague of hail ceased, Pharaoh sinfully violated his kingly word, and refused to let the Hebrews go. He had sinned in his previous refusal to obey Jehovah, and here the record is, Pharaoh " sinned yet more " in violating his new promise to let the Hebrews go, and it is added again he " hardened his heart " (Ex. 9:34). Here, from triple sources, it was proved that Pharaoh was free and uncontrolled, knew his duty, but freely, and not coerced, dis- obeyed, and, with clear consciousness of guilty action, explicitly confessed his sin ; and the skeptics' contention to the contrary is proven unfounded and untrue. PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS At this point in the Exodus history as just cited, the record is, Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Ex. 9:34), and in that condition and with that effect, whatever it was on Pharaoh, a plague of locusts was proclaimed (Ex. 10). As we have heretofore seen, Pharaoh rejected the counsel and urgent plea of his servants to let the Hebrews go 198 Miracle and Science (Ex. 10:7), and the plague came. When its horror and devastation destroying Egypt became unsupportable, " Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron in haste," and another interview was had. Here again Pharaoh knew, and he alone of all human beings knew, whether he had been free in his ac- tion, whether he was forced and could not act otherwise, and so was free from sin or culpability, as the skeptics contend. Pharaoh's testimony on that exact point is plain, clear, unequivocal, given not covertly in private, but to those opposed to him. He remembers the last interview, and his prayer to Jehovah, and his kingly promise to let the Hebrews go, and his base violation of a sovereign's word and honor, and remembers it with humilia- tion. He testified : " I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you. Now therefore for- give, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat Jehovah your God, that he may take away from me this death only" (Ex. 10:16, 17). What was important on this question of Pharaoh's freedom of will, and absence of coercion, in his refusal to let the Hebrews go, and which we noticed and com- mented on in Pharaoh's testimony and confession in the transaction during the plague of hail, is duplicated here most clearly and distinctly. His Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 199 testimony given here during the plague of locusts, when he had hardened his own heart, is again ex- plicit, full, and conclusive, proving that Pharaoh in this interview during the plague of locusts was free, not coerced, but intelligently wilful, stubborn, disobedient, and guilty. We have examined the evidence on the skeptics' contention, that God punished conduct that he him- self had caused. We have gone carefully, with some elaboration, through two important episodes of the Exodus, in each of which that contention of the skeptics was most conspicuously in question, and most fully brought into consideration; viz. (1) the episode of the plague of hail, and (2) the episode of the plague of locusts. We have seen that in each episode alike the evidence was ample, clear, explicit, uncontradicted, and conclusive, proving that Pharaoh, in refusing to let the Hebrews go, was free, not coerced ; that in that refusal he acted on his own responsibility, actuated by an abnormal wilfulness, pride, and obstinacy, and with con- scious guilt, which he openly and explicitly con- fessed over and over again. Moreover, immediately before the hail episode the record is, "J enovan hardened Pharaoh's heart," and that was Pharaoh's condition in the evidence 200 Miracle and Science in that episode. Also immediately before the locust episode the record is, that Pharaoh " hardened his [own] heart," and that was Pharaoh's con- dition in that episode. But his condition disclosed by the evidence, his freedom, his conscious guilt in refusing to let the Hebrews go, his abstention from claiming that any one else was to blame but himself, in fact, all the testimony that confutes the said contention of the skeptics was the same, fully and completely so, when the record showed Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart, and when it showed Pharaoh hardened his own heart. There was no difference. The evidence of this sameness of the actual sense and meaning of the clauses of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart is a corroboration of the soundness and validity of the maxim on that subject, that when such clauses occur in different parts of a document, they must be taken to have been everywhere used in the same sense describing what is identical. The evidence not only fails to prove the skep- tics' contention, that God punished conduct which he had himself caused, but the evidence disproves the contention. It follows that the skeptics' charge that God is unrighteous, which is based on that unfounded and untrue contention of the skeptics, Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 201 is also unfounded and untrue. It remains to con- sider what is the signification of " causing Pharaoh to stand," instead of the translation " hardening his heart," and its purposes and employment in the dispensation. FULL PROOF Suppose Pharaoh had freed the Hebrews when first commanded. We have seen, in previous sec- tions, the profound importance of the proof of the existence and supremacy of Jehovah, made by ob- jective evidence and preserved in the Exodus record. It is obvious, on the face of the matter, that that evidence would not have been produced, nor that proof established (and of course not pre- served), if Pharaoh had at once emancipated the Hebrews when commanded to. That is patent, for until denial of the existence and supremacy of Jehovah, and refusal to obey him, gave occasion for, and logically required, the production of that evidence, there would have been no development of the " issue " disclosing the real question in dispute, i. e. existence and supremacy of Jehovah, necessary and essential in order that all persons to be affected could intelligently appre- hend and apply the evidence to that issue, and thus 202 Miracle and Science « the evidence be given due opportunity to produce its legitimate effect in establishing the truth. It was the original, defiant denial by Pharaoh of the existence and supremacy of Jehovah that made the evidence not only proper, but, as Jehovah planned the proceeding, indispensable. Yet, as will appear, it is the transaction found to be necessary for the full and thorough production of that evi- dence and proof which skeptics criticize as unright- eous. That will be next considered. JURAL MATTERS JUDGED BY JURAL STANDARDS Returning to the consideration of the principal issue here in question, we suggest, as hereinbefore noted, the evidence shows that Jehovah elected and determined not to use pestilence or entire destruction of the Egyptians, but chose to conquer Pharaoh's opposition and his refusal to free the Hebrews, and cure Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the world of false conception of Deity, by employ- ing the methods, means, and rules of jurisprudence, treating Pharaoh as opponent in jural proceedings on the issue Pharaoh made by his denial, and over- coming Pharaoh's resistance, by producing and using the power of evidence, not only to cause Pharaoh to believe Jehovah existent and supreme, Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 203 but to produce an array of evidence so full and indubitable that Pharaoh's belief should rise to clear, conclusive conviction — to knowledge — so that, as the record shows Jehovah repeatedly an- nounced, Pharaoh should thereby come to " know " Jehovah existent and supreme and must be obeyed, Pharaoh himself being judge (Deut. 32:31). Because the record shows Jehovah exercised a choice, and selected and employed the methods, principles, and procedure of jural science, in using the power of evidence, to operate in Pharaoh's mind, and so in and through Pharaoh accomplish a great purpose of Jehovah in the Exodus, that of proving his existence and supremacy, etc., — the acts and measures employed by Jehovah in those proceedings, logically and rationally, should be interpreted and judged by the standards, tests, and principles inherent in, and normally involved in, that science. The particular part of the record now to be especially subjected to examination consists of two passages — one addressed to Pharaoh, the other addressed to Moses, but, construed conjointly with the context, they declare Jehovah's purpose which he would accomplish by causing Pharaoh to stand, and give reasons for requiring Moses to preserve 204 Miracle and Science the evidence and proof of Jehovah's existence and supremacy, not only for future generations of Hebrews, but so that that evidence and proof might be promulgated throughout all the earth. To Pharaoh: " In very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee my power ; and that my name x may be declared throughout all the earth" (Ex. 9:16, Am. Rev.). To Moses: " I have hardened [strengthened] his [Pharaoh's] heart, and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these my signs [miracles] in the midst of them; and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought upon Egypt, and my signs [miracles] which I have done among them ; that ye may know that I am Jehovah " (Ex. 10 : 1, 2, Am. Rev.). We have here the testimony of Jehovah that what he did in regard to Pharaoh, described in old versions as "hardening," "strengthening" (Am. Rev.), was causing Pharaoh "to stand." That is the record. What Jehovah so did, is what skeptics criticize as unrighteous (Ex. 4:21, Am. Rev. marg). 'Name when designating Jehovah in the Old Testa- ment is used in the sense of his revealed character and essence (Jer. 44:26; Ps. 8:1; Ex. 23:21). Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 205 PRESUMPTION OF RIGHT IN JURISPRUDENCE It is proper to notice the presumption of juris- prudence on this subject. The maxim of jurispru- dence applicable here is : " Omnia praesummuntur rite et solemnitur esse acta." The law presumes that every one in his official capacity, and especial- ly when acting judicially, acts within his duty unless the contrary is shown; and that all things done by such person in his judicial capacity are rightly done. 1 The presumption prevails in regard to human magistrates, and the presumption cannot be less potent because the decision in question was made by Jehovah, the Judge of all the earth. But besides the presumption, examining the question on its merits, by rules of jurisprudence, there seems to be, in the situation and conditions, substantial ground for concluding that the proof furnished by the further and last miracle evidence was necessary to complete the proof of Jehovah's existence and supremacy. MEANING AND USE OF PHRASE " TO STAND"" If we ascertain what the phrase " to stand " means when juridically applied to Pharaoh, in 1 Bank of U. S. v. Dandridge, 12 Wheat. 66-70, Story, J. See also 20 Wall 250 ; 18 F. R. 36 ; 4 Hughes, 519. 206 Miracle and Science connection with the situation, we shall have essen- tial means for reaching a just decision regarding the skeptics' contention. The Hebrew word is, amad, literally, "to cause to stand still" (Job 37:14), "to stand fast' 1 (Ps. 33:9, 11),, "to stand firm" (Josh. 3:17). Persistence, continu- ance, are elemental in the Hebrew, rendered in English by the phrase " to stand." This, also, is its meaning ascertained from the context, and especially from the reasons and the purposes for which Pharaoh was caused to stand. Briefly and specially, Pharaoh was made to stand, in order that proof of Jehovah's existence and supremacy might be indubitably proved, preserved, and promulgated. We have seen that, if Pharaoh had freed the Hebrews at once when commanded, that proof would not have been called for, given, or made. But Pharaoh's denial and refusal raised the " issue," and both required and gave oppor- tunity for producing that evidence, and establish- ing that proof. Necessarily inherent in the conclusion and judg- ment of Jehovah, that he would cause Pharaoh to stand, was the cognate conclusion of Jehovah, that, in his judgment, it was necessary that Pha- raoh should continue to stand to the issues he had Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 207 made by his denials, in order that Jehovah's evi- dence proving those great facts in dispute could be fully produced, and the proof of those great facts be fully established. Proof of those great facts in such form that the proof could be preserved, recorded, and published throughout all the earth, was the expressly declared purpose of Jehovah, in causing Pharaoh to stand. WHAT IS PROOF But it is important that a just apprehension of what " proof " is, should be kept in mind in this connection. When a proposition is affirmed by one party and denied by an opponent, it creates an issue as to what is the truth of the disputed propo- sition. The issue is a statement plainly denning the dispute regarding the proposition. Hence the issue necessarily fixes and controls what shall be evidence, because that only which is relevant to the dispute stated by the issue regarding the proposition and contention can be evidence. The issue therefore furnishes each party the means — the instrumen- tality — by and through which the power of his evidence relevant to the particular proposition de- scribed by the issue may be produced, and by which his evidence can exert its power, and produce belief, 208 Miracle and Science assurance, and, if sufficient, may produce conclusive conviction, knowledge, of the verity of the contested proposition. In no other way or method can what is offered as evidence be rationally controlled, held to its just and normal function of relevancy, to the particular disputed proposition, and so operate le- gitimately to assist in getting at the truth of the proposition in controversy. In short, the issue is the indispensable means re- quired for ascertaining and establishing by evidence the truth of contested questions. This is so tested by the rules, principles, and standards of jural sci- ence. This conclusion seems also to have the clear sanction of the Master in proving his divinity in dealing with the palsied man at Capernaum, stated in a previous chapter. " Proof " cannot be truly ascribed to any propo- sition or alleged fact, unless and until its truth has been contested expressly or impliedly — its truth put in issue, and it has passed through the ordeal of contested trial, and has been shown by the evidence to be true, all opposition to the contrary notwith- standing. When that assured verity of the con- tested proposition is produced by the power of evidence, the proposition is proved. The result of the trial becomes " proof." In jurisprudence it is Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 209 called verdict, vere dictum, " said by the truth," x verity declared. And, be it remembered, Jehovah's expressly declared purpose, in the evidence at the Exodus, was to make indubitable proof of his ex- istence and supremacy, to be preserved for all gen- erations, and promulgated throughout all the earth. FURTHER EVIDENCE The issue raised by skeptics regarding the right- eousness of Jehovah, which we are now considering, reaches back to the beginning of Jehovah's dealing with the Egyptian king, when Jehovah as Supreme Sovereign, through Moses, required Pharaoh to emancipate the Hebrew slaves. Pharaoh then de- nied Jehovah and his supremacy, and on the issue thus made took his stand, and made it the ground for refusing to free the Hebrews. While Pharaoh maintained that stand, his refusal to free the He- brews continued as the logical sequence. Cor- relatively, Pharaoh's refusal to free the Hebrews constituted logically Pharaoh's tacit assertion that he continued to stand to his denials of the existence and of the supremacy of Jehovah in the issue he had thus made. The record shows that Jehovah declared, again and again, he would use the issue 1 Anderson, Law Dictionary, p. 1088 n. b. 210 Miracle and Science as the means by which his miracle evidence should be produced, until it should cause Pharaoh, not only to believe, but to " know/' Jehovah existed and was supreme in all the earth. Examining seven consecutive principal instances of miracles Jehovah wrought and produced as his evidence of his existence to Pharaoh, we find of (1) the harmless miracle of changing Moses' rod to a serpent, with its associated miracles, the rec- ord is: Pharaoh "hearkened not" (Ex. 7:13), stood to the issue he had made; of (2) waters of Egypt made blood, the record regarding Pharaoh is, "Neither did he lay even this to heart" (Ex, 7:23), stood his ground; of (3) miracle of frogs and of their removal, the record is, Pharaoh " hard- ened his [own] heart, and hearkened not" (Ex. 8: 15), continued to stand to his contention in the issue; of (4) miracle of lice, the record is, Pha- raoh's heart was hardened (no agent causing it named), but Pharaoh "hearkened not" (Ex. 8: 19), stood to his denial and refusal; of (5) miracle of pest of flies and removing them, the record is, " Pharaoh hardened his [own] heart this time also, and he did not let the people go " (Ex. 8 : 32), but stood to his contention; of (6) miracle of murrain upon beasts, the record is, " The heart of Pharaoh Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 211 was stubborn [no agent named], and he did not let the people go " ( Ex. 9:7), stood to his refusal ; and of (7) miracle of boils upon man and beast, the record for the first time is, " Jehovah hardened [strengthened] the heart of Pharaoh, and he heark- ened not," i.e. continued to stand to his contention, and so continued the issue, and continued the office, function, and use of the issue, for the production by either party of further evidence of the facts in- volved. The record shows that, after the harmless but distinct miracles changing Moses' rod to a ser- pent, etc., had been wrought, clear evidence of the existence of Jehovah, Pharaoh determined to stand by his denials in the issue, and that stand Pharaoh continued to insist upon, without any evidence, in the record, of active agency of Jehovah in causing Pharaoh to stand to it — but ample evidence that Pharaoh strengthened his own firmness to stand, until after Jehovah's evidence by miracle of boils upon man and beast had been announced. Causing Pharaoh to stand was holding him to continuing the issue Pharaoh had made by his de- nial of the existence and supremacy of Jehovah, until Jehovah should fully produce his evidence, for that was the declared purpose for which Pharaoh was caused to stand. Those denials, and the issue 212 Miracle and Science Pharaoh made, judicially considered, constituted a challenge addressed to Jehovah by Pharaoh to prove his asserted existence and supremacy. party's right to make full proof ■ If the evidence of Jehovah relevant to the issue had not been all fully produced, if he deemed it necessary to produce further evidence on that issue, more potent, more conclusive, which should pro- duce intelligent conviction and knowledge, then, ju- dicially considered, Jehovah, as contestant in that issue made by Pharaoh, had the right of every con- testant in such proceedings, to have the issue which provided the opportunity for producing such ad- ditional evidence continued for that purpose until all his evidence should be produced. Causing Pha- raoh to stand to his contention, and hence to secure continuance of the issue he had made, was in fact, and judicially considered, exercise of the right of holding an opponent to his challenge to Jehovah to make full proof of that existence and supremacy, a right which, by the rules of jurisprudence, every party to the issue has strict right to, and of which his opponent cannot, against his consent, deprive him. If the standard which Christ announced, that Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 213 " no man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God " (Luke 9 : 62) is right, can it be justly held that one having put His hand to the plow to accomplish a great and good work is unrighteous in insisting on the right to hold the plow to its work until the task is fully completed ? Clearly not. But it is the record of such act of Jehovah in so insisting on making full proof of his character, and name, and universal supremacy, that is the subject of the skeptics' crit- icisms. Not until after the long series of miracles up to and including the plague of boils is it recorded Je- hovah expressly caused or insisted that Pharaoh should stand to the issue he had made. The record shows that at that time Jehovah's purpose was to produce additional miracles, as his evidence, which should transcend any and all that had theretofore been produced. JEHOVAH SUPREME IN ALL THE EARTH We have heretofore noticed the vast importance to men of the " proof " of those supreme facts, ex- istence and supremacy of Jehovah. Inherent in Jehovah's decision to cause Pharaoh to stand to the issue he had made is the correlative decision of Je- 214 Miracle and Science hovah, that in his judgment the further proof he would make by his evidence, of his existence and supremacy, its preservation and promulgation, were of such value and importance to the human race, that they required and warranted such proceedings as should secure the continuance, in that manner, of the " issue " Pharaoh had himself caused, until Jehovah's evidence, in judicial phrase, was " full- proof" that is, evidence which satisfies the mind of the truth of the fact in dispute, to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt. 1 THE NEW EVIDENCE Our conception of Jehovah, " the only true God," is so a part of our thought in these days, and we are so unconsciously dominated by that conception, that we are in a sense embarrassed in dealing with the conception of Deity in the thought of men in Egypt and the world at the date of the Exodus. To fit ourselves to appreciate and deal with the condi- tions caused by that conception, we must get, and hold in mind, that conception in the viewpoint of Pharaoh and the men of that time. Their concep- tion of deity was, that the gods of Egypt and other nations were beings who could operate with and 1 Kane v. Ind. Co. 38 N. J. L. 450 ; Starkie on Ev. 817. