RIGHT RELATION OF REASON TO RELIGION 239 



sustentation of the world notwithstanding. The 

 argument was : By a Divine Revelation, an authori- 

 tative declaration of God, we mean a direct utterance 

 of Him who created and who sustains the world ; we 

 know it is He that speaks, because here, in the 

 miracle, is the infallible sign of that complete con- 

 trol over Nature which is the prerogative of its 

 Author. 



But this attempt to support testimony by miracle, 

 striking as the argument seems when first presented, 

 will not endure a serious examination. Upon suf- 

 ficient reflexion, we see clearly that the proof of the 

 reality of a miracle, of the actual occurrence of an 

 event supplanting the ordinary laws of succession 

 in Nature, rests in its turn upon human testimony 

 again, and, still worse, upon human judgment. A 

 supposed miracle called in to validate testimony, the 

 assurance of whose occurrence must yet itself de- 

 pend upon testimony, nay, upon human judgment, 

 certainly cannot be called a secure support, a proof 

 real, final, and conclusive. The same mferential 

 judgment that collects from certain sensible signals 

 the actual presence of God, that concludes God is 

 speaking then and there, because certain sights and 

 sounds are perceived, must of course come again into 

 play when some amazing event, not to be paralleled 

 in the previous experience of its observers, is con- 

 strued into a suspension of the order of Nature, the 



