ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MIRACLES. 37 



or as a practical means of vengeance, the same lavish 

 squandering of energy stares us in the face. If 

 evidential, the energy was wasted, because the Israelites 

 knew nothing of its amount ; if simply destructive, then 

 the ratio of the quantity lost to the quantity employed, 

 may be inferred from the foregoing figures. 



To other miracles similar remarks apply. Trans- 

 ferring our thoughts from this little sand-grain of an 

 earth to the immeasurable heavens, where countless 

 worlds with freights of life probably revolve unseen, the 

 very suns which warm them being barely visible across 

 abysmal space ; reflecting that beyond these sparks of 

 solar fire, suns innumerable may burn, whose light can 

 never stir the optic nerve at all ; and bringing these 

 reflections face to face with the idea of the Builder and 

 Sustainer of it all showing Himself in a burning bush, 

 exhibiting His hinder parts, or behaving in other fami- 

 liar ways ascribed to Him in the Jewish Scriptures, the 

 incongruity must appear. Did this credulous prattle 

 of the ancients about miracles stand alone ; were it not 

 associated with words of imperishable wisdom, and with 

 examples of moral grandeur unmatched elsewhere in the 

 history of the human race, both the miracles and their 

 ' evidences ' would have long since ceased to be the 

 transmitted inheritance of intelligent men. Influenced 

 by the thoughts which this universe inspires, well may 

 we exclaim in David's spirit, if not in David's words : 

 6 When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, 

 the moon, and the stars, which thou hast ordained ; 

 what is man that thou shouldst be mindful of him, or 

 the son of man that thou shouldst so regard him ? ' 



If you ask me who is to limit the outgoings of 

 Almighty power, my answer is, Not I. If you should 

 urge that if the Builder and Maker of this universe 

 chose to stop the rotation of the earth, or to take the 