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 215 through water, air, lightning, natural forces and secondary agencies generally; that, by their power over natural forces and such agencies, the gods of their conception could work good or evil to men; could, if strong enough, defend their votaries against such evil when attempted to be inflicted through such agencies by gods of foreign nations. After the nine and more miracles, and before the final one, Jehovah, to their conception, was only and merely one of the multitude of gods distributed among, and believed in by, the nations of the earth. Jehovah after he had proved his existence was to them and the race of mankind merely such a god, merely the special god of the Hebrews. To tell the Egyptians or their contemporaries that Jehovah was " the only true God " would be to offer them a con- ception which they could not comprehend or take into their minds ; as the apostles could not take in or bear truths Jesus desired to tell them the last night before his crucifixion, but did not because he de- clared to them, " Ye cannot bear them now." The Egyptians and the race at the time of the Exodus could not learn that truth by words. But they could be made to learn the absolute supremacy of Jehovah by mighty object-lessons, such as they could apprehend and comprehend, could not evade 216 Miracle and Science or ignore, miracle evidence forced on their unwill- ing attention. But it required a greater lesson than any of all the lessons previously given to the Egyp- tians, by which Jehovah had shown the Egyptians he existed and was supreme, superior to the gods of Egypt. The knowledge of that supremacy the Egyptians had attained, but they had not yet learned that Jehovah was other than one of the many gods of their conception, the conceptions of men of their time, which have already been described. To their minds, Jehovah wrought miracles only as they con- ceived each of the multitude of gods of the na- tions, as they apprehended gods, wrought by and through some intermediate means, natural forces, or secondary agencies, as a rod, water, frogs, lice, insects, diseases, hail, lightning, darkness. Jehovah, in the conception of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, had thus proved that his miracle power was supe- rior to that of the gods of Egypt. The gods of Egypt could not defend the Egyptians from the miracle plagues Jehovah inflicted on them. Only as such gods, Jehovah, the god of the Hebrews, as they believed, had executed judgment against the gods of Egypt in an actual contention and test, pub- licly made. That great lesson they had learned under severe compulsion. Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 217 FURTHER EVIDENCE ESSENTIAL But the question remained, Was Jehovah supe- rior to the gods of other nations and peoples ? Was he superior to the gods of Chaldea, gods of Meso- potamia, gods of Babylon; of Hamath, of Arpad, of Sepharvaim, of Canaan, etc. ? Could the Egyptians, and the then degenerate race of mankind, be taught by Jehovah's object- lesson — miracle evidence that Jehovah was su- preme or superior to all gods or conceptions of gods, of all nations of all the earth, as conceptions of such gods existed in the minds of the race — without entering into actual contest, before and with all the nations, as to superiority over their gods, and executing judgment against all gods of all nations — all successively, one after another, seriatim, as Jehovah had done with the Egyptians and their alleged gods? Unless that could be done by further miracle lesson and evidence, the evidence of the absolute supremacy of Jehovah would be in- complete, his universal supremacy unproved. If that incomplete proof of Jehovah's supremacy was to be completed by a further miracle lesson and evi- dence, obviously the new evidence must differ rad- ically, in its evidentiary force, from the former, the many that preceded. To furnish men of that time 218 Miracle and Science evidence to prove the absolute supremacy of Jeho- vah in all the earth, the force of the miracle evi- dence ought to be probative of supreme attributes of Deity — Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omni- potence. In the judgment of right reason it should be -wrought in scale and magnitude, comprehensive- ness and character, commensurate with the object to be proved, i.e. that Jehovah was supreme " in all the earth," in fact "greater than all gods" (Ex. 18:11); "none else" (Deut. 4:39). COMPLETION OF PROOF The record shows that the final miracle lesson to the Egyptians, destroying the first-born, contem- plated especially as evidence, was wrought to com- plete the evidence that should establish proof of Jehovah's universal supremacy " in all the earth," and his supreme attributes (Ex. 9:14). As evi- dence it was to complete the proofs. Jehovah an- nounced the judgment he would execute upon the Egyptians ; literally rendered, as above stated, " One smiting will I bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt" (Ex. 11.1). It was to be, in magnitude, comprehensiveness, and probative potency, proof of the supreme attributes of his character. Jehovah de- clared that at a midnight hour his fiat should Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 219 " go out into the midst of Egypt ; and all the first- born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first- born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is be- hind the mill; and all the first-born of cattle " (Ex. 11:4, 5). This was done, and the final miracle evidence and lesson was effectual, as predicted. Thereby the entire Egyptian people, the dwellers in every house in the realm, had immediate, direct, and per- sonal evidence, and were brought to know Jehovah existing, sovereign and supreme. This miracle em- braced dealing with 10,000,000 people, Egyptians and Hebrews, and all the cattle of a great empire. Pharaoh and his entire nation learned and knew Jehovah supreme; for, as predicted, " at midnight .... Jehovah smote all the first- born in the land of Egypt. From the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive in the dungeon ; and all the first-born of cattle. And [1] Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and [2] all his servants, and [3] all the Egyp- tians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt ; for there was not a house where there was not one dead " (Ex. 12:29, 30). At midnight, not waiting for the morning, Pharaoh and the Egyptians sought Moses and Aaron, and 220 Miracle and Science were urgent upon the Hebrews to send them out of the land in haste. CONTRASTED PROBATIVE FORCE OF FINAL MIRACLE The difference, the contrast, between the proba- tive force of this miracle evidence lesson and the former nine and more, in manifesting Jehovah to men, was radical, fundamental, in execution, in character, in scope, and in corresponding purpose and effect. Here, in the final lesson and testimony, there was nothing of rods, water, frogs, dust, lice, locusts, flies, disease, murrain, boils, lightning, hail, thunder, darkness, or any intermediate agency. The power that wrought was the fiat, the silent will, of Jehovah. His fiat wrought directly and independ- ently of physical cause or weapon, absolutely inde- pendent of all intermediaries whatsoever. None of these had any place or function in that miracle — nothing but fiat alone. Fiat and death were con- temporal, simultaneous in issue and operation. The power manifested was unrestricted, unlimited, in short Omnipotent. The lesson exhibited God in the great essentials of his being — Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence. Consider the evidentiary force of this miracle in proving the unlimited knowledge, omniscience, of Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 221 Jehovah. The miracle was not to be, and was not wrought, upon persons or beasts theretofore spe- cifically ascertained and labeled, but upon the un- published, unidentified first-born of millions of men and of unnumbered millions of cattle, the millions of both scattered indiscriminately throughout a vast empire. What higher or more conclusive objective evidence could be given to, or understood by, men, to show Jehovah supreme in knowledge, than that shown by knowledge, singling out throughout all those millions of human beings, and millions of cat- tle, without identifying evidence to point out the specific individuals, but silently singling out with unerring accuracy the first-born of all those uniden- tified millions, and affecting no others whatsoever. Midnight darkness had no obscuring effect upon the Omniscience of Jehovah. The Egyptians were taught, and knew, that " the darkness and the light were both alike to him." What higher or more convincing objective evi- dence would be given to, or comprehended by, men, to show supremacy of Jehovah, omnipresent in activity, than that at a designated point of time, a designated midnight hour, instantly, Jehovah was so actively present in every house and field in the whole realm of Egypt, that his fiat at once every- 222 Miracle and Science where, simultaneously, singled out and destroyed each first-born of man and beast ; and there was not a house or a field where that omnipresent activity of Jehovah did not at that midnight instant operate. These proofs were made. The probative potency of that miracle reached to the highest that could be given by actual objective demonstration to men, or which men could comprehend, to prove the fact of the omnipotency and supremacy of Jehovah. The final evidence, under the continued issue in proba- tive force, reached to and established express at- tributes " of the only true God," supreme in power, supreme in intelligence, and supreme in omnipres- ent activity and energy, and completed the proof of that supremacy — evidence that had not been fully given before ; proof that before was incomplete. THE JUDGMENT The Hebrews were to be emancipated in the Ex- odus epoch. That deliverance was accomplished by God's judgment destroying the first-born of Egypt in punishment for their guilty oppression of Abra- ham's seed. Judgment rendered to accomplish one specific important purpose cannot be executed (it may safely be affirmed) without in fact incidentally af- Miracle and Doctrine — Jehovah 223 fecting seriously other matters, persons, and inter- ests than the single purpose it was rendered to accomplish. A judgment condemning a malefactor to the gallows is rendered for the single purpose of punishing a criminal, in vindication of law and jus- tice. Penalty of death adjudged against a male- factor for his crime operates incidentally to make his wife a widow and his children orphans. While, as the record shows, the primary, direct, and fundamental purpose of the judgment de- stroying the first-born of the Egyptians was performance of God's covenant with Abraham to judge and punish that nation for their crimes against Abraham's descendants, another purpose, disclosed by the record, was to fully prove his existence and universal supremacy, and cause his name to be declared in all the earth. Also, God contemplated, as the further incidental result of that judgment, the emancipation of the Hebrews ; for so that result is described. It is not named, either in Genesis or Exodus or in Acts, as a pri- mary purpose of that judgment, but in each in- stance merely and solely incidental. The judgment is specially named in four passages, and, in regard to the Hebrews and Pharaoh, the remark is added as follows: Gen. 15: 14 (God speaking) : "After- 224 Miracle and Science zvard shall they come out"; Ex. 3: 20 (God speak- ing) : "After that he will let you go " ; Ex. 11 :1 (God speaking) : "Afterwards he will let you go " ; Acts 7: 7 (Stephen's report, God speaking) : "After that shall they come forth!' This linguistic identity in describing that very important incidental result deserves notice, because it is potent evidence to prove that the four records describe one and the same identical judgment, namely, that of destroying the first-born of Egypt, in punishment for the crimes perpetrated on the Hebrews before the Exodus era, and in performance of God's covenant therefor with Abraham. The fact that an important inci- dental effect — emancipation of the Hebrews — re- sulted from the execution of that judgment of God did not change its character, or deprive it from be- ing God's performance of his covenant with Abra- ham, nor from its being punishment of the guilty Egyptians for their criminal oppression of the He- brews. It was not punishment inflicted for an act God had himself caused ; and that contention of the skeptics is shown to be unfounded and untrue, and their charge that God is unrighteous, based on that unfounded and untrue contention, is also unfounded and untrue. CHAPTER VII MIRACLE INTEGRAL AND CONSTITUENT IN GOD'S ECONOMY OF GRACE AND REVELATION "David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. . . . Therefore did my heart re- joice. . . . Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corrup- tion. . . . Therefore being a prophet .... He foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are wit- nesses." Acts 2 : 25-32. Section I SCOPE OF INQUIRY The doctrine stated at the head of this chapter has been, through the ages, a fundamental doctrine of believers in the Bible as the Word of God. But for some time, especially since the doctrines of nat- ural Evolution and destructive Higher Criticism have invaded theology, denying the supernatural in the Bible, many professing Christians and many in the ministry and educational work have attempted to adapt and yoke together such evolution and criti- cism in concord with Christianity. Consequently 226 Miracle and Science the doctrine that miracle is integral and constituent in the Christian dispensation has been denied, dis- believed, or ceased to have place in the faith of many in the ministry and educational work, with a consequent disastrous following among the laity. In the very nature of things, such attempts at yoking discordant elements in religion were fore- doomed to disaster. The Bible comes to men as evidence, and from Genesis to Revelation the super- natural is intrinsic in it. The supernatural is in organic combination with its contents, and cannot be irrupted from the Bible record without destroy- ing it. Furthermore the supernatural is set forth by the Bible writers, not as what is casual or inci- dental, but as what is paramount, and is asserted as that of which they are certain, that of which they are not and cannot be mistaken. On fundamental principles of right the supernatural cannot be struck out of the Bible as false without altogether destroying the evidence the Bible brings to our race. This is the verdict of the science of jurisprudence. Judge Story,' in rendering the judgment of the full bench of the Supreme Court of our nation in an important case, expounded and applied the doctrine that witnesses who testify falsely as to important matters they distinctly assert as true cannot be Miracle Integral in Christianity 227 believed as to the remainder of their testimony. That eminent jurist said: " When the party speaks to a fact in respect to which he cannot be presumed to be liable to mis- take .... if the fact turn out otherwise .... courts of justice under such circumstances are bound upon principles of law and morality and justice to apply the maxim falsus in uno, falsibus in omnibus. What ground of judicial belief can there be left when the party has shown such gross insensibility to the difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood ? " 1 As an emphatic illustration, if John's testimony of the miracle of raising Lazarus from death to life is false, the falsity utterly impeaches John, and cre- dence cannot be given with faith to any testimony he gives on any subject; and so of every writer throughout the record. That miracle is integral is basic in the Christian religion. The conditions described justify a careful and thorough reexamination of the ground and foundations of the doctrine, by the best possible method, to ascertain, on firm, rational grounds, whether the denial or disbelief in the doctrine is justified. The examination will require patience and careful scrutiny of the first principles, and may lr The Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheat. 337. 228 Miracle and Science seem minute. But thoroughness in applying the scientific method is essential as much for detail as in the general scope of the inquiry, if assured re- sults are to be attained. What has already been stated has, indirectly at least, profound bearing in sustaining the doctrine. Now we propose to make the inquiry as to the doc- trine direct and express. As a means of testing the truth of the doctrine that miracle is integral and constituent in God's economy of grace and revela- tion, the question may be asked, Could the Christian religion have been established without miracle? That would seem to be a supreme test. The evi- dence and reasoning may be considered in answer- ing that question. RESURRECTION OF JESUS, TEST AND PROOF OF DOCTRINE The miracle of the resurrection of Jesus, in connection with Christ's prophecy regarding his Church and the Gates of Hell, may be taken as the base of the inquiry. Theodore Keim, a German theologian, originally disposed to discredit the su- pernatural in religion, after the most comprehen- sive examination of the matter, concludes that, with- out the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus, " faith Miracle Integral in Christianity 229 in him as the Messiah would have vanished, the disciples would have gone back to Judaism and the synagogue, and the words of Jesus would have been buried in the sands of oblivion." x The state- ment of Keim, reduced to a proposition, is : With- out the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus, Chris- tianity would not have survived his death on the cross. That conclusion seems to be the conclusion also of the commentators. But the marvelous force of what is involved in the proposition, i.e. showing miracle integral and constituent in the Christian religion, can be appreciated only by careful atten- tion to all the evidence, conditions, and reasons that show the proposition true. Therefore we propose (instead of merely reasoning the subject) to pre- sent the matter to readers as jurors, and examine 1 Theodore Keim, Der geschichtliche Christus (1866), vol. iii. p. 605. Dr. Fisher in his work Grounds of The- istic and Christian Belief, commenting on the above, says: "The admission of a miracle is fairly extorted from this writer by the untenableness of any other so- lution that can be thought of. At the end of a work which is largely taken up with attempts direct or in- direct to disprove supernatural agency, Keim finds him- self driven by sheer pressure of the evidence to assert its reality, and to maintain that the very survival of Christianity in the world after the death of Jesus de- pended on it" (p. 174). 230 Miracle and Science by the rules of the science of jurisprudence the evidence and conditions connected with the tran- scendent miracle of the resurrection of Jesus as wrought in confirmation of a prophecy and pledge of Jesus, made in contemplation of the tragedy of the' cross. When that evidence is presented to readers as it should be to a juror, the reader can realize the truth of the proposition of Mr. Keim, and the fact that miracle is integral and constituent in the Christian dispensation, as he can in no other way. The importance of the doctrine seems to jus- tify the labor. The prophecy and pledge were given when Peter made the great confession : " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16: 16).- Jesus announced that on that rock truth 1 he would build his Church, and added the prophetic revelation : "And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). GATES OF HELL — SATAN The meaning of the figurative language used by the Master in describing enemies of righteousness as the Gates of Hell, whose Satanic assault upon 1 Matt. 16 : 18 ; Isa. 28 : 16 ; Ps. 118 : 22, 23 as quoted by Jesus, Matt. 21 : 42 ; Paul, 1 Cor. 3 : 11, and E'ph. 2:20, 22. Miracle Integral in Christianity 231 his Church should not prevail, is well stated by Professor Bush in his work on Genesis : "[Gates,] the place of public convocation, where the citizens assembled to deliberate upon matters of general interest, correspond to halls, council- chambers, or town-houses of modern times. When, therefore, our Saviour says that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church, his meaning is, that the counsels, plots, and policies of hell shall not prevail against it ; employing a figure of speech by which the place of counsel stands for the coun- sels themselves." x We shall not attain, however, a full conception of the Gates of Hell unless we include in the con- cept the instigator of all malignant assaults against the Church of Christ, the Devil, — not demons, but the Devil, the great enemy of God and man (1 Pet. 5:8), who tempted Jesus and incites men to sin (Matt. 4:1; John 13 : 2 ; Eph. 4 : 27) ; who, as Christ teaches, when the good seed of truth is sown steals it away (Luke 8:12), or sows tares (Matt. 13:39), lays snares or practises wiles to injure the children of God (Eph. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:26), and seduces them by his subtilty (2 Cor. 11: 3). The Gates of Hell made their deadly assault upon the Church of Christ by compassing the x Bush, Notes on Genesis, vol. ii. p. 195. 