MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 



103 



is subsequently called upon to do momen- 

 tous duty in regard to miracles. When- 

 ever the evidence of the miraculous seems 

 incommensurate with the fact which it 

 has to establish, or rather when the fact 

 is so amazing that hardly any evidence 

 is sufficient to establish it, Mr. Mozley 

 invokes "the affections." They must 

 urge the reason to accept the conclusion, 

 from which unaided it recoils. The 

 affections and emotions are eminently 

 the court of appeal in matters of real 

 religion, which is an affair of the heart ; 

 but they are not, I submit, the court in 

 which to weigh allegations regarding the 

 credibility of physical facts. These must 

 be judged by the dry light of the intellect 

 alone, appeals to the affections being 

 reserved for cases where moral elevation, 

 and not historic conviction, is the aim. 

 It is, moreover, because the result, in 

 the case under consideration, is deemed 

 desirable that the affections are called 

 upon to back it. If undesirable, they 

 would, with equal right, be called upon to 

 act the other way. Even to the disciplined 

 scientific mind this would be a dangerous 

 doctrine. A favourite theory the desire 

 to establish or avoid a certain result 

 can so warp the mind as to destroy its 

 powers of estimating facts. I have 

 known men to work for years under a 

 fascination of this kind, unable to extri- 

 cate themselves from its fatal influence. 

 They had certain data, but not, as it 

 happened, enough. By a process exactly 

 analogous to that invoked by Mr. 

 Mozley, they supplemented the data, 

 and went wrong. From that hour their 

 intellects were so blinded to the percep- 

 tion of adverse phenomena that they 

 never reached truth. If, then, to the 

 disciplined scientific mind this incon- 

 gruous mixture of proof and trust be 

 fraught with danger, what must it be to 

 the indiscriminate audience which Mr. 

 Mozley addresses ? In calling upon 

 this agency he acts the part of Franken- 

 stein. It is a monster thus evoked that 

 we see stalking abroad in the degrading 

 spiritualistic phenomena of the present 

 day. Again, I say, where the aim is to 



elevate the mind, to quicken the moral 

 sense, to kindle the fire of religion in 

 the soul, let the affections by all means 

 be invoked ; but they must not be per- 

 mitted to colour our reports, or to influ- 

 ence our acceptance of reports, of occur- 

 rences in external nature. Testimony 

 as to natural facts is worthless when 

 wrapped in this atmosphere of the affec- 

 tions, the most earnest subjective truth 

 being thus rendered perfectly compatible 

 with the most astounding objective error. 

 There are questions in judging of 

 which the affections or sympathies are 

 often our best guides, the estimation of 

 moral goodness being one of these. 

 But at this precise point, where they are 

 really of use, Mr. Mozley excludes the 

 affections and demands a miracle as a 

 certificate of character. He will not 

 accept any other evidence of the perfect 

 goodness of Christ. "No outward life 

 and conduct," he says, "however irre- 

 proachable, could prove His perfect sin- 

 lessness, because goodness depends 

 upon the inward motive, and the per- 

 fection of the inward motive is not 

 proved by the outward act." But surely 

 the miracle is an outward act, and to 

 pass from it to the inner motive imposes 

 a greater strain upon logic than that 

 involved in our ordinary methods of 

 estimating men. There is, at least, 

 moral congruity between the outward 

 goodness and the inner life, but there is 

 no such congruity between the miracle 

 and the life within. The test of moral 

 goodness laid down by Mr. Mozley is 

 not the test of John, who says : " He 

 that doeth righteousness is righteous "; 

 nor is it the test of Jesus : " By their 

 fruits ye shall know them; do men 

 gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" 

 But it is the test of another : " If thou 

 be the Son of God, command that these 

 stones be made bread." For my own 

 part, I prefer the attitude of Fichte to 

 that of Mr. Mozley. "The Jesus of 

 John," says this noble and mighty 

 thinker, "knows no other God than 

 the true God, in whom we all are, and 

 live, and may be blessed, and out of 



