REMARKS ON MIRACLES. 419 



for evidence is more exacting than it used to be, whenever 

 it is affirmed that such order has been disturbed. 



Let us take as an illustration the miracle by which the 

 victory of Joshua over the Amorites was rendered complete, 

 where the sun is reported to have stood still for &quot; a whole 

 day&quot; upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon. 

 An Englishman of average education at the present day 

 would naturally demand a greater amount of evidence to 

 prove that this occurrence took place than would have sat 

 isfied an Israelite in the age succeeding that of Joshua. 

 For, to the one, the miracle probably consisted of the stop 

 page of a ball of fire less than a yard in diameter, while to 

 the other it would be the stoppage of an orb fourteen hun 

 dred thousand times the earth in size. And, even accept 

 ing the interpretation which instructed divines now put 

 upon this text, that Joshua dealt with what was apparent 

 merely, but that what really occurred was the suspension 

 of the earth s rotation, I think a greater reserve in accept 

 ing the miracle, and a right to demand stronger evidence 

 in support of it, will be conceded to a modern man of sci 

 ence than would have sufficed for an ancient Jew. 



There is a scientific imagination as well as an historic 

 imagination, and when, by the exercise of the former, the 

 stoppage of the earth s rotation is clearly realized, the 

 event assumes proportions so vast in comparison with the 

 result to be obtained by it that belief reels under the reflec 

 tion. The energy here involved is equal to that of six trill 

 ions of horses working for the whole of the time employed 

 by Joshua in the destruction of his foes. The amount of 

 power thus expended would be sufficient to supply every 

 individual of an army a thousand times the strength of that 

 of Joshua, with a thousand times the fighting-power of 

 each of Joshua s soldiers, not for the few hours necessary to 

 the extinction of a handful of Amorites, but for millions 

 of years. All this wonder is silently passed over by the 