232 Miracle and Science death, on the cross, of Jesus, its Head, Foundation, and Founder. This was prophesied a thousand years before by David, as told by Peter, under in- spiration of the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pente- cost. Quoting from the second Psalm, " Why do the heathen rage [marg. " tumultously assemble "], and the people meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asun- der, and cast away their cords from us" (Ps. 2: 1-3), Peter's inspired comment was, "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered to- gether " (Acts 4: 27). That was the assault of the Gates of Hell upon the Church of Christ which put the very existence of the Church in jeopardy at that time. We are now to examine the evidence, to as- certain what the situation was that placed the Church of Christ in peril so deadly that the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus was required to save it. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST The unique purpose and work of the Church of Christ is to save men — to build a kingdom of Miracle Integral in Christianity 233 saved men to be therein taught, trained, and dis- ciplined by the teaching of the Master and the Holy Spirit, to be fitted for and intrusted with the human part of making and maintaining his Church to be organized by and with saved men as its human con- stituents. The Church was to be an aid and instru- ment in executing Christ's great commission; in making disciples of all nations and inducting them into that Church, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever the Master commanded. With the command Jesus promised, " I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:19, 20). Obviously it was of vital importance that the individuals con- stituting the Church of Christ should have and act on a radically true and adequate estimate and ap- prehension of Christ, the Founder and Foundation of the Church, and his gospel mission, and a like, true and adequate estimate and apprehension of the kingdom of Christ of saved men, to establish which was the paramount and ultimate purpose of the Church of Christ. 234 Miracle and Science Section II APOSTLES' CONCEPTION OF JESUS BEFORE HIS CRUCIFIXION Knowledge of the estimate and apprehension which the apostles actually attained of Jesus and his mission, which dominated and controlled them, as well as knowledge of the actual ground of their faith in and adhesion to Jesus until his death on the cross, are essential to an understanding of the peril of the Church from the assault of the Gates of Hell. At the advent of Jesus, and for nearly a millen- nium before, the uniform, the universal conception of Christ, held with lively hope and anxious anticipa- tion by the Jews (and it appears also by other peo- ples not Jews), was that Messiah would come, and, when he came, would be king and have a kingdom. That conception and cherished belief dominated the minds and hearts of the disciples and apostles. This their Sacred Scriptures abundantly justified. 1 From outside of Judaea and outside of the Jewish nation, at the birth of Jesus, it is recorded that, " Wise-men from the east came to Jerusalem, say- ing, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for x Ps. 2:6, 7; 45:1-7; 89:27-36; Isa. 9:2, 6, 7; Jer. 23 :5-8 ; Zech. 9 :9 ; see also by citation of Old Testa- ment, Matt. 21:5; Luke 19:38; John 12:15. Miracle Integral in Christianity 235 we saw his star in the east, and are come to wor- ship him. . . . And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and worshipped him; and opening their treasures they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh" (Matt. 2:1, 2, 11, Am. Rev.). These were appropriate offerings for royal person- ages. When convinced, by the testimony of Andrew and Philip and a brief interview with Jesus, that he was the Messiah, Nathanael immediately expressed the common conviction of his race, that Christ when he came would be ipso facto king, by saying, " Rab- bi, thou art the Son of God; thou art King of Is- rael " (John 1 : 49, Am. Rev.). The evidence in the record is ample to produce the belief that the Messiah should not be merely king in name and honor, but that he should have and rule in fact a kingdom. Centuries before John the Baptist announced the advent of Messiah, God had revealed and assured, and Daniel had prophe- sied, that at a future time the " God of heaven " would set up a kingdom ; hence, a " kingdom of God " or a " kingdom of heaven." Daniel's prophecy further was, that that kingdom "shall never be de- stroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to 236 Miracle and Science another people ; but it shall break in pieces and con- sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for- ever " (Dan. 2:44, Am. Rev.). Also: " Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- dom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. . . . And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the peo- ple of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him " (Dan. 7 : 13, 14, 27). God's revelation to Daniel was reproduced, through the angel Gabriel, in the annunciation to Mary, con- cluding, " and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:33). Isaiah also prophesied a like glorious kingdom for Messiah, and added the in- spired assurance, " The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this " (Isa. 9: 6, 7). The kingdom so pledged and prophesied tran- scended overwhelmingly any and every kingdom the world had ever known. It was to be absolutely uni- versal, embracing " all people," " all nations," and Miracle Integral in Christianity 237 " all languages " ; " should never be destroyed." It should " break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms," and it should " stand forever." Its " sovereignty should not be left to another people " ; and to the Son of man, as king of that kingdom of God, Jehovah would give " dominion and glory." Finally, these transcendent blessings should " be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." This revelation and pledge of Jehovah was made when the body of the people of Israel were captives in a far-away land, Jerusalem in ruins and their temple destroyed. Yet Jehovah remembered them, and caused that the ruler who held them captive should have them returned, their temple rebuilt, and a government reestablished. Although at the advent of Jesus the Israelites were again a conquered people under the Romans, Jeho- vah's revelation and promise had not been revoked. That revelation and pledge was part of their cher- ished Sacred Scriptures, taught to every descen- dant of Abraham and associated adherent of the God of Abraham. Participation in the blessedness of that kingdom as his birthright was the claim and glory of every Israelite. So familiar was it that three words, " Kingdom of God," sufficed to ex- press it, as the three words " Fourth of July " 238 Miracle and Science bring at once without definition to every American citizen the immortal Declaration and its glorious fruits. So, all through the Gospels, the phrases " kingdom of God " and " kingdom of heaven " are spoken baldly, on the assumption, correctly made, that the meaning would be understood without defi- nition. FULFILMENT OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY Note also Christ's revelation at the beginning of his ministry. His first recorded discourse is : " Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, [1] The time is ful- filled, and [2] the kingdom of God is at hand; [3] repent ye; and believe the gospel " (Mark 1:14, 15). x That is, (1) the predicted time of Daniel's prophecy had arrived; (2) the transcendent, universal, all- conquering kingdom of the prophecy was immi- nent, "at hand " ; (3) the exhortation was " repent," as the essential, primary act of the soul for purifi- cation through the remission of sins, to fit a be- liever in Christ for entering into the inheritance 1 Other recognition, by the Master, of Daniel's prophecy is Matt. 24 : 15. See, too, an admirable refutation of the skeptic-?' denial of the authenticity of the book of Daniel, by Joseph Wilson, D.D., entitled Did Daniel write Dan- iel ? New York : Charles C. Cook. Miracle Integral in Christianity 239 presently to be given to the " saints of the Most High." Bishop Home says of the apostles and this kingdom: " In common with their countrymen they ex- pected a reigning and glorious Messiah, who was not only to deliver them from the Roman yoke, but who was also to subdue all his enemies. With him, they themselves expected to conquer and reign to- gether with the rest of the Jews as princes and nobles in the splendid court of this temporal Mes- siah. No expectation ever flattered the predomi- nant passions of men so powerfully as this. It showed itself on every occasion and adhered to them immovably." Forty days after the resurrection of Jesus it broke out at the solemn final interview between the risen Christ and the apostles in immediate connection with his ascension : " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? " (Acts 1:6). FOUNDATION OF APOSTLES* FAITH IN JESUS AS MESSIAH Jesus the Messiah came having no army, no treasury, no arsenal or weapons of war, none of the material resources requisite for maintaining the power and state of a king or kingdom, no alliance with any earthly power or potentate, through whom 240 Miracle and Science he or his adherents might expect to have a kingdom realized for him. Notwithstanding all this, the apostles believed Jesus was the Messiah, as he claimed to be, and therefore he was King, and would have the kingdom on earth depicted by Daniel, and they adhered to him accordingly. Why? Answer to this question will be next considered. As we have seen in former chapters, the evidence proved Jesus Messiah, hence also King. The record discloses nothing to show that the apostles had any anxiety over Jesus' apparent lack of the material facts and factors, the usual instrumentalities essen- tial for establishing and maintaining a kingdom. But evidence constantly given before the apostles of the miracle power of Jesus demonstrated that that power, so far as tested, was always omnipotent, adequate for any and every possible requirement, demand, or emergency. They saw Jesus, by his fiat or touch, cure other- wise incurable leprosy, nay ten lepers at once, by no other discernible act than speaking six words : " Go shew yourselves unto the priests " (all of you) ; and " as they went, they were cleansed " (Luke 17 : 14) ; saw Jesus' fiat cure the " withered hand " of a crip- ple, and " it was restored whole, as the other " Miracle Integral in Christianity 241 (Matt. 12:13); saw fever cured by Jesus' word (Luke 4: 39) ; the nobleman's sick son, fifteen miles away, healed by the silent, unspoken fiat of Jesus (John 4:50); likewise, by Jesus' unspoken fiat, the centurion's absent servant healed (Luke 7: 8-10). They saw Jesus' fiat cure the man impo- tent " thirty and eight years " (John 5:8, 9) ; saw the woman bowed down by an infirmity for eighteen years, who " could in no wise lift up herself," cured by his fiat (Luke 13:11); blind men restored to sight (Matt 9:30). They had seen the miracle power of Jesus give sight to the man born blind (John 9:7); hearing and power to speak given to the deaf and dumb (Mark 7:32-35). They had heard Jesus, in a throng pressing against him, de- clare that virtue had gone out of him, and had seen the woman whose disease had held her a sufferer twelve years come forward, and confess that she in the exercise of her faith touched but the hem of Jesus' garment and immediately had felt her mal- ady cured (Mark 5:25-34). Demons and devils were exorcised at the fiat of Jesus (Matt. 8:31; Luke 9 : 42 ; 11 : 20), and the apostles themselves, by miracle power delegated to them by Jesus, had been enabled to and did call into operation that power by which demons and devils were exorcised (Matt. 242 Miracle and Science 10:1; Luke 9 : 1 and 10 : 17) . They had seen Jesus by his miracle power turn water into wine (John 2:9); secure tribute money from a fish (Matt. 17 : 24, 27) ; seen miracle of draught of fishes at Jesus' command (Luke 5: 4, 6). They had seen Jesus by his miracle power augment five loaves and two fishes so that the augmented food was sufficient to feed five thousand men, besides women and chil- dren, leaving a surplus of twelve baskets full (Matt. 14: 15-21) ; and seven loaves and a few fishes aug- mented to be sufficient to feed four thousand men, besides women and children, with seven baskets full left over (Matt. 15: 32-38). They saw Jesus blast the fig-tree (Matt. 21 : 19, 20 ; Mark 11 : 12, 13), re- buke the tempest, and the winds and waves obeyed and there was immediately a great calm (Matt. 8:24-27; Mark 4:37-41; Luke 8:23-25); they saw Jesus by his miracle power repeatedly raise the dead to life again (Matt. 9 : 18 ; Mark 5 : 22 ; Luke 8 : 41 and 7 : 11 ; John 11 and 12). The miracle augmenting the five loaves and two fishes so that the food was sufficient to feed five thousand men, besides women and children, was recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and a gen- eration later by John in his Gospel. The reason why John again recorded it seems found in verses Miracle Integral in Christianity 243 14 and 15 of the sixth chapter of John (R. V.), namely, that the miracle produced such conviction, in the minds of those five thousand men, that Jesus was the Messiah, and hence King - , that they de- termined to take Jesus by force and proclaim him king. These miracles, and a like power shown on other occasions, were exhibited before the world and before the apostles, purposely by Jesus, to con- vince them and cause them to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and hence, as they believed, King. In the exhibition of the miracle power of Jesus these momentous facts were demonstrated : Jesus' miracle power never failed, was always and at once equal for every case and every situation, not only ade- quate but superabundant. It was more than testi- mony ; it was demonstration that Jesus could at will withstand any power or force attempted to be brought against him or his kingdom or his adher- ents; that Jesus could restore any adherent to life if killed, or by a word or unspoken fiat heal all wounds, even if the wounded was absent miles away; could feed any army with a loaf of bread and a fish, could by his fiat destroy an army. In short, Jesus could, by mere fiat, equip and maintain whatever might be necessary, to uphold and admin- 244 Miracle and Science ister the mighty and glorious kingdom Daniel had prophesied, and could confer on his adherents the glory and blessings of that kingdom at pleasure, for he was King of kings, and Lord of lords. FAITH PRODUCED BY MIRACLE The unconditioned, omnipotent miracle power of Jesus produced full belief in the minds and hearts of the apostles, that Jesus was the Messiah, King. That full belief and perfect confidence in the uncon- ditional miracle power of Jesus became the primary ground, the fundamental and controlling basis, of their faith in Jesus, and of their devoted adherence to him up to his death on the cross. Logically it follows that faith engendered on such foundation could not survive the loss or failure of the founda- tion. But the foregoing exhibition of miracle power was not all that operated on the minds and hearts of the apostles. Another miracle transac- tion, to be presently noticed, evidently not only con- clusively confirmed the faith of the apostles in Jesus as Messiah and King, and in his miracle power, but created in the minds and hearts of the apostles such overwhelming conviction that that transcendent kingdom, with all its allurements and grandeur, was to be immediately established, and Miracle Integral in Christianity 245 they be the principal participants in its honor and glory, that the anticipations aroused by the convic- tion became a passion and a power, so dominating them that its expulsive force debarred from their apprehension matters the Master repeatedly taught plainly to them. The overmastery of their passion for the Kingdom, so aroused and confirmed, caused all else to be eclipsed. It caused other matters to be " hid," as Luke explains. The Master's repeated prophecy that he should be crucified, dead, and buried, and the third day rise from death, found no lodgment in their minds. Luke records : " But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not " (Luke 9 : 45) ; and again : " They understood none of these things ; and this saying was hid from them, and they per- ceived not the things that were said" (Luke 18: 34, Am. Rev.). MIRACLES ' — MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION The additional miracles just referred to were wrought on what Peter calls the Holy Mount (2 Pet. 1 : 16-18). The time appears to have been about a week after Jesus announced, on Peter's confession, that He would institute his Church, and the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it. Je- 246 Miracle and Science sus " took Peter and John and James, and went up into the mountain to pray " (Luke 9 : 28 ; see Matt. 17:1; Mark 9:2). Jesus was transfigured, "and his garments became glistering, exceeding white, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them " (Mark 9:3). And there two hero saints of the ancient time met and communed with Jesus, — Moses, the hero of the Exodus; and Elijah, who had not only called down fire from heaven to vindicate God against Baal at Carmel, but who, to vindicate him- self as God's prophet against Ahab, had by God's direction called down fire from heaven which de- stroyed two troops of fifty and their captain sent by Ahab to capture Elijah. Luke records that these two hero saints " ap- peared in glory, and spake of the exodus which he [Jesus] should accomplish at Jerusalem " (Luke 9:31). We have written "exodus" in the quo- tation, instead of "decease" (as in A. V.), be- cause the Greek word in Luke is eljoBov, which should be transliterated exodus. Exodus was not a word that to the apostles or to Jesus meant de- cease nor anything like death. On the contrary, it stood for a concept of more and better and glorious life, — going out of humiliation and oppression, out of subjection, into victory, liberty, glory, and an in- Miracle Integral in Christianity 247 dependent nationality. Executing the commission of God in the exodus of the children of Israel from servility and humiliation in Egypt, and giving them a nationality and independence, was the special great and unique work wrought by Moses as God's agent. Something in the mission of Jesus cor- responding with that ancient and glorious exodus from Egypt was the thought foreshadowed by Moses when he spoke to Jesus of his " exodus which he should accomplish at Jerusalem " (Luke 9:31). Add this conception to the fixed conviction in the minds and hearts of the apostles that Jesus was King, presently to come into the glorious Kingdom of Daniel's vision; and connect it with Jesus' own express declaration — his proclamation, recorded by Mark, of the good news of " the kingdom of God," saying, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:14, 15), and the fact that Jehovah on the Mount gave his authenticating word, saying, " This is my beloved Son : hear him " (Luke 9:35); what could the apostles conclude from Moses' statement save this, that what Jesus " should accomplish at Jerusalem " was the estab- lishment in fact of the transcendent kingdom Daniel had prophesied. 248 Miracle and Science That this was the conception and conviction de- rived from the language of Moses and Elijah, and Jehovah himself, is shown by several items of evi- dence in the record. On coming down from the Holy Mount, when the miracle of healing the boy possessed by a demon was wrought, Luke records : " Then there arose a reasoning among them [the apostles], which of them should be greatest " (Luke 9 : 46). And such reasoning it seems was had by the apostles among themselves by the way; for when they came to Ca- pernaum, " in the house " Jesus asked them, " What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest " (Mark 9 : 33, 34). Again, in the same chapter, it would seem the apostles, James and John at least, concluded that Christ's kingdom had already come, his transfigura- tion was his coronation, and the audible words of Deity commending men to hear and heed him were adequate ordination of Jesus as King, and that whosoever should fail to heed and honor Jesus as Supreme Sovereign should be punished with ex- treme severity ; for " when the time was come .... he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem " (Luke Miracle Integral in Christianity 249 9:51). Jesus, as a sovereign might do, sent mes- sengers forward to a " village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him .... when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" They had but lately heard Elijah, as well as Moses, converse with Jesus in the Holy Mount. Jesus told them they did not know their own spirit, that he did not come to destroy lives, but to save them. Later, on the same last journey of Je- sus and his apostles from Galilee to Jerusalem, a transaction occurred that shows how the leaven of political ambition for the honors of the Kingdom had permeated and controlled the apostles. From Matthew 27 : 56, compared with Mark 15 : 40 ; 16 : 1, and with John 19 : 25, it seems inferable that the mother of James and John, Salome, was a sister to the mother of Jesus, making James and John his near kinsmen. James and John (their mother uniting with them it seems) undertook to get a selfish advantage over the other apostles. They worshiped Jesus. Then they sought what the record says the mother ex- pressly prayed : " Grant that these my two sons may 250 Miracle and Science sit, the one on thy right hand, the other on the left, in thy kingdom " (Matt. 20: 20, 21; Mark 10: 35- 37). That this was done furtively, to secure the highest honors of the great kingdom, get the hon- ors away from the other apostles, seems clear ; for, "when the ten heard thereof, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren" (Matt. 20:24; Mark 10:41). The whole record shows that the indignation of the other ten apostles was not because the honors sought by James and John were not legitimate objects of desire, but because James and John resorted to secret, underhanded methods in attempting to gain political advantage over the ten in honors in the glorious kingdom which the ten also hoped for, and possibly coveted. Again, the leaven of political ambition was seen at the Last Supper, for Luke reveals that then " there was also a strife among them which should be accounted greatest" (Luke 22:24). The con- fidence of the apostles in the speedy establishment of the kingdom was naturally strengthened when, at the Passover season, the vast multitude met and followed Jesus, seated on the ass's colt, and hailed him as King, shouting, " Hosanna .... Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, the kingdom of our fa- ther David " (Mark 11 : 9, 10). The Apostle John Miracle Integral in Christianity 251 records that this demonstration was fulfilment of prophesy, " as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt" (John 12:15; see Zech. 9:9). The Master's own words must have also im- pressed the apostles profoundly with belief that the demonstration was then and there a part of the Master's proceedings by which he would presently establish his kingdom. For when the whole multi- tude of the disciples with loud voice hailed Jesus, " Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord," the Pharisees called on Jesus to rebuke his disciples, for so proclaiming Jesus as King. Je- sus answered the Pharisees' challenge and said, " I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out " (Luke 19 : 37- 40). The foregoing shows the attitude of mind and heart of the apostles, their apprehension and esti- mate of Jesus and his mission, and especially that the ground and cause of their faith in Jesus as Mes- siah and King was in his omnipotent miracle power. That was the condition and situation when Jesus gathered the apostles at Jerusalem for the last sup- per, the evening before his betrayal and crucifixion. Several matters transpired at that feast which must 252 Miracle and Science have affected the apostles profoundly, if not at the moment yet later at the crucifixion. These will next be considered. Section III JESUS — LAST SUPPER — ARREST — TRIAL In announcing his betrayal by Judas, Jesus quoted the sentiment of Ps. 41 : 9 : " He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me " (John 13:18); and John adds: "When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit " (John 13 : 21). Je- sus applied to himself the words of Isaiah 53 : 12 : " And he was reckoned among the transgressors," and added, " For the things concerning me have an end " (Luke 22 : 37) . What could this mean to the apostles? End of their King? Jesus questioned the apostles, as to whether, when he sent them forth as his missionaries without purse or scrip or shoes, they lacked anything? They answered, " Nothing" (Luke 22 : 35) . Jesus said : " But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip : and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one" (Luke 22:36). The apostles replied: "Lord, here are two swords." And he said unto them: " It is enough " (Luke 22:38). What did this mean to the apostles, coming from the Master Miracle Integral in Christianity 253 who had taught them, " Resist not evil ; but whoso- ever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also " ? (Matt. 5 : 39). Did this new teach- ing mean war? If so, to the apostles, one sword with Jesus omnipotent was enough. Then Jesus and the eleven went out into the Mount of Olives. Jesus took Peter, James, and John, " and began to be sore amazed .... and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Mark 14:34). "He went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26: 39). Luke, the physician, adds: "And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling upon the ground " (Luke 22:44). The concept translated "an agony" de- notes extreme anguish of mind, the strong conflict produce'd between sinking human nature and the prospect of deep, overwhelming calamities. What did this mean to the apostles — not to us in our light, but to the apostles — and their faith in Jesus, based on belief in his omnipotent power? Immediately on the heels of the agony and piteous outcry of Jesus for help, a multitude came with Judas to arrest Jesus. The apostles had 254 Miracle and Science heretofore on several occasions seen angry men, with murder in their hearts, take stones in their hands to kill Jesus, but saw Jesus go safely through the midst of them (John 8 : 59). Later " the Jews took up stones again to stone him .... they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hands" (John 10:31-39). The people of Naza- reth, angry at his preaching, determined to cast him headlong from the brow of the hill on which their city was built ; " but he passing through the midst of them went his way " (Luke 4: 29). In short, the person of Jesus had never been profaned by arrest. From merely touching the hem of his garment, vir- tue, as the Master described it, had gone forth and healed the afflicted woman (Matt. 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48). The apostles knew their Scriptures. Jehovah had smitten Uzzah mortally for rashness in touching the sacred ark (2 Sam. 6 : 3-11 ; 1 Chron. 13 : 5-14). Two companies of fifty each, with their captains, had been smitten mortally when attempting pro- fanely to arrest God's servant, Elijah (2 Kings 1; 10:12). Would not Jehovah's miracle power go out to protect the Messiah, whom demons even averred was the Holy One of God ? Some little time, it seems, elapsed after the mul- Miracle Integral in Christianity 255 titude came before making the physical arrest of Jesus. Luke records some consultation as to mak- ing defense. This is important in view of Jesus' counsel, only an hour before, to sell garments and buy swords. The record is: "When they [the apostles] that were about him [Jesus] saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" (Luke 22:49). The record contains no answer. But the consultation and question asked are evidence that the faith of the apostles in Jesus was not yet impaired, that they were not then terrorized. Peter had a sword, drew it and fought, struck at and missed the head of Mal- chus, but cut off his ear. Peter's act is evidence tending to prove that, had Jesus ordered war, to set up his kingdom, Peter would have fought to the death, as he had virtually promised he would. But Jesus bade Peter desist. Then the apostles saw to them a bewildering sight, — saw Jesus, heretofore omnipotent on all emergencies, — Jesus, whom they had worshiped as Deity and who had accepted their worship, — endowed, as all the evidence led them to believe, with omnipotence in fact, — saw Jesus, fettered, in the hands of the minions of his remorse- less enemies, led away unresisting, meekly, even as a broken-spirited culprit. 256 Miracle and Science What must this have meant to the apostles? Was the ground of their faith passing away ? Although at first they fled, the faseinatio* of the terrible scene drew the apostles back. They saw the indigni- ties cruelly heaped upon Jesus, before the Sanhe- drin; saw the enemies smite him (John 18:22), spit in his face, and buffet him (Matt. 26 : 67) ; saw him taunted as a fraudulent pretender because, when blindfolded and smitten, he did not reply to their taunt : " Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?" (Luke 22:64). They saw him mocked as King of the Jews (Matt. 27: 27, 30), saw his body lacerated by the bloody scourge, saw him delivered by Pilate to be executed, weak amd fainting, led away to be crucified (Matt. 27 : 27 ; Mark 15 : 15, 22) ; saw him nailed to the cross, uplifted, and left there to die as a condemned criminal, a. spectacle to a jeering crowd. In this review of the deadly peril to the Church of Christ from the assaults of the Gates of Hell, we do not at all consider the profound doctrines of the awful sacrifice of Jesus on the cross , nor of the atonement, or the reasons thereof in the mission and salvation of Christ ; for these profound matters are easily seen to be some of the " many things " the Master desired to tell his apostles the night be- Miracle Integral in Christianity 257 fore he was crucified, but did not, because they could not bear them then. This review proceeds without discussing those important doctrines, be- cause we are considering the apostles and their state of knowledge of Divine things, including their ignorance of those, when the terrible tragedy at Calvary smote them, in order that we may appre- ciate the deadly peril in which Christianity and the Church of Christ were placed when the enemies of Jesus compassed his death on the cross, that there- by we may know something of the inestimable im- portance of the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus as integral and constituent in the Christian religion — God's economy of grace, without which the Church of Christ would not have survived the as- saults of its enemies. Section IV ON THE CROSS — APOSTLES* FAITH ECLIPSED The agony of the cross before Jesus' death lasted six hours, from " the third hour " until the ninth hour (Matt. 27 : 45 ; Mark 15 : 25). Especially dur- ing that time the apostles heard the scoffs and taunts the chief priests cast at Jesus, proposing ordeals, tests, and issues, all based on the claim of the 258 Miracle and Science enemies of Jesus that he was destitute of miracle power — that he was not the Messiah, or Son of God — and challenging Jesus, and even Jehovah himself, to interfere, stop the execution if Jesus was the Son of God. In short, the enemies of JesUs held up to scorn the miracle power of Jesus and his claim to be Messiah and King, which was the very basis, the fundamental ground, of the faith of the apos- tles in Jesus and of their adherence to him. They heard " the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and the elders," saying, " He saved oth- ers; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of the Jews, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him" (Matt. 27:41, 42). That this was a proposition, test, or issue, capable of serious treatment, and therefore had a serious effect on the apostles, cannot be doubted. Jesus himself had, as they knew, made his miracle power the issue and standard by which to test and prove his di- vinity, and power on earth to forgive sins, in the case of the palsied man at Capernaum (Luke 5:18-26). If comparison can properly be made between miracles, certainly Jesus had theretofore wrought miracles vastly greater than would have been the miracle of coming down from the cross, as challenged by his enemies. Miracle Integral in Christianity 259 The apostles, also, heard the chief priests taunt Jesus with his claim that God was his Father, and their challenge to Jehovah to come and deliver Jesus, saying, " He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, if he will have him ; for he said, I am the Son of God" (Matt. 27:43). Note two matters: 1. Jesus did not accept the challenge to work a miracle and come down from the cross. Must not the apostles have wondered why not? 2. God did not come down and deliver Jesus from the ignominious death on the cross. Again must the question not have been, Why not? These, and like questions, must have exercised the minds of the apostles profoundly, and led to some conclusions, when they saw their King, always be- fore omnipotent, now being killed by his enemies. As to the first question: to the apostles, common men, with the mysteries then unsolved, would not their conclusion be, Jesus does not deliver himself because he cannot; his miracle power is gone? Was not that what the evidence before them dis- closed ? They saw the mother of Jesus standing near the cross, and also the Apostle John. " He saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother " (John 19 : 26, 27). At the supper, just the evening before, 260 Miracle and Science Jesus had said to the apostles, " This that is written must be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors ; for the things concerning me have an end" (Luke 22:37). Crucified be- tween two thieves, Jesus' physical life was coming, as fast as torture on the cross could accomplish it, to an end; and recognizing that fact, and because he was immediately coming to his death and no longer able to do aught to care for his mother, he made that dying provision for her, through the love and friendship of John. Was it not the con- clusion of the apostles forced on them by the over- whelming evidence that Jesus was only a mere human being, now destitute of miracle power, suf- fering, as an ordinary human culprit, a death sen- tence inflicted by the officers of the law ? As to the second question, Why did not God de- liver Jesus? Did not the facts and situation raise most momentous questions in the minds of the apostles? Jesus had proclaimed himself Deity, had accepted worship as Deity. If Jesus was only a man, he was guilty of the crime of blasphemy, the pen- alty of which was death. He had been tried by the Jewish court, found guilty of blasphemy, and death was the penalty. If Jesus was only a man, that penalty had been clearly incurred. Miracle Integral in Christianity 261 CHALLENGE OF PRIESTS AND RULERS The chief priests, rulers, and apostles apprehend- ed God as omnipresent. The appeal of the chief priests and rulers to God to take Jesus if he was his Son was made on the ground that Jehovah then and there saw the agony of Jesus on the cross. If Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah of the Holy Scriptures, one with God, they could not doubt that God, the eternal Father, was then and there fully cognizant of the awful scene. When therefore the rulers (Luke 27 : 41) and chief priests (Matt. 27:41; Mark 15:31) spoke the taunting words, "He trusted in God; let him [God] de- liver him now if he will have him ; for he said, I am the Son of God," the challenge was to God, Jeho- vah, himself; and thus the officials who had con- demned Jesus and were witnessing his execution put themselves and their dealing with Jesus on trial before Jehovah on the issue that Jesus was not the Christ, but was an impostor and guilty of blasphemy. To call on God on an issue involving deity was not an unknown thing in Jewish life and history. When on momentous occasions the ques- tion of deity was in issue, God had answered such issue by miracle. The whole series of miracles wrought through Moses at the Exodus, extending 262 Miracle and Science through many days, were all made God's testimony, to demonstrate Jehovah the only true God, and condemn and punish the arrogant challenge of Pharaoh, " Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go" (Ex. 5:2). When again supremacy between Baal and Jehovah was in challenge at Carmel, God answered by miracle be- fore the world in vindication of his Name and his Prophet. The challenge here was, that Jesus was not Mes- siah, not the Christ, not the Son of God, not one with the Father ; that if he was, God would deliver him from the cross. If Jesus was not a mere man, if he was what he had proclaimed himself to be, then the challengers were committing a crime transcending any the world had ever known, even murdering the God-man, Christ Jesus. The appeal involved deity, made openly before the world. To the apostles, must it not have been a time of inex- pressible suspense? What would God answer? God did not interfere, did not save Jesus, did not " take him," but allowed the condemnation of Jesus as a malefactor, and punishment of death decreed against him, to take their course and terminate his life. This must have seemed to the apostles God's Miracle Integral in Christianity 263 tacit answer to the challenge of the chief priests and rulers. Must not the conviction have been forced on the apostles that Jesus had claimed too much in making himself equal with God? As be- fore noted, when Moses, giddy perhaps from his exaltation in connection with working miracles, said, " Must we " do it, and assumed apparently to encroach only so slightly on the exclusive preroga- tives of Deity, he had been severely punished, though deeply repentant. If Jesus was only a man, his of- fense was vastly greater than that of Moses, for Jesus had persisted for three years in claiming and proclaiming himself one with God, and was now being executed for making that claim. Had God, therefore, withdrawn from Jesus? Was it God's withdrawal of miracle power from Jesus, and God's abandonment of Jesus, that con- stituted the terrible cup of horror that Jesus, a few hours before in Gethsemane, had three times prayed in an agony he might be saved from? Would not the whole fearful situation, including the non- interference of Jehovah, and Jesus' agony, lan- guage, and surrender the night before, start these questions in the apostles' minds? The killing sus- pense continued until the ninth hour, when, although God kept silence, Jesus spoke, " My God, my God, 264 Miracle and Science why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27 : 46). Lit- erally, this was, to the apostles, a dying confession of Jesus, that God had forsaken him, that the things concerning him had come to an end, a confession wrung from him in agony, in immediate prospect of death, which immediately followed; for the record is, " Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost" (Matt. 27:50). Jesus was dead. We have been examining the evidence to see if, in any lawful and allowable view of it, it is suffi- cient to sustain the proposition, that, without the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity would not have survived his death on the cross. apostles' faith lost To the apostles, — nay, to the common-sense judgment of good and lawful jurors rendering their verdict on the evidence and situation we have examined, culminating in the Last Supper, Geth- semane, arrest, condemnation, and death of Jesus on the cross as a malefactor, — the Gates of Hell had prevailed in their attack against the Church of Christ by attacking and compassing the death of Jesus its Head, and therewith destroying the very cause and actual foundation of the faith of the Miracle Integral in Christianity 265 apostles in Jesus. This had been done by an open, public test and trial before the world, on the issue that Jesus was impotent, destitute of miracle power, destitute of that on which, as its actual foundation and cause, the faith of the apostles in Jesus had been engendered and established and on which that faith rested; and that the miracle power conferred on Jesus, God had withdrawn from Jesus and had abandoned him. The evidence was, that in his agony and dying words Jesus had acknowledged that abandonment. A verdict of a jury to that effect could not be set aside, as contrary to or as unsupported by the evidence, but would stand and justify the judgment that, without the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity would not have survived his death on the cross. For that Church could not survive without faith in Jesus as its Head. But faith in Jesus could not survive the destruction of the actual ground and only cause that thus far had produced and sustained that faith. The above conclusions seem clearly the judgment of right reason. What does the evidence disclose as to the effect on the faith of the apostles of the tragic assault of the Gates of Hell on the Church in compassing the death of Jesus on the cross as it did ? Consternation, 266 Miracle and Science horror, dismay, faith destroyed, hopelessness, and the like, are the terms that must be used to correct- ly describe the condition of mind and heart of the apostles at the death of Jesus, and for the three days succeeding, until they were informed of his resurrection. The apostles seem to have been struck dumb by the awful tragedy, and the evident public demonstration of the collapse and utter im- potency of their adored Master, Captain, and King. Joseph of Arimathsea, Nicodemus, and the women gave evidence that they honored Jesus, and did not forget to honor the dead body of him they had loved, by procuring it from Pilate and providing it decent sepulture (Matt. 27:57, 58; Mark 15:42- 47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42). But the apostles took no part, and so far as known gave no heed. Some items of evidence seem to show that the awful tragedy destroying the life of Jesus, and the more awful demolition of their ground of faith in Jesus and his miracles, had crushed the apostles into a stupor that deadened all their faculties. They forgot explicit instructions and express counsels of the Master, immediately connected with his cruci- fixion and death, — instructions and commands given them less than twenty-four hours before. Miracle Integral in Christianity 267 After the supper the Master, at the Mount of Olives, appointed a mountain in Galilee on which he would meet his apostles after his resurrection (Matt. 28:16; 26:32; Mark 14:28). That ap- pointment of the Master constituted a command. The evidence shows that the Master foresaw the benumbing stupor the tragedy of the cross and its disclosures would have on the apostles, for he com- missioned the " angel of the Lord " that " came and rolled away the stone from the door of the sepul- cher, and sat upon it," to tarry there and notify the first comers to the tomb, not only that Jesus was risen, but to carry " quickly " to Jesus' disciples no- tice that Jesus would go before them into Galilee; " there shall ye see him" (Matt. 28:2-7). Later the Master himself again sent notice by the woman who had come to the sepulcher : " Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me " (Matt. 28 : 9, 10). Section V apostles' faith awakened, not perfected, by resurrection of jesus. It is evident that only the miracle of the resur- rection of Jesus could have aroused the apostles 268 Miracle and Science from the dismay and despair that overwhelmed and crushed them as the consequence of the assault of the Gates of Hell on the Head of the Church and the death of their King and Lord on the cross. All this shows most cogently the transcendent impor- tance of