THE ATTITUDE OF SCIENCE TOWARDS MIRACLES. 119 
gratulated on this excellent paper, and the judges deserve our 
sincere thanks for their laborious task of reading through the nine 
essays and deciding on the best one. 
In further support of the author’s refutation of the old statement 
that miracles are violations of the laws of nature, pp. 81, 89, and 106, 
it may be noticed that several miracles are recorded as being 
themselves subject to law, as we are told that they could only be 
performed when faith was present: I refer to Matt. xiii, 58, “He 
did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief”: to 
Mark ix, 23, “If thou canst, all things are possible to him that 
believeth,” and in Acts xiv, 9, 10, the Apostle Paul said that the 
cripple had faith to be made whole, before he said to him, ‘Stand 
upright on thy feet.” (See also Matt. ix, 29, Mark ii, 5 and 52, 
Luke xviii, 42.) In all these instances a law is evident that certain 
miracles could only be performed when faith was present on the 
part of the recipient. 
Our author rightly insists on the value of the testimony of the 
Bible to the miracles therein recorded. Most men who deny that 
Bible miracles happened would more or less deny the historic truth 
of the Scripture record. Hence it would seem that the arguments 
in the paper before us would have been strengthened if more space 
had been devoted to the remarkable historic accuracy in Scripture 
recently demonstrated by archeological research, as for instance, in 
the Book of the Acts where the exact and varied titles* are most 
correctly given to different magnates, e.g., to Sergius Paulus, styled 
pro-consul in Acts xiii, 7. In Thessalonica, Acts xvii, 6, politarchs 
are mentioned: a word unknown in other history until an ancient 
gateway was discovered in the ruins of that city bearing an 
inscription with that very title. Chief man in Malta, Acts xxviii, 7 
is also attested by a local inscription. Again in Acts xiv, 6, Paul 
and Silas, we are told, fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, and 
Derbe. Sir W. M. Ramsayt has shown that in the first century 
these two cities were both included in Lycaonia, but in the second 
century Lystra was separated and identified with Iconium. 
These are only some examples of the recently demonstrated 
* Bible Accuracy, 1903, pp. 59, 60. Col. C. R. Conder. 
+ Trans. Vict. Inst., 1907, “ Exploration of Asia Minor as bearing on 
the historical trustworthiness of the New Testament,” p, 209. 
I 
