THE ATTITUDE OF SCIENCE TOWARDS MIRACLES. 103 
training and development. For “the occurrence or reported 
occurrence of miracles compels our attention, and sets us upon 
inquiring from what source such marvels proceed. When 
joined to the moral and spiritual force of what is thus revealed 
it convinces the inquirer that this strange interposition of an 
external power into the world could only have been for his 
good, and that a doctrine so supported, and so intrinsically 
ennobling in itself, must surely have come from God.” 
Therefore, the Bible miracles are @ priort probable from the 
nature of the phenomenon, and also from the conditions under 
which they are said to have taken place. 
(6) Let us now apply our three tests (p. 99) to answering the 
question—Did the Bible miracles actually occur? (1) In 
connection with the nature of the phenomenon, we note that 
the character of these miracles is such that, though they be 
themselves not necessarily didactic, they always are ancillary 
to some teaching concerning God, and of a nature to render 
this teaching effective.* If the need of man and the goodness 
of God insured the certainty of revelation, it is also certain that 
the theophany would be given in the way best fitted to render 
it effective, and (as it is pointed out by Aquinas) this way is 
the way of miracle. Science also selects the instruments that 
are best adapted to the purpose in view. Compared with Bible 
miracles, the spurious miracles which have from time to time 
attempted to delude mankind exhibit a difference of character 
so ereat as to be best described as contrast, and are all 
explicable by causes non-supernatural. It is further to be 
noted that the Bible miracles are not mere accompaniments of 
the revelation, but are inseparably bound up with it. A very 
important feature in them is that they explain} what is 
otherwise inexplicable. The Exodus of the Israelites becomes 
unintelligible if the iniracles said to have attended it did not 
really take place, and no explanation is (in such case) possible 
of the memorial feast of the Passover. The faith of Christians 
is bound up with the miracles of the Incarnation, the 
Resurrection, and the character of Christ. Take away these 
miracles and you take away Christianity. They explaint 
Christianity and nothing else does. They give the key to its 
* “Signs,” says Sir Robert Anderson, “are essentially evidential.” 
7 On the principles of Mill’s inductive methods of Agreement and 
Ditference. (Logic.) 
{ 1t is not sae that the miracles fit into the facts as a key into a lock, 
but that the lock is fitted by no other key. 
H 