this miracle of God as essential, integral, constituent, in his economy or kingdom of grace. Jesus' deity ordained it and constantly employed it as integral and constituent in his mission of salva- tion in engendering and establishing faith, the su- preme virtue through which men may be restored to true filial relationship with God the Father, and come into enduring citizenship and life in " the eter- nal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ " (2 Pet. 1:11). This will be further manifest in examining a series of miracles, wrought subse- quently, and auxiliary to such function and purpose of the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus — a series of miracles indispensable in that economy in fitting, equipping, and qualifying the apostles and disciples as his human constituents to organize and be organized into the Church of Christ, and admin- ister and employ it in his service in executing the great commission. The evidence is conclusive, that at the resurrec- tion of Jesus the apostles and disciples were not Miracle Integral in Christianity 269 fined., not qualified, to enter on that sen-ice. They did become transformed men, fitted and qualified for that work, but that was not solely accomplished by the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus, nor un- til fifty days after that event, and not fully until after the lessons furnished by the other miracles, next to be considered. ESSENTIAL INSTRUCTION TO APOSTLES The evidence shows, that to fit the apostles for that sen-ice, it was necessary, and to human view indispensable, that, among other matters, they should be converted from their false seductive con- ception of the Messiah's kingdom as only an earthly, political kingdom, a conception already described ; also, that they should attain and accept a true and adequate conception of the spiritual kingdom of Christ as now disclosed in the record and which through their labors he would establish ; not only that, but that they should voluntarily and devoutly accept that spiritual kingdom and its intensely al- truistic sen-ice, to which all disciples are called and to which for life the apostles had been ordained. That altruistic sen-ice was the unsparing sacri- fice of self to be made for sinful men. — a sacrifice, of which the Master had given perfect example, 270 Miracle and Science even unto death on the cross ; also, that the disciples should have explained to them the death of Jesus on the cross, its necessity and significance in the economy of grace; also, that they should be shown the fulfilment of Scripture by the death and resur- rection of Jesus, so that they might fully appre- hend the continuity of the new dispensation with the old. For the accomplishment of these things, in equipping the disciples for such service, it was essential that Jesus should give them ample, repeat- ed, and varied proofs of his resurrection. All this, and whatever else was requisite, was accomplished ; and on the Pentecostal day the apostles were trans- formed men, fitted for service, and entered tri- umphantly on the work to which they had been ordained. As we shall see, that transformation was the work of the risen Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and each step in the process was a miracle. Immediately on his resurrection, the same morn- ing, Jesus commenced the work of fitting his dis- ciples for the work he would commit to them : 1. By notifying them to meet him in a mountain in Galilee (Matt. 28:10), where he might instruct them without being shut in doors " for fear of the Jews" (John 20:19). 2. The same afternoon Jesus instructed two dis- Miracle Integral in Christianity 271 ciples on the way to Emmaus. They had learned Jesus had risen; but, even with that knowledge, their overmastering grief, begotten of disappoint- ment in losing the glorious earthly kingdom in which they had hoped a part, came out in their plaint : " We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" (Luke 24: 21). The inveteracy of the dominating love and devotion to the false conception of Messiah's kingdom would seem to have so shown itself that the Master deemed it necessary to use strenuous words to break them loose from it. He said : " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25-27). The two disciples hastened back to Jerusalem and found Jesus there; also, the ten gathered together and them that were with them, who said, " The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon. . . . And as they spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you" (Luke 24:34, 36). "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came" (John 20:24). " But they were terrified, and affrighted, and sup- 272 Miracle and Science posed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself : handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and blood, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they be- lieved not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might un- derstand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jeru- salem. And ye are witnesses to these things " (Luke 24:37-48; Mark 16:12, 13, 14-18; John 20:19-24). The record does not state specific clauses or por- tions of the Scriptures, if the Master cited such. Reference Bibles cite many texts, as one may see. But the subject was nothing less than the second Person of the Godhead in the Old Testament; and Miracle Integral in Christianity 273 what the record does specify is, that Jesus " ex- pounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." This particular subject is too vast to be treated adequately or profitably, save by thorough and reasonably extended discussion. Such examination is not included in the plan of this work. 1 It must be remembered that every appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection was a miracle. The first five of those appearances and miracles appear to have been as follows : 1. Several women followers of Jesus were early at the tomb, and, learning from angels that Jesus had risen, were returning to the city when Jesus met them (Matt. 28:9, 10). 2. To Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-15). 3. To Peter (Luke 24: 34; 1 Cor. 15: 5). 4. Later to two disciples journeying to Em- maus (Luke 24: 15-35). 5. The evening of that day to the eleven apos- tles, except Thomas (Luke 24:24, 36-43; John 2: 19-24). ^ee Christ in the Old Testament, by Professor William H. Thompson, M.D., LL.D., where "the things concerning Christ" in the Ancient Scriptures are abund- antly and thoroughly set forth with ample learning and scientific method and scholarship. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1884. 274 Miracle and Science In connection with the Last Supper, the evening before the crucifixion, Jesus told the apostles ex- pressly, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now " (John 16 : 12). But, following his death and resurrection, the Master's act indicates that the disciples were in a condition to hear some things concerning himself that before his death and resurrection they were not able to bear. As we have seen, the Master began at once, the same day of his resurrection, by miracles and instruction, the work of imparting to his disciples great truths and counsels that should, with his other teaching, fit and equip them for the great work to which he had called them. On the first day, Jesus delivered to his disciples two extended discourses, the subject of which was Christ Em- manuel, God-with-us. The historical literary mat- ter expounded was the entire Old Testament Scrip- tures, so far as they concerned Christ, especially as designed to fit the disciples to be his ministers in the Christian dispensation as a dispensation con- tinued from the Old Testament. Other appearances and miracles of Jesus after the resurrection, on careful examination of the rec- ord and by the rules of evidence administered in the courts of justice, are shown as follows : As Thomas Miracle Integral in Christianity 275 was not present with the other ten when Jesus ap- peared to them the evening of the day of his resur- rection, and Thomas refused to believe the testi- mony of the others that Jesus had risen, the disciples remained in Jerusalem until the following Sunday. RESURRECTION OF JESUS — ORDEAL OF TRIAL. 6. On the first day of the week succeeding his resurrection, Jesus again appeared to his followers (John 20:26). Each appearance of Jesus subse- quent to his burial evidenced his resurrection, not however with equal potency. This appearance, when duly considered in connection with cognate matters, will be found profoundly important. Thomas's course and acts during the ten days suc- ceeding the crucifixion are involved, and have im- portant influence in the proof. Commentators have so generally condemned Thomas, that they have fixed on him the opprobrious sobriquet " doubting Thomas." Present-day conditions in the religious world suggest views of the evidential facts of this appearance that heretofore may not have received the emphasis and value inherent in them, but which, duly appreciated, not only will show the profound importance of this episode in probative function, but may modify the estimate of Thomas. 276 Miracle and Science It is common knowledge that at the present time among adherents of Christianity there is a large class of devotees of science and philosophy, follow- ed by a great many in the ministry and by laymen, who, on alleged grounds of science and in the name of philosophy, have formulated an anti-supernatur- al presupposition, a dogma; that, as nature and evolution in human life and history are conceived by them, miracle is impossible; hence they deny the resurrection of Jesus. That anomaly was mentioned in the introductory chapter (p. 2). Its consideration, then deferred, is pertinent in this connection. Dr. James Denney in his latest work, just published, describes the situation this class has produced in the religious world, which we quote: " There is a dogmatic conception of history which tells us beforehand that there cannot be in history any such event as the resurrection of Jesus is rep- resented in the New Testament to be." 1 After noting that with such a dogma " it is impossible to argue," because he who holds it cannot but regard it as a supreme standard, by which he is bound to 1 Jesus and the Gospel : Christianity Justified in the Mind of Christ. By James Denney, D.D., Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, United Free Church College, Glasgow. New York : A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1909. Miracle Integral in Christianity 277 test every argument alleged against it, Dr. Denney continues : " But though it is vain to controvert such a dogma by argument, it may be demolished by collision with facts." Dr. Denney here holds correctly that the rational, the true course for de- termining the verity of the resurrection of Jesus is to inquire what are the facts disclosed by available evidence — the testimony and its value. This is the scientific method which duly employed has in our era so vastly enlarged man's knowledge and dominion in every department of human wel- fare, religious and secular, spiritual and material. It is the method that achieves certainties by investi- gations. Employing this method, one can readily see that, had one such negator, a devotee of science, been in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified and during the ten days succeeding, and had he been told by ten of Jesus' missionaries that Jesus had risen from death to life, and that they had seen and conversed with him, such a one would have disbelieved their story and so informed them ; and, in addition, in the interest of truth would have challenged them either to produce the living body of the crucified Jesus, with the wounds in his hands and in his side for inspection (so that the living body so produced might be indubitably identified 278 Miracle and Science with the dead body that was taken from the cross), or else that they should cease publishing their in- credible story. That would naturally be the atti- tude of the scientists, and that the proposition and language of the science which they extol. The record shows no impugnment of the truthfulness, candor, or intelligence of Thomas ; but does reveal him as of more than ordinary firmness. Thomas alone is named as ready to go back to Jewry with Jesus to meet with him threatened death by the Jews (John 11: 16). He exhibited special staunch- ness in adhering to his conviction. Thomas was in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified and most pro- foundly affected by the fact. Thomas knew, ear- lier or later, what the record discloses, that, as the end drew near, " Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he gave up the ghost " (Luke 23:46, Am. Rev.). Thomas knew that Jesus had parted from the dead body hanging on the cross at Calvary, and had gone to the Father ; knew that the murderous Roman spear, forged for war and the destruction of human life, had been thrust into the body of Jesus on the cross; that the spear thrust had pierced vital organs and drained from the pericardium the watery serum in which the Miracle Integral in Christianity 279 heart floated, without which life could not exist. Thomas knew that the death-dealing spear had also pierced the heart; for from the wound in the side, when the spear was withdrawn, there flowed out what was described as blood and water. He knew, also, that the dead and pierced body, with vital or- gans mortally mutilated, had been taken from the cross, that it had lain three days in the rock vault (shut by the great stone rolled in front of the door), the closure sealed by Roman authority. On the evening of the first day of the week fol- lowing the entombment, Jesus appeared to the ten apostles in the absence of Thomas. The ten told this to Thomas, presumably, as early as the next day, the second of that week. Thomas knew that Jesus had raised other dead bodies to life — Lazarus, a son of the widow of Nain, and Jairus's daughter. But nothing is shown, in either of those cases, to indicate that any vital organ had been mutilated or physically destroyed. Life only was needed to re- suscitate them. The difference between raising those unmutilated bodies to life and that of raising to life the dead body of Jesus, with vital organs mutilated, was to Thomas measureless — like the difference between something and nothing. The story of the ten called on Thomas to believe the 280 Miracle and Science proposition that Jesus had himself come back from the Father; penetrated the closed, sealed, and watched tomb; and, operating on his own dead, mortally mutilated body, taken down from the cross, had united in living tissues the mutilated vital organs, supplied them with indispensable, vital fluids, resuscitated the dead body, and entered into living union with it. The proposition, we may see, was so astounding that Thomas (like the aforesaid devotees of science) could not believe the story of the ten ; and did not ; and told them so. That made an " issue " between Thomas and the ten — they alleging the resurrection of Jesus, and Thomas de- nying it. It was an issue of fact, triable by com- petent evidence. Thomas evidently believed that the ten had been misled by failing to be thorough ; for at the very moment of denying their contention, he insisted upon such a standard of evidence for trying the issue as would surely prevent mistake. It was a standard that could be employed by men of ordinary intelligence exercising normal powers of sight and feeling. He called for the evidence which science would require; namely, the actual physical inspection of the living body (produced as that of Jesus), by seeing with the physical eyes and feeling by touch of finger the nail-wounds in Miracle Integral in Christianity 281 the hands and the spear-wound in the side, in order to determine indubitably on the identity of such living body with the mutilated dead body of Jesus taken down from the cross and laid in Joseph's rock-hewn tomb. In estimating the firmness, the moral fiber, of Thomas as displayed in adhering to his convictions, we must consider what the issue between Thomas and the ten meant. It meant discord, confusion, and rupture in the apostolic band. But that did not deter Thomas. The issue was not a trivial one. It meant a serious crisis in Christianity itself. While that issue remained undetermined, it threat- ened failure to the Christian dispensation, and fail- ure to the Church which Christ had founded, and for the preservation of which he had given his divine promise and pledge that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it — a promise he had come back from the Father to perform. But noth- ing of all this and cognate matter deterred Thomas from announcing his conviction and resolutely ad- hering to it, as- he did, on that second day of the week, and on the third, and on the fourth, and throughout all the days of that week. No devotee of science disbelieving the resurrection of Jesus could have stood more firmly to his disbelief, or 282 Miracle and Science insisted upon a surer standard of evidence by which to try the issue, than did Thomas. Due consideration of this appearance, of Jesus in this connection requires that we take into our thought the transcendent fact that the Master knew minutely all the foregoing and associated matters, and contemplated the situation with di- vine solicitude. From what was in fact done, we are justified in concluding that in the counsels of Heaven, in the judgment of Deity, it became neces- sary and was essential for the promotion of the Christian dispensation and the preservation of the Church of Christ, that the issue between Thomas and the ten should be brought to the ordeal of trial before them and determined by competent object- ive evidence, viz. the production of the living body of Jesus, with the wounds of his hands and of his side, for physical inspection. Therefore, on the first day of the week succeeding the resurrection, when the eleven apostles were together, Jesus stood in the midst of them with the salutation of " Peace." Forthwith, in recognition of the issue between Thomas and the ten, the Master com- menced the trial. This he did by offering evidence in conformity with the standard Thomas had insisted upon as required, i.e. the presentation of Miracle Integral in Christianity 283 the living body, with its nail-wounds and spear- wounds, for actual inspection, for identification, as his own, of the living with the dead body taken from the cross. Jesus said to Thomas, " Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side " (John 20:27, Am. Rev.). This command coming to Thomas from Jesus his King, we may assume, was therefore literally obeyed. But, not pressing that view expressly, this is certain : such actual, adequate inspection was made of the wounds on the living body of Jesus, present- ed for inspection, that it was indubitably identi- fied with the dead, mutilated body which was on the cross at Calvary and thence removed to Joseph's sepulcher. The evidence and the trial proved the allegation of the ten that the transcendent miracle of the resurrection of Jesus from death on the cross was indubitable verity. This evidence totally re- versed Thomas's conviction, and in that evidence he saw his resurrected Lord. Thomas's verdict was expressed in worship, " My Lord and my God." The fact that Thomas instantly yielded to the direct objective proof is evidence that he had not been merely wilfully stubborn in his conviction and disbelief. The evidence of the resurrection of Jesus 284 Miracle and Science was conclusive. The proof of that fact was demon- stration. We know that formerly the word " demonstration " was restricted to describing math- ematical proofs. But better apprehension of the subject of proof and evidence has resulted in giv- ing a signification to the word according to which a demonstration is " any proof which leaves no room for reasonable doubt" (vide Cent Diet.). Such proof is also called " full proof." * Tested by the standards and ordeals of jural science by which questions of fact are ascertained and demonstrated in contested questions of right between man and man in courts of justice, the resurrection of Jesus stands a demonstrated fact. Furthermore, facts are always fundamental, pri- mary, and rule supreme over all theories, hypo- theses, and presuppositions. The whole retinue of such devices is demolished, shown to be naught but mere figments of speculative fancies, whenever contradictory facts emerge in any investigation. 