MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 



as if it were now passing before their 

 eyes, they ask themselves, " Can this 

 have taken place ?" In some instances 

 the effort to answer this question has led 

 to a disbelief in miracles, in others to a 

 strengthening of belief. The aim of 

 Mr. Mozley's lectures is to show that the 

 strengthening of belief is the logical 

 result which ought to follow from the 

 examination of the facts. 



Attempts have been made by religious 

 men to bring the Scripture miracles 

 within the scope of the order of nature, 

 but all such attempts are rejected by Mr. 

 Mozley as utterly futile and wide of the 

 mark. Regarding miracles as a necessary 

 accompaniment of a revelation, their 

 evidential value in his eyes depends 

 entirely upon their deviation from the 

 order of nature. Thus deviating, they 

 suggest and illustrate a power higher 

 than nature, a " personal will "; and they 

 commend the person in whom this power 

 is vested as a messenger from on high. 

 Without these credentials such a mes- 

 senger would have no right to demand 

 belief, even were his assertions regarding 

 his Divine mission backed by a holy life. 

 Nor is it by miracles alone that the order 

 of nature is, or may be, disturbed. The 

 material universe is also the arena of 

 "special providences." Under these two 

 heads Mr. Mozley distributes the total 

 preternatural. One form of the pre- 

 ternatural may shade into the other, as 

 one colour passes into another in the 

 rainbow ; but while the line which 

 divides the specially providential from 

 the miraculous cannot be sharply drawn, 

 their distinction broadly expressed is this : 

 that, while a special providence can only 

 excite surmise more or less probable, it 

 is " the nature of a miracle to give proof, 

 as distinguished from mere surmise, of 

 Divine design." 



Mr. Mozley adduces various illustra- 

 tions of what he regards to be special 

 providences as distinguished from 

 miracles. "The death of Arius," he 

 says, " was not miraculous, because the 

 coincidence of the death of a heresiarch 

 taking place when it was peculiarly 



advantageous to the orthodox faith 



was not such as to compel the inference 

 of extraordinary Divine agency ; but it 

 was a special providence, because it 

 carried a reasonable appearance of it. 

 The miracle of the Thundering Legion 

 was a special providence, but not a 

 miracle, for the same reason, because 

 the coincidence of an instantaneous fall 

 of rain, in answer to prayer, carried 

 some appearance, but not proof, of 

 preternatural agency." The eminent 

 lecturer's remarks on this head brought 

 to my recollection certain narratives, 

 published in Methodist magazines, which- 

 I used to read with avidity when a 

 boy. The general title of these exciting 

 stories, if I remember right, was " The 

 Providence of God Asserted," and in 

 them the most extraordinary escapes 

 from peril were recounted and ascribed 

 to prayer, while equally wonderful 

 instances of calamity were adduced as 

 illustrations of Divine retribution. In 

 such magazines, or elsewhere, I found 

 recorded the case of the celebrated 

 Samuel Hick, which, as it illustrates a 

 whole class of special providences ap- 

 proaching in conclusiveness to miracles, 

 is worthy of mention here. It is related 

 of this holy man that, on one occasion, 

 flour was lacking to make the sacra- 

 mental bread. Grain was present, and 

 a windmill was present, but there was 

 no wind to grind the corn. With faith 

 undoubting, Samuel Hick prayed to the 

 Lord of the winds : the sails turned, the 

 corn was ground, after which the wind 

 ceased. According to the canon of the 

 Bampton Lecturer, this, though carrying 

 a strong appearance of an immediate 

 exertion of Divine energy, lacks by a 

 hair's-breadth the quality of a miracle. 

 For the wind might have arisen, and 

 might have ceased, in the ordinary 

 course of nature. Hence the occurrence 

 did not " compel the inference of extra- 

 ordinary Divine agency." In like manner 

 Mr. Mozley considers that "the appear- 

 ance of the cross to Constantine was a 

 miracle, or a special providence, according 

 to what account of it we adopt. As 



