ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON MIRACLES. 37 



about it. Whether, therefore, we consider the mira- 

 cle as purely evidential, or as a practical means of venge- 

 ance, 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 behav- 

 ing in other familiar 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 im- 

 perishable wisdom, and with examples of moral gran- 

 deur unmatched elsewhere in the history of the hu- 

 man race, both the miracles and their 'evidences' 

 would have long ceased to be the transmitted inherit- 

 ance 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: ' When I con- 

 sider 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 