7. We next notice a meeting of such importance that, in connection with the Last Supper, the eve- ning before the crucifixion, Jesus ordained it to be held on a mountain in Galilee. "After I am risen 1 Kane v. Hibernia F. Ins. Co. 36 N. J. L. 450; Starkie on Ev. 817. Miracle Integral in Christianity 285 again, I will go before you into Galilee " (Matt. 26 : 39). Foreseeing the dismay and obliviousness that his awful death would produce in his disciples, Je- sus, as already noted, commissioned his angel that rolled away the stone from the tomb when Jesus arose, to stay by the tomb, and communicate with the disciples, and bring to their minds the appointed meeting. The angel executed the commission, say- ing to the women, " Go quickly, and tell the dis- ciples .... he goeth before you into Galilee ; there ye shall see him " (Matt. 28 : 7, 8). Later the same forenoon the Master through the women repeated the notification to the bewildered disciples, " Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me " (Matt. 28 : 10). Notice that the apostles are not named separately by the angel or the Lord. The repetition of the notice, and by the Master himself, implies urgency and the impor- tance of the transaction which took place at the meeting on the mountain where Jesus " appointed them." It was of transcendent importance, in fact nothing less than the act of Jesus in giving the great commission to his disciples. Obedient to Christ's command, " above five hundred brethren " (1 Cor. 15 : 6) attended at " the mountain Jesus had appointed them " ; 286 Miracle and Science " and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world " (Matt. 28:18, 19, 20). Evidently the meeting was not held the day of the resurrection. The suggestion seems germane, that anything in its nature preliminary would be transacted before the great meeting at which the great commission should be proclaimed. The Mas- ter's recorded activities occupied the day and eve- ning of the day of his resurrection. The meeting in Galilee was an important meeting for another reason, namely, that being announced and appointed for " disciples " and " brethren " and the invitation extended to all, it would give oppor- tunity for many to meet and see the miracle of the risen Jesus, who no longer lived among men as Lazarus did after he was restored, but appeared in miracle and disappeared in miracle. On the face of matters, and by the conditions, it was important that the preordained and doubly notified meeting should be held as soon as preliminary and instant matters were disposed of. When Jesus had indubitably Miracle Integral in Christianity 287 proved his resurrection to all the eleven apostles on the evening of the second Sunday, such time had arrived, and we may conclude that " then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them" (Matt. 28: 16). These suggestions have been made, because some commentators have favored placing that meeting later, and subsequent to the appearance of Jesus de- scribed in John 21. We think the suggestion made harmonizes with a meeting held immediately after the second Sun- day evening. Dr. Taylor adopts this view, and, in discussing the miracle described in John 21, sees, in the journeying of the apostles to the meeting on the mountain in Galilee, an explanation of how and why Peter, James, and John, and Thomas, and Na- thanael, and two other disciples (whom Lightfoot holds were Andrew and Philip) were away from Jerusalem, although Jesus, as recorded by Luke, had ordered them, " Tarry ye in the city of Jeru- salem until ye be endued with power from on high " (Luke 24:49). Dr. Taylor considers the two no- tices by the angel and by the Lord (Matt. 28:7, 10), and says: " In obedience to this repeated injunction, the same evangel informs us that ' the eleven disciples 2£8 Miracle and Science went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Je- sus had appointed them' (Matt. 28:16). These statements explain how the disciples named by John (John 21) came to be in the neighborhood of the lake (Tiberias) with the shores of which they were so well acquainted." x MIRACLE AND LESSON — SEA OF TIBERIAS 8. Jesus appeared to seven disciples at the sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-19). From the evidence already discussed, this appearance was evidently subsequent to the meeting on the mountain in Gal- ilee. The seven were the apostles Peter, James, John, Thomas, and Nathanael. Two others are not named. Lightfoot, cited with apparent approval by Trench, supposes the other two were Andrew and Philip, 2 who were of Bethsaida, the city of Peter (John 2:24), on the shore of this lake. In this view, here were seven apostles, a majority of the whole band. Judas being dead, only four others, Matthew, James, the son of Alphseus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas brother of James, were absent, presumably at Jerusalem, where the Master, on the evening of his resurrection, had expressly ordered the whole band of eleven to tarry (Luke 24:49). 1 Miracles of our Saviour, p. 439. 2 Trench on Miracles, p. 363. Miracle Integral in Christianity 289 That command would not be violated by a trip taken to comply with the other command, to join with all disciples in a special meeting with the Lord on the mountain in Galilee, certainly not if, after the meet- ing, they promptly returned to Jerusalem. Peter was a man of family, had a house on the shore of the lake, at which his wife's mother was healed of a fever by Jesus' miracle (Matt. 8 : 5-14). A score of years after the miracle we are consider- ing, Peter's wife is mentioned as accompanying him on his missionary journeys (1 Cor. 9:5). It is in- ferable that Peter still had a house for his family at Capernaum or Bethsaida near the lake, a natural place of rendezvous of the seven if they chanced to be in the neighborhood, as in fact they were. Three years before, when called by the Lord, Peter, James, and John were partners in carrying on the quite im- portant business of fishing on the lake, or sea, as it was often called (Luke 5 : 10). The vessels required for fishing were called ships. The nets and ships were of such size as to require quite a force of men to operate them, as, in the instant case, seven men who toiled all night. When Peter, James, and John were called by Jesus to be his disciples, three years before, they brought their ships to land, and " for- sook all, and followed him " (Luke 5 : 11). 290 Miracle and Science Presumably those substantial ships, then left, had been cared for and probably used by Zebedee, father of James and John, or by Zebedee's ser- vants, and were at moorings, and with their equip- ment of nets and apparatus available, and might properly be taken and used by Peter and his former partners. The seven were not yet converted from their utterly false conception of Messiah's kingdom as an earthly, political kingdom, whose honors and emoluments they expected to enjoy as reward for having left all to follow Jesus at his call. The leaven of the allurements of the conception of the kingdom persisted long after this miracle on the shore of the lake, as has been seen, even at the mo- ment of Jesus' ascension. In examining the record and evidence, to extract its value and its force in showing the miracles of God integral and constituent in his economy of grace and its effect in this particular instance, we may contemplate these seven apostles as having at- tended the meeting with Jesus on the mountain in Galilee, and having returned on the way back to Jerusalem as far as Peter's house by the lake. At that meeting on the mountain, nothing had been done for that alluring kingdom which they coveted and hoped for. On the contrary, in the great com- Miracle Integral in Christianity 291 mission, Jesus had enjoined upon them altruistic sacrifice, a constant, continuous self-denial to the end of life. Before the crucifixion, the apostles, and presum- ably their families, had been adequately supported by the people among whom they labored. Jesus, it seems, cared for his mother, and on the cross committed to John the support which he was no longer to provide, and there is no hint of any mira- cle of Jesus to support his mother. At the Last Supper, in response to Jesus' question, the apostles said they had not lacked support. But now when seven consulted at Peter's place, their Master had been disgraced, executed as a malefactor, and the apostles were not carrying on any mission ; in fact, were not fit for such work. Besides, the injunction to " tarry at Jerusalem " implied cessation of ser- vice for an interval of indefinite and uncertain time ; hence they were deriving no support from the people. The act and language of Peter in announcing what he had determined, implies that something had been canvassed and considered by the seven. The situation corroborates that inference. There was before the seven this situation, — their families to be supported and their own wants to be supplied. 292 Miracle and Science They were enjoined to tarry at Jerusalem indefi- nitely, and until some mysterious, unexplained thing should happen. Nothing was doing for the kingdom ; all was vague and mysterious. They had lately been disappointed by the failure of Jesus to establish the kingdom, disappointed with an awful, tragic, overwhelming disappointment. Would an- other disappointment again overwhelm them? Clearly, the facts existing, the situation, and cir- cumstances were adequate to cause the seven to con- sult and consider whether duty required they should hold on indefinitely in uncertainty with the possibility of another tragic disappointment, devote themselves to the drastic altruistic service of the great com- mission, with the moral certainty that they should in the end be stoned, crucified, or murdered in some equally revolting manner ; or, did not the situation, and duty to themselves and those depending on them, justify and require that they withdraw from the great commission and return to earning a live- lihood ? Peter's conclusion was, " I go a fishing." The others concurred, saying, " We go with thee " (John 21:3). They went, wrought all night, and caught nothing. The evidence does not compel a conclusion that the apostles by going fishing had given up all their Miracle Integral in Christianity 293 missionary hopes and gone back permanently to their old employment. Nor can the suggestion be approved that the act was a laudable example o£ be- ing diligent while "tarrying" as the Master com- manded, for that suggestion does not measure up to the dignity and importance of a miracle of Christ, wrought then, as always, not for a light or trivial reason. Besides, the " tarrying " was ordered defi- nitely to be with the whole band together " in the city of Jerusalem." But the situation does necessi- tate the conclusion that the act and step taken, was away from and aside from what the Master had ex- pressly commanded, and like meddling with a switch, which, if not corrected, would turn the apostles away from, and cause in the result neglect and abandonment of, the great commission — the Christian service to which they had been called and ordained. We must conclude that, in the judgment of Jesus, the step Peter and the others took was such an error that it required correction, and the miracles he wrought the morning after that fruit- less fishing were the means he deemed necessary to accomplish it. Jesus' appearance was a miracle. By his com- mand the other miracle of a great draught of fishes was wrought, and the apostles learned it was Jesus 294 Miracle and Science talking with them from the shore. The further miracle was food prepared, with which the Master nourished the men who had toiled all night. Then the Master availed himself of the opportunity he had created by his miracles, to teach his great les- son, then and there, essential to the saving of his Church, and to hold as well as fit the apostles for their service in his dispensation. THE LESSON TAUGHT The Master's first question was, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these ? " A com- parison is instituted. The subject contemplated in the question is indicated by the word " these," which does not necessarily mean persons nor neces- sarily mean things ; may mean either. The context does not show the real subject brought into com- parison by the question. Many commentators hold that the question inquired whether Peter loved Jesus more than did James or John or the other four. But is not such unnecessary inference be- littling, if not degrading, to a just conception of the Lord, i.e., to assume he would come out of heaven and work a miracle to ask if one apostle loved him better or more than another apostle loved him? Although the word " these " does not definitely Miracle Integral in Christianity 295 refer to what, figuratively expressed, would stand for the ship's equipment and apparatus, as de- scribing Peter's life employment and worldly busi- ness, yet all agree the word " these " may thus refer to the instruments of that life business. But we are not shut up to the word " these " alone, in ascer- taining the Master's thought and lesson. The word "these" was of course the designated subject of comparison, but the force, grip, and leverage of the comparison was in the fulcrum " love!' What did the Master mean by love of an apostle? The Mas- ter had told Peter and the rest of the apostles what he meant by " love " — told it with triple emphasis : " If ye love me, keep my commandments. . . . He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. ... If a man love me, he will keep my words" (John 14:21, 23). The Master here makes obedience to him the test of love, and the standard of comparison by which the degree of love of Christ is to be measured. The seven had disobeyed. They were not tarrying at Jerusalem as commanded. Jesus had commissioned and ordained Peter to life service as a minister of his gospel, and Peter had accepted the ordination. But Peter, as leader, had " tarried " away from Jerusa- lem, was in fact disobedient, and had taken up with 296 Miracle and Science his old work. Jesus' injunction to Peter on receiv- ing his answer brought Peter back to obedience, and showed the lesson of the miracle, " Feed my sheep/' You have commenced a deviation which, if not cor- rected, will take you out of the pastorate. In the two other questions the Master omitted the compar- ison. The force of all the questions may be seen in each of the three injunctions Jesus gives to each of Peter's three answers. It was in calling Peter and his associates to the proof of their love, that is, obedient service. The lesson in this episode was in calling back his disciples to proof of their love by obedience and from surrendering the great commis- sion and going back to a worldly life. 9. He appeared to the apostle James (1 Cor. 15:7). No special lesson accompanied this mira- cle. It was a power in strengthening faith in Jesus. Section VI ASCENSION AND PENTECOST 10. Finally, forty days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the eleven apostles and went with them to the Mount of Olives, and after a most im- portant discourse the ascension occurred. Jesus, the night before the crucifixion, had told the apos- Miracle Integral in Christianity 297 ties that he had many things to tell them, but that they could: not bear them then. But he promised them, that when he went away, he would send to them the Holy Spirit ; and " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth " (John 16 : 13). At the end of forty days after the resurrection, as he is about to depart, the matter of the further instruction of the apostles is remitted, to be communicated by the Holy Spirit. Jesus puts the pressure of his authority upon the apostles to pro- duce in them such receptivity of heart as should prepare them for the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit. This was wrought in the apostles, who " continued with one accord in prayer " during the ten days between the ascension and the day of Pentecost ; for on that day the apostles were trans- formed men. The great error that had, as it were, enslaved the apostles, i.e., love of and stubborn ad- herence to the false idea of the earthly kingdom in which they were to share, had persisted, and sur- vived all the teaching and command of the Master, up to the last, even his ascension. TRANSFORMATION OF THE APOSTLES But on the day of the Pentecost, the triumphant note of Peter's preaching, and of all the apostles, 298 Miracle and Science excluded any reference to the earthly political king- dom. President Weston x says of the apostles on and after the day of Pentecost : " What wonderful transformation is here ? Trans- formation mental, moral, spiritual. To these Gal- ileans a new nature has been imparted. They are new creatures of Christ Jesus. The old indecision, ignorance, timidity, weakness have vanished. Spir- itual illumination, fearlessness, strength have taken possession and these men have become aggressive and triumphant. They have been lifted to a higher plane and a loftier sphere. What a spiritual grasp is theirs ! How clear their vision of divine things ! They open the Old Testament scriptures and ex- pound the dealings of God with clear apprehension. They look forward to the future as it glows in the light of the purposes of God, and unfold them to their hearers." The transformation astonished the rulers of the Jews, the learned and people in authority, who, knowing especially that the apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, marveled (Acts 4: 13). Instead of the old enslavement of love and devotion to the earthly, political kingdom and its emoluments and honor, Peter, foremost of the apostles, could, as he finally did, voice his conversion from the false con- ception to his new love of Christ and of Christ's 1 Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct. 1900, p. 700. Miracle Integral in Christianity 299 spiritual kingdom, in the following comprehensive exhortation : " Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge tem- perance; and to temperance patience; and to pa- tience godliness ; and to godliness brotherly kind- ness ; and to brotherly kindness charity. . . . For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundant- ly into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:5-11). The transformation of the apostles from abject fear and dismay had been wrought by the miracles of Jesus and the lessons accompanying and grow- ing out of, and indissolubly connected with, the miracles. In fact, the instruction could not be borne before the crucifixion. That and the resur- rection were required as facts and factors in Christ's gospel, to fit the apostles to know the truth he would teach. The initiative in this transformation was the miracle of Jesus' resurrection. That mir- acle alone, it seems, was utterly insufficient. But the auxiliary miracles, concluding with the miracle of the instruction and teaching of the Holy Spirit, during the, ten days subsequent to the ascension of the Lord and on the Pentecostal day, had trained, disciplined, and taught the apostles and disciples these necessary truths, and enabled them to think 300 Miracle and Science of their Master, when performing the great com- mission, as absent and yet living; as invisible and yet near them ; as risen to a new life and yet retain- ing the old nature and even the old though now glorified body, which they loved ; as exalted but still the same, so that they were prepared to go forth and proclaim the glorified Son of God and crowned King of Israel, yet the man of Nazareth and the- Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 1 Section VII MIRACLE LESSON — SALVATION FOR GENTILES ALSO Further proof that miracle is integral and con- stituent in God's economy of grace — necessary and indispensable in indoctrinating his ministers in his service — is shown in miracle subsequent to the day of Pentecost. Salvation for " whomsoever will " was yet to be learned. With all the auxiliary miracles, instructions, and counsels of Jesus and the Holy Spirit given to the apostles, their theolog- ical education to fit them as ministers of Christ and the Christian religion was in one respect fundamen- tally defective. Although the old conception of the apostles re- garding the kingdom of the Messiah was purged 1 See J. T. Purves, art. " Jesus," Davis, Bible Diet. Miracle Integral in Christianity 301 of its materialism, its purely earthly and polit- ical character, it was not purged of its exclusive- ness as being a kingdom for Hebrews only. A further education was indispensable to secure the Church of Christ from the baneful spirit of Phari- saical self-righteousness, based on physical descent from Abraham or its legal equivalent, adoption sealed by the rite of circumcision. That spirit grew naturally out of the great favors that for nearly two millenniums Jehovah had shown to Abraham and his family. As developed it pro- duced hypocrisy and self-righteousness, which des- pised and held in contempt all outside of Abraham's family. It produced a spirit naturally allied with, and easily, perhaps unconsciously, becoming allied with the spirit that controlled what our Master called the " Gates of Hell." That spirit grew until it evolved the doctrine taught by those going out of Judsea to foreign peo- ples, as at Antioch : " Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved " (Acts 15: 1). The apostles were afflicted with this error. After they had wrought as missionaries about eight years, and with all the teaching of Jesus and leadings of the Holy Spirit, they had not dis- cerned this most serious and fundamental error. It 302 Miracle and Science became the judgment of Deity that the error should be cured. Miracle and object-lesson were adopted as the means that should, " once for all," demonstrate and teach the true doctrine on the subject. Hence the Holy Spirit taught the truth by a threefold miracle, or three miracles unified in function, in teaching, and establishing one truth or lesson. 1. At his house in Csesarea, the Holy Spirit ap- peared to Cornelius, a Roman, a devout man, who feared God, and ruled his house accordingly. He commanded Cornelius : " Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside ; he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do" (Acts 10:1-6). 2. The further miracle was an object-lesson by the Holy Spirit to Peter on the housetop of Simon the tanner, about noon of the next day. It was an object-lesson by a vision of beasts and creeping things, including such as were by Old Testament Scriptures unclean, and commanded Peter to kill and eat, to which Peter protested that, by the cere- monial law, the living creatures, or some of them, were unclean ; that he had heretofore observed that Miracle Integral in Christianity 303 law, and showed that, as a godly man, he felt bound by it. To this, the voice of the Holy Spirit replied, with the final authority of Deity : " What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice" (Acts 10:9-16). While Peter was perplexed at the meaning of the vision, Cornelius' messengers called for Peter, and the Holy Spirit communicated with Peter and bade him go with Cornelius' messengers, " doubting nothing, for I have sent them" (Acts 10:19, 20). 3. On the morrow, Peter, obedient to the behest of the Holy Spirit, but accompanied by Christians, believers in the abovementioned doctrine as to the absolute necessity of circumcision in order to salva- tion, attended at Cornelius' house at Csesarea. Cor- nelius informed them of the communication of the Holy Spirit, that he should call for Peter, who should instruct him, and told Peter, We are here to learn " all things that are commanded thee of God" (Acts 10:24-33). Peter's reply was a short sermon, which in its essentials was a witnessing for Christ and his salvation, but distinctly connecting the salvation through Jesus Christ to the Word of God, the Old Testament Scriptures : " To him give all the proph- 304 Miracle and Science ets witness, that through his name whosoever be- lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins " (Acts 10 : 34-43). " While Peter yet spake these words," the miracle of authentication or confirmation was, in the presence and knowledge of the whole assem- bly, wrought; for " the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, be- cause that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we ? And he commanded them to be bap- tized in the name of the Lord" (Acts 10:44-48). For eight years, in preaching Christ, the apostles had not attained this truth. To human view, they never would attain it, unless given them in a way that was indubitably from God, — indubitably the teaching of Deity by objective evidence, by miracle. God through Moses gave command to the Jews to love their neighbors as themselves (Lev. 19:18). This the Jews had construed; reasoning that the command was for neighbors as such especially, and that enemies were the opposite of neighbors; hence should have opposite treatment. Miracle Integral in Christianity 305 It required the authority of Jesus to correct the error. He said : " Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies " (Matt. 5:43, 44). And Christ was a miracle, Deity incarnate living with men in human form. But the narrow, false doctrines that had controlled the apostles were cured. Peter learned that Christ's sacrifice, atonement, and salvation were for every penitent soul in "all the world" (Luke 24:15), extended to "all nations" (Matt. 28:19), "every creature " in " all the world " (Mark 16 : 15) ; and, in the last words of Jesus, " unto the uttermost parts of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The threefold miracle and the plain distinct com- munication in human speech — not sentiment, but spoken words, definite and clear — were effective, and produced full conversion of Peter to the truth of Christ. The miracles were the testimony of God. To human apprehension, the ingrained bias and prejudice in favor of the children of Israel as God's chosen people, which had been abundantly taught by God's prophets and apparently approved by mir- acle and great deliverances, could not have been overcome otherwise than by the miracle of God, wrought therefor. The fact that God wrought the 306 Miracle and Science threefold miracle therefor, is competent and suf- ficient evidence to prove that proposition. Although Peter was fully converted, he as yet stood alone among the apostles in that conversion. So far as he was concerned, the assault of the Gates of Hell, through that gross error, against the Church of Christ had not prevailed. BRETHREN ESTABLISHED It was essential that the other apostles and believers should also be established in the doctrine of the absolute universality of salvation offered to penitent souls. Jesus had commanded Peter: " When thou art converted, strengthen the breth- ren " (Luke 22:32). The Greek word rendered " strengthen " is as frequently rendered " establish " as strengthen. There seems to be no reason why Jesus' com- mand to Peter should not apply to this last con- version. At any rate when Peter returned to Jerusalem from Csesarea, converted in the episode at Cornelius' house, they that were of the circum- cision, " contended with him " for what he had done. But Peter rehearsed the whole matter pa- tiently and fully justified what he had done, basing his justification, as he ought to and did, on the mir- Miracle Integral in Christianity 307 acle — the testimony of God. Peter obeyed Jesus- command, and established the brethren in the truth ; for " when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18). The evidence examined by the standards of sci- ence, the science of jurisprudence, is submitted to the candid reader. The evidence seems clearly to establish affirmative answers to all the several ques- tions propounded in the introductory chapter, in- cluding clearly the fundamental doctrine that mir- acle is integral and constituent in God's economy of grace — his moral government of men. CHAPTER VIII CESSATION OF MIRACLES— WHY "God also bearing witness, both with signs and won- ders, and divers miracles." Hebrews 2 : 4. We are examining the record, by rules of juris- prudence, to ascertain what the evidence establishes generally in regard to miracles. In the presence of clear knowledge of zvoes that, to human view, God's miracles could, and only his miracles could, relieve, it is but natural that the question should arise, as it so constantly does in burdened souls, Why are not open, public, and undoubted miracles, that could and would relieve such woes, wrought in our day or since the decease of the apostles and immediate disciples of Christ, as were wrought dur- ing Christ's earthly ministry or during the lives of the apostles ? Does the record and evidence furnish any answer to that question? Confining our inves- tigation more particularly to those miracles, we ob- serve that the conception of miracle as disclosed by the Bible is a wonderful, supernatural, and super- human transaction wrought pursuant to the special fiat of Deity. Intelligent purpose inheres in the Cessation of Miracles 309 fiat. Hence function in each miracle is determined by the purpose for which it is wrought. There is no other rule or standard than the will and purpose of God, for determining function of miracle in any case. Only Infinite Wisdom deter- mines when and why a miracle shall be wrought. We have seen in previous pages that the miracles wrought by Christ had their functions in, and were wrought constantly and expressly to attest, the per- son of Christ, his divinity, revelation and doctrine and gospel of salvation. Also, we have seen that, in the judgment of right reason, and to human view, the evidential force and effect of those mira- cles were indispensable in establishing those truths in regard to Christ and his Church and the Chris- ian religion; and that without those miracles Christ's mission, religion, and church would not have survived his death on the cross. The apostles also knew the supreme importance of that miracle evidence with a vividness we probably cannot or do not often apprehend. The apostles not only knew with distinct realization the indispensableness of the miracles in so attesting Christ and his mission during his earthly ministry, but more profoundly, if possible, they knew the indispensableness of mira- cles to be wrought to attest the apostles and im- 310 Miracle and Science mediate disciples of Christ, in taking up and pro- mulgating Christianity, establishing the Church of Christ, executing the great commission. The apostles were arrested for teaching a funda- mental fact of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus. Although not then punished, they were " straitly " commanded that they speak thence- forth to no man the gospel message of Jesus. Be- ing let go, they reported to the company of the apostles and disciples their experience at the hands of the Sanhedrin. The record is, the company of apostles and disciples lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and prayed earnestly : " Grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, [how?] by stretching forth thy hand to heal: and that signs and wonders may be done by the Name of thy holy child Jesus." That prayer was then and there granted (Acts 4:29, 30-31). The record of the fulfilment of that answer to that prayer of the disciples is : "And by the hands of the apos- tles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. . . . And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women " (Acts 5: 12-24). Paul and Barnabas carrying the mission to the pagans in Asia Minor at Iconium spoke " boldly in the Lord, who gave testimony [as Cessation of Miracles 311 Barnabas with the other apostles had, as just stated, prayed for] unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands" (Acts 14:3). At Ephesus, another pagan city, Paul baptized men, " and when Paul had laid his hand upon them the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. . . . And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul " (x\cts 19 : 6. 11). In vindicating his ministry as an apostle of Christ to the Corinthians, Paul insisted on the mir- acles he wrought among them as the indubitable. proof of his apostolic office. " Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds" (2 Cor. 12:12). That exhibition of power is evidently what Paul designates in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (2:1-5) that in " declaring " unto them the " testimony of God " his preaching was not with " enticing words of man's wisdom " (as at Athens on Mars' hill), "but in demonstration of the Spirit and of pozcer: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the pozver of God." " The power of God " manifested in mira- cles was " testimony of God." Through Paul that testimonv was communicated to the Corinthians. 312 Miracle and Science Paul writing to the Roman Christians glories in the fact that he had been permitted to be a minis- ter of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles : " I have therefore my glorying in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God. For I will not dare to speak of any things, save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gen- tiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:17-20, Am. Rev.). The Evangelist Mark records the substance and result in describing the work of the apostles and immediate disciples of Christ in executing the great commission after his ascension. "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following" (Mark 16:20). More literally scholars say, " Through the accompanying signs." * Reviewing the work of the apostles in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the writer exalts the " great salva- tion, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will" (Heb. 2:3, 4). 1 Morrison, Com. on Mark, p. 463. Cessation of Miracles 313 " NOT AS I WILL, BUT A5 THOU WILT " Does not this last clause, miracles wrought accord- ing to God's omniscient judgment and will, furnish us the key which opens to us that which answers the question at the head of this chapter? The Bible record shows,, and it is the consensus of believers, that miracles are wrought by God when there is in his judgment adequate cause and occasion for them. God does not work them except for great cause and for religious purposes. They belong to the history of redemption: and there is no genuine miracle without an adequate occasion for it, in God's redemptive revelation of himself. Miracles are wrought only in accordance with the judgment as well as will of the All-wise. Because the record shows that in almost all the miracles wrought by Christ they were beneficent in relieving human dis- tress, the conclusion may have been, or is often reached, that benefit to the distressed is (if the ex- pression may be used") the normal function of God's miracles, and that when wrought upon per- sons the function is beneficent to the individual. But a brief consideration of the record will show the error of such conclusion. If we assume, as a liberal basis of the rate of peopling the earth in obedience to the command to multiply and replenish 314 Miracle and Science it, i.e. that the antediluvians doubled in population once in fifty years on the average — a basis which, in view of the great age they attained and brought forth children, seems not unfair — the persons de- stroyed by the flood in Noah's time must have been more than a hundred million. If we consider other cases — like the destruction of the first-born of 7,000,000 in Egypt when hardly less than 1,000,000 were destroyed, or the destruction of Sennacherib's host of 185,000, and other recorded instances — we shall see that miracles that have operated on per- sons to relieve distress are but a fraction in com- parison with all persons upon whose lives miracles have operated disastrously and destructively. THE MASTER'S LESSON AT NAZARETH The record discloses plainly that the existence of sufferings, misery, or woe of human beings cannot be truly averred as the immediate direct cause of the Bible miracles. Is not this the plain, direct teaching and lesson of the Master taught to his townspeople at Nazareth, on a Sabbath in the early part of his ministry? The record is, after Jesus had taught, wrought miracles at Capernaum and elsewhere, and, in modern speech, had become famous : Cessation of Miracles 313 " He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up : and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver- ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord'' (Luke 4: 16-19). Having read that prophecy of Isaiah, Christ an- nounced to his townspeople that he was Messiah — the One described in the prophecy as anointed, that in his person that Scripture he had just read was fulfilled. Miracle was an especial part of that ser- mon. Whatever else was considered by the Master in the gracious discourse he then gave, has not been preserved; but what he taught on the subject of miracle, and that alone, is preserved. Recognizing the fact that the fame of miracles he had wrought at Capernaum had preceded him at Xazareth, the Master voiced the expectation or hope of his hearers that miracles of healing and beneficence such as he had wrought at Capernaum might be performed there at Xazareth. That hope 316 Miracle and Science or desire was, however, dealt with by the Master as a means of teaching his lesson on the subject we are considering in this chapter. FOREIGNER FED IN A FAMINE — WHY Recognizing the existence of misery, want, and disease at indicated dates in the history of Israel, Jesus said: " But of a truth [verily] I say unto you, There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; and unto none of them was Elijah sent, but only to Zarephath, in the, land of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow." This miracle was wrought at the time Ahab and his Queen, Jezebel, worshiping Baal, had made Baal worship the state religion of Israel. Ahab and Jezebel were persecuting with relentless hate and death all the godly Israelites. There were 7,000 of such godly adherents to Jehovah (1 Kings 19: 18). Christ's lesson emphasizes the fact that there were many widows and doubtless many among the 7,000 godly people, yet God's miracle supplying food through the famine was wrought not for any of that godly 7,000 or any Israelite widow, but for a for- eigner in Sidon, outside of Israel. We must re- Cessation of Miracles 317 member that the record shows that God does not work a miracle except for adequate cause and for a religious purpose in God's redemptive revelation of himself. Applying these principles to the miracle, we see that it was wrought outside of Israel, in Sidon or Zidon, among a pagan people, whose king was Eth- baal, and Baal was the god of Sidon. Jezebel was the daughter of that king Ethbaal, and had induced Ahab to make Baal the national god of Israel, and to the utmost to dethrone Jehovah, and destroy faith in him and in his worship in Israel even to the extent of destroying every adherent of Jeho- vah. The miracle — the testimony of God — was wrought and given to Sidon, the pagan city which worshiped the false god that Jezebel was cruelly forcing upon Israel. The miracle was Jehovah's revelation of himself at the home and nation from which Jezebel had brought Baal and Baal worship to Israel to supplant Jehovah. ANOTHER FOREIGNER, NAAMAN Doubtless after Jehovah, by another miracle at Carmel, had vindicated his Name, and Elijah as his prophet, the 7,000 devout Israelites were increased in numbers, and among them were lepers; yet the 318 Miracle and Science Master told his audience at Nazareth : "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." Again the lesson of the Master was, Jehovah passed by all the sufferers among the chosen people, the Israelites, and wrought the miracle of healing leprosy upon one only, and he a foreigner, a Syrian. The miracle carried the Name and knowledge of Jehovah effectively into a pagan city by the General and War Lord of its Ruler. That the miracle wrought belief in Naaman that Jehovah was the only true God, is evident in the pardon he asks for even appearing to join with his King in worship- ing Rimmon, the god of Syria and of the temple of Damascus (2 Kings 5: 18). Christ was responding to the desire of the Naza- renes that he should perform a miracle then and there, and he answered responsively by stating two miracles wrought by Jehovah, emphasizing the sig- nificant fact in each case, that relief from suffering of human beings was not the essential function or purpose of miracle. That was the judgment and that was the will of Jehovah, and that was the an- swer of the Master to the Nazarenes, and his lesson to all, at least in regard to such miracles as the Mas- Cessation of Miracles 319 ter was working at Capernaum, and in his earthly ministry, and such as his apostles and immediate disciples wrought after his ascension — during the apostolic age — to attest Christ, his mission and doctrine and his salvation. Why then did miracles, such as wrought by Christ and his apostles, cease after the decease of those servants and ministers of Christ, the termination of the apostolic age? At that time the Church of Christ had been established, built on Christ its Founder and Foundation. The Gates of Hell had not prevailed against it. The religion of Christ had been also established, for it has ever since gone on, sometimes sadly, but never dying, but moving on conquering and to conquer, its triumphs constituting justly the wonder of the world. In accomplishing those great achievements, God's gracious ministration of miracles, as his indubitable testimony in authenticating Jesus as Christ, and his divinity and doctrine and mission of salvation, not only wrought as the power of God, but, as we have seen in previous pages, was indispensable in the establishment of those transcendent achieve- ments in religion and the welfare of the race of mankind. But God's gracious ministration of mir- acles having wrought with the teaching and doc- 320 Miracle and Science trine of the Master and secured those transcendent achievements, we do not see any reason against — but many, perhaps all, reasons for — the proposi- tion, that that gracious ministration of miracles by Jehovah should be embraced in the list of the tran- scendent works of Jehovah that are within the doc- trine heretofore fully stated dira^ " once for all." We do not understand that the teaching of the Master impairs the verity of Jehovah's promise in the second command of the decalogue, that he will show " loving kindness unto thousands of them [generations] that love him and keep his command- ments " (Ex. 20:6, Am. Rev.), a promise and providence that is private, pervasive, silent, effect- ive, and being constantly fulfilled. Nor does the Master's lesson exclude the conclusion that Jehovah will (if ever, in his judgment, cause and occasion exist) publicly work miracles again, such as were wrought by Christ and the apostles in that age. CHAPTER IX IS MORAL IMPERATIVE A FUNCTION OF EVIDENCE " If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just re- compense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neg- lect so great salvation?" Hebrews 2:3. When there is presented to man, an intelligent moral being, evidence that affects materially his duty or his welfare, can he ignore or disregard the evi- dence without incurring guilt? In other words, is there moral imperative in evidence? Science and the Christian religion seem to be in accord in an- swering this question. ANSWER OF SCIENCE The science of jurisprudence responds as follows : When a juror is impaneled to serve in an action in a court of justice, he assents to the oath admin- istered to him, which is substantially in these words : " You do solemnly swear that you will well and truly try the issue in this case [describing it], and a true verdict render therein, in accordance with the evidence given you in court, — unless discharged by the court. So help you God." 322 Miracle and Science Greenleaf, our foremost authority in jurispru- dence, in the department of evidence, as already noted, declares the law, to which there is no dissent, that when evidence is so produced to such juror in amount sufficient " to satisfy the mind and conscience of a man of common prudence and discretion, and so convince him that he would venture to act upon that conviction in matters of the highest con- cern in his own interest " it complies with the jural test of sufficiency. Also : " When we have this de- gree of evidence, it is unreasonable to require more." "A juror would violate his oath if he should refuse to acquit or condemn a person charged with an of- fense, where this measure of proof was adduced." 1 But violation of one's oath, duly required and taken, is the very essence of the crime of perjury — a crime of gross moral turpitude — sin. That is the answer of science. There is moral imperative in evidence. ANSWER OF RELIGION OF CHRIST The answer of religion to the question, whether there is moral imperative in evidence, may be dis- cerned from the immediate teaching of the Master. When he approached the end of his earthly mission, 1 Greenleaf, Test, of the Evang. pp. 24, 25. Moral Imperative in Evidence 323 Christ announced that it was expedient that he should go away, that when he departed he would send to men the Holy Spirit. Christ declared a function the Holy Spirit would perform, namely, he " will convict the world in respect of sin, because they believe not on me." Believing " on " Christ is believing on him as he is revealed and represented in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. It includes his attributes, offices, teachings, redemption works, sacrificial atonement, resurrection, as the Messiah. For brevity we so use the term Messiah. Believing this is not simply an act of the will, as voluntary. Honest, normal belief is a product : it is produced by evidence. Hence the responsibility of the soul which sins in not believing evidence is not primarily in an arbitrary act of the will; but the responsibility is that of failing to give honest, intelligent, faithful attention, consideration, and due credence to the evidence regarding Christ, his at- tributes, offices, teachings, and life, etc., which, through the Bible record, Deity presents to man. The decision of the Master inherent in his an- nouncement of sin, in not believing on him, pro- ceeds on the fact that Christ knew that the evidence presented in regard to him now found in the Scrip- tures — proving Christ to be what he is there rep- 324 Miracle and Science resented to be — is sufficient and ample, and that, if duly attended to and considered and given its nor- mal effect, it would and will convince an honest, sane, intelligent soul that Christ is what the Scrip- tures reveal and represent him to be. In this view, the verdict of the Holy Spirit is also the verdict of Christ, proleptically announced. Christ's teaching is that eternal life or its opposite is proposed to each human soul on simple terms and conditions which Deity prescribes. This involves, and there is inher- ent in it, the highest interest and welfare of the soul that can possibly be conceived. The Creator has, in addition to this, laid on the soul he has created, the duty to conform to the conditions on which eternal life shall be attained and its opposite avoided. So self-interest in man and his duty to God combine in requiring every human soul faithfully to appre- hend, attend to, consider, and give due credence to the evidence that is produced to it to prove Christ to be what the Scriptures reveal him to be. Hence the condemnation denounced by the Master is for failing to heed the evidence, failing to give it the consideration it deserves; or rejecting it, and so failing or refusing to believe. That failure, neglect, or refusal the Master and the Holy Spirit declare is sin. Moral Imperative in Evidence 325 This seems to be the answer of religion, which the teaching of the Master gives to the question at the head of the chapter. The answers of both sci- ence and religion seem clear, there is moral impera- tive in evidence; that a human soul cannot ignore, disregard, or refuse to give due credit to evidence which affects its duty or the real interest or welfare of the soul without incurring in such act guilt, moral turpitude, sin. In considering their evidential function (p. 239) we saw that miracles were wrought in instances un- numbered, fairly described as multitudinous. 1 Mir- acles were constantly appealed to by the Master as wrought to cause men to believe on him as the Mes- siah, the Son of God. " Though ye believe not me, believe the works " (e>7«) (John 10:38); "Believe me for the very 1 " Great multitudes followed them, and he healed them all" (Matt. 12:15); later, "and great multitudes came unto him, having with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, . . . and he healed them " (Matt. 15:30); later, "and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them" (Matt. 19:2); again, "A great multitude out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coasts of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases ; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits .... the whole multitude sought to touch him, for virtue went out of him, and he healed them all" (Luke 6:17-19). See ante, pp. 68-76. 326 Miracle and Science works' sake" (John 14:11); "Woe unto thee .... Bethsaida for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes" (Luke 10:13; see too Matt. 11:23). This is the express teaching of the Master himself. Moreover we saw that miracle evidence, super- natural proof, was the special and (as disclosed by the record) the real ground, the special evidence that caused the apostles and disciples to believe on Jesus as the Messiah. SUPERNATURAL EVIDENCE TO PROVE SUPERNATURAL FACTS In the nature of things, supernatural evidence was indispensable to prove the supernatural fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Jural law of grades of evidence required it. Supernatural evidence was the appropriate proof designed and produced by the Master to cause men to believe on him as the Mes- siah. These propositions not only stand on solid, rational grounds ; but the record demonstrates their verity by actual test and trial. At Nazareth, in pub- lic assembly, Jesus gave his oral testimony witness- ing to his neighbors that he was the Messiah, quot- ing the specific prophecy of Isaiah. This failed to Moral Imperative in Evidence 327 carry conviction to his hearers that he was the Messiah. They disbelieved it. As refuting the evi- dence of Jesus they declared of Jesus, This is the carpenter, son of Mary, brother of James and Judas and Simon, and his sisters are with us. He is Jo- seph's son (Mark 6:3; Luke 4 : 17-22). Although they noted the " gracious words " he spoke, their disbelief prevailed, and they became so enraged with his address before it ended, that they deter- mined to kill him (Luke 4: 29). Also, when Jesus testified personally to the same Messianic truth to the Jews, he was to them a blas- phemer. They took stones to kill him, as they said expressly, " because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (John 10:33). It was in the condi- tion caused by this very discussion, and in this im- mediate connection, that Jesus said of his miracles, " Though ye believe not me, believe the works " (John 14: 11). Here was recognition that humanity requires what God recognized Pharaoh might ra- tionally demand, " Show a miracle for you," when a supernatural matter is to be verified, by evidence. The evidence was therefore mercifully adapted to human nature, to the nature of things, as well as to jural science. Jesus produced miracle as appro- priate, competent, and, as experience demonstrated, 328 Miracle and Science indispensable evidence to prove to men he was the Messiah and to cause them to believe on him as such. Later we shall see that Christ taught his disciples directly that this miracle evidence should be used by- them as the means and method by which they should execute the great commission of causing men everywhere to believe on him and become his disciples. The Greek has three terms to describe miracles. They are rendered in our English Bible as follows : " Miracles " (£um^et?), " wonders " (repara), and u signs " {arjfxeld). 1 These three words occur more than three hundred times in the New Testament, and what they stand for pervades it throughout. On the day of Pentecost, Peter, " filled with the Holy Spirit " at the initial moment of commencing to execute the great commission, delivered a nota- ble discourse condemning his people for crucifying Jesus. In that address Peter specified the evidence by which, as Peter knew, God had proved to him that Jesus was the Messiah; and in it there is no 1 Dr. Taylor, in his " Miracles of our Saviour," says : "A fourth-term description of miracles occurs only in John, and there only on the lips of John himself. It is (epyn) works," suggesting that, to Christ, miracle was only "common or ordinary" (p. 4). Moral Imperative in Evidence 329 thought of any evidence other than the supernat- ural, but the supernatural evidence is exhaustively described by the three names ; viz. " Ye men of Israel, hear these words : Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know," ye have slain (Acts 2:22). As one commentator on the Greek Testa- ment says, Peter showed that God had demonstrated that Jesus was the Messiah " by every kind of Su- pernatural proof." 1 MIRACLE EVIDENCE ORDAINED FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION Forty days after the resurrection, the time arrived which Christ had predicted, when it was expedient that he should " go away " and send the Holy Spirit to men. At the final interview, the Master with di- vine wisdom, utmost simplicity and brevity, as a last command, instructed his immediate disciples how, by what means and method, they should execute the great commission, and enjoined its use by them; viz. " Ye shall be witnesses unto me," everywhere, even " unto the uttermost parts of the earth " (Acts 1:8). 1 Rev. J. A. Spencer, Greek Testament, English Notes, p. 331. 330 Miracle and Science The function of a witness, and his duty also, is truly to communicate to others, needing the evi- dence, facts and truths the witness has himself known, experienced, or actually observed. Hence each disciple Christ so instructed in that final' inter- view was commanded to labor to cause men to be- lieve on Christ and become his disciples, by witness- ing to men evidence that had caused such disciple himself to believe and follow Christ, which, as we have seen in the chapters referred to, was the mir- acle evidence, — the supernatural proof which the disciples by the last word of the Master were so en- joined to witness to men. That the apostles and disciples so understood that instruction and command is shown by what they presently said and did. Within the ten days be- tween the ascension (the time the injunction to witness was given) and the day of Pentecost, the disciples, moved by Peter, chose Matthias, in place of Judas, so that he could be a witness unto Christ as an apostle, he being qualified because, as Peter stated, he had " companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, begin- ning from the baptism of John unto the same day when he was taken up from us" (Acts 1: 21, 22). Further, on the day of Pentecost, Peter in oral Moral Imperative in Evidence 331 discourse witnessed to the supernatural proof, mir- acles, wonders, signs, that he knew caused him to believe on Christ, and that witnessing caused 3,000 souls then, on that day, to believe on Christ, become his disciples, and continue steadfast as such (Acts 2:41, 42). See specific witnessing for Christ. 1 PERPETUATING THE MIRACLE EVIDENCE Because the witnessing " to the uttermost parts of the earth " could not be done orally by the dis- ciples who especially received the command, they provided for so promulgating their testimony by perpetuating the evidence, reducing it to written depositions. Sixty or seventy years after the ascen- sion, John made his deposition as such witness. We call it John's gospel: it is really John's deposition. Its dominant note throughout is the miracles — the supernatural evidence that caused John to believe. He summarizes, as before noted, at the end of the twentieth chapter: " And many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book ; but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye might have life through his name" (ver. 30, 31). J Acts 3:15. Illustrations are in evidence continually. We cite some (Acts 4:33; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31; 26:16, 22; 2 Pet. 15:18). 332 Miracle and Science Corresponding depositions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, and associated disciples carry out that last in- struction and command of the Master. MIRACLE EVIDENCE PREPONDERANT Examination of the record, to learn the character of what was produced as evidence to cause men to believe on Jesus as the Messiah, shows that what- ever else may be discovered having a bearing on the question, this is true, the dominant, the overwhelm- ing bulk of evidence produced to cause men to believe on Jesus as the Messiah was the miracles, the supernatural evidence; and further, that that was peculiarly designated evidence — the witness- ing which the Master directed his disciples to employ, and which they did employ in executing the great commission. And let the great truth be ever remembered, never forgotten, that, so far as human effort operated, it was by that witnessing of that supernatural evidence, so ordained by the Mas- ter to be so employed, that Christianity was in fact originally established in the world. INDEX Agnosticism, Principal Fairbairn quoted on, 114. Ancient Documents, any writings more than thirty years old are competent evidence, 26; grounds and reasons of the rule, 27, 31, 32, 33, 37-43; decisions of courts upon the subject for the last three hundred years, 31-37; writings of all kinds, within the rule, 38, 39; copies or writings preserved as copies equal- ly with originals are competent evidence, 40. Ancients' conceptions of Deity, 119. Anomaly of disbelief in miracles, 2; anomaly exam- ined, 276. &irat, " once for all," doctrine of, 153. Apologetics regarding hardening Pharaoh's heart, 188. Apostles' conception of Jesus before the crucifixion, 234. Attorney-General v. Boultbee, High Court of Chancery of England, on question of competency in evidence of books like the Bible, 43. Authentication of revelation by miracle, rational, 78-80. Bentham, J., on competency of evidence, 23. Bible, the, comes to men as evidence, 7; competent evidence, 40, 43. Bush, George, quoted in explanation of Ex. 15: 14, 162; on " gates of hell," 231. Challenge of priests and rulers at the cross, to Jesus, to Jehovah, 261. Chartumim, " sacred scribes," in Exodus called magi- cians, 131. Christian dispensation, announced and described, 160, 161. 334 Index Christ our guide in conception of Deity and duty, 92. Christ's standard, holding plow to its work until task is completed, 213. Competency of evidence, general principles, 19; reform in rules, 20; reformers urged no exclusion of evidence as incompetent, 23; rules reformed on that line by -legislatures and courts, 23-24. Completing proof of supremacy of Jehovah, 218. Cornelius and miracle lesson, salvation of all who will, 302. Daniel's prophecy of Messiah's kingdom, 236. Deity as conceived by the ancients, 119. Deity of Jesus proved, 96; issue thereon formulated, 103; trial of the issue, 108; verdict, Jesus Deity, 109; irapddo^a in the verdict unfortunately render- ed in English, 111; Divine confirmation of, 112. Demonstration of verity of miracle, 16, 275, 280. Denials of miracles examined, 4, 6. Deposition. Each Gospel one, 331. Destruction of first-born of Egypt, 218, 220. Divine Decree described, 165. Divine purposes, 5; especially disclosed in Exodus, 122. Doctrine and Miracle — Deity of Jesus, chapter on, 96-113; attributes of Jehovah, 114. Documents as evidence, ordinary tests of their truth, 27. See Ancient Documents. Elliott on Evidence, Ancient Documents competent, 39, 40. Evidence, defined, 8; produces belief, 8; how con- trolled, 9; philosophy of its function, 13; standard of, in proving miracle, 19. Evolutionists, denial of miracles by, examined, 6 Existence of God, arguments taught as theistic proofs, 115. Index 335 Existence of God, 138; ten separate proofs made, 140-144; proofs summarized, 145. Exodus era, state of religion in, 118. Facts rule supreme in all investigations, 284. Faith of apostles, eclipsed at the crucifixion, 257; not established by the resurrection, 268. Fisher, George P., quoted on divinity of Jesus, 96. Fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy of Messiah's King- dom, 238. Gates of Hell, comment on, 231. Gilbert, Baron, quoted on evidence of ancient copies, 40. God, existence and supremacy of, denied by Pharaoh, 128. God's judgment covenant with Abraham, 162. Gods of Egypt, Jehovah's judgment against, 135. Gospel of John, a deposition, Ancient Document evi- dence, 26. Greenleaf, Simon, on need of candor, 3; defines evi- dence, 21; standard of evidence to prove verity of miracles, 19; opinion quoted affirming competency as evidence of books of the Bible, Ancient Document rule, 46-51. Gwatkin, quoted on miracles, 1. Hamilton, William, quoted, 86. Hardening Pharaoh's heart, examined, 190; represent- ed sometimes as done by Pharaoh himself, some- times by Jehovah, 194-200; consequences identical, 200; two instances compared, 194-197. Hopkins, Mark, quoted on rationality of miracles, 63. Home, Bishop, on denial of righteousness of God by skeptics^ 156. Hume, David, challenge of, that miracles are unprov- able, 16. 836 Index Inge, Professor, quoted, 85. Inspiration and revelation, defined and compared, 62. Interpretation, Cardinal Rule of, 190. Issue, defined, its function in jurisprudence, 9; Abra- ham Lincoln's use of, 10; employment of, by Jesus, 11; by Jehovah, 12; made by Pharaoh's denial of God and his sovereignty, 128; to be continued until full proof is made, 212, 213. Jannes and Jambres, sacred scribes of Egypt, 131. Jesus, the Light of the World, the great proclamation, 93. Jesus' use of jural science, 99. Jethro on Jehovah's judgments against the gods of Egypt, 137. Judgment covenant, of God, with Abraham, 162; and Stephen, 167; revealed to Isaac, 168; to Jacob, 169; recorded by the Psalmist, 169; in the Exodus, 170; the nine plagues not performance of, 176; destruction of the first-born was performance of, 179; Ex. 11: 1, examined, 183; the judgment identified by linguistic proofs, 224. Jural matters judged by jural standards, 202. Jural science, its rules, tests, ordeals, 7. Kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, origin of the terms, 235. Last Supper, perplexing statements by the Master, 251-253. Lazarus, miracle of the resurrection of, subject to tests of science, 16; proved verity, 57. Lesson of Jesus at Nazareth on miracles, 314. Livingston, Edward, quoted, 20. Love of an apostle, Jesus' lesson on, at Sea of Tiberias, 288. Index 337 Man of Cohasset, victim of subjective conception of revelation, 89, Mansfield, Lord, on the competency of uncompared copies as evidence, 28. Mariner's compass to illustrate following Jesus, 92. Meeting-house established at Capernaum, 98. Miracle as Objective Evidence in Revelation, chapter on, 78-95. Miracle defined as presented by the Bible, 1; inherent in Christianity, 1; the testimony of God, 64; illustra- tion, Abraham, 64; Gideon, 66; not interpreted by symbolism, 67; identifications of Jesus as Messiah, 68, 70; supreme instances, 72; decalogue spoken at Sinai, 72; resurrection of Jesus, 73; Apostle John's deposition, 75; the Master's testimony, 75; pro- duces faith, 244. Miracle, Function of, chapter on, 60-77. Miracle Integral and Constituent in God's Economy of Grace and Revelation, chapter on, 225-307. Miracles, Cessation of, chapter on, 308-320. Miracles, tried, proved, resurrection of Lazarus, 15, 57; of Jesus, 280-284; majority of, not beneficent to individuals, 314. Miracles, Verity of, Examined by Judicial Standards, chapter on, 15-59. Moses, victim of subjective conception of revelation, 88. Mount of Transfiguration, exodus of Jesus to accom- plish at Jerusalem, 245. Name designating Jehovah in the Old Testament sig- nifies his revealed character and essence, 204. Nature defined in its relation to miracle, 4. Obedience, the test and measure of the disciples' love, 295, 296. 338 Index Objections of opponents examined, 26. Objective as compared with subjective, denned, 86. Palsied man, miracle and divinity of Jesus, 96. Perpetuating testimony, 148. Pharaoh, hardening his own heart, 191; causing to -stand, meaning of, 201, 206, 211. Proof, of existence and supremacy of God, summar- ized, 150, 151; of Jehovah's supremacy, incomplete until night of the Passover, 214-217; what consti- tutes, in jural science, 207. Purves, G. T., cited, 300. Rationale of miracle authenticating revelation, 80. Reason without revelation, not sufficient, 83. Resurrection of Jesus a demonstrated fact, 284. Revelation and inspiration defined and compared, 62. Righteousness of God denied by skeptics, 156; on the claim that he punished conduct he himself caused, 158. Story, Judge, quoted, 227. Taylor, William, cited, 7; quoted, 106. Testing miracles by science, 2. Tests of the validity of evidence, 27. Theistic proof, arguments as, 115. Wigmore on Evidence, quoted, 13. Will, A. P., cited, 7. Wills, William, quoted, 21. Witnessing for the Messiah described, ordained, 329. Wright, G. F., on nature and miracle, 4; on miraculous dispensations — Bible record, 83. Yoking discordant elements in Christianity, 226. SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY By G. FREDERICK WRIGHT D.D., LL.D., F.G.S.A. Contents: I. The Witness of the New Testament. — ■ II. Middle and Later Jewish History. — III. Israel in Egypt. — IV. The Exodus. — V. Physical Preparation for Israel in Palestine. — VI. Traditions of the Deluge. —VII. Scientific Credibility of the Deluge.— VIII. The Glacial Epoch as a Vera Causa. — IX. Evidences of a Deluge in Europe. — X. The Evidence of a Deluge in Asia. — XI. The Deluge in North America. — XII. The First Chapter of Genesis, and Modern Science. Cloth, 12mo, 450 pages, 40 Illustrations. $2, net; postpaid, $2.15. "One of the most thorough books of its kind, in a popular form, lately published." — New YorJc Times. 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Saville Mr. Warren Upham A beautifully illustrated quarto, printed upon highly calendared rag paper, published bi-monthly, 64 pages a number. It contains in popular form a re- cord of archaeological and historical explorations in every part of the world. While not an apologetical review, it gives without bias the facts upon which all apologetics are based. It has no competitor in its field. The bound volumes are an elegant addition to any library, and are in- dispensable to students of archaeology and history. Special Offer for Complete Sets Vols. I.- VII., Unbound (postage paid) $17.00 Vols. I.-VII.. Bound in cloth 24.00 Vols. I.-VII., Bound in half morocco 30.00 Terms: Annual Subscription, $3. Single copy, 50 cents. Foreign Subscriptions, $3.36, except Mexico, which is $3, and Canada, which is $3.20. Records of the Past Exploration Society 330 A Street, S. E., Washington, D. C. Foreign Agent: Charles Higham & Son, 27a Farring- don St., E. 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