ON MIRACLES. 215 



1. Hume's first Objection, — That Testimony cannot reach to the 

 Supernatural. 



Having dealt with this preliminary form of the objection, I 

 come now to the first of Hume^s celebrated objections^ — That 

 testimony cannot reach to the supernatural. This form of the 

 objection has reference to the capabilities of man. In con- 

 sequence of the limitations of our nature, a miraculous event 

 is beyond the scope of our faculties. Now, if by miraculous 

 event is meant the cause, — the unseen cause, — of the event, 

 the proposition is true. 



The cause of a supernatural event is hidden from 

 us. It is not revealed to the most careful scrutiny. 

 But the phenomena, which are described as supernatural, 

 come perfectly within the scope of observation. We can 

 therefore see and bear witness to their existence as matters of 

 fact. We see a body lying dead before us ; we see the body 

 touched, we hear it addressed, and we see it rise up to life, 

 move, speak. These facts, it is clear, may be seen and heard^ 

 and may therefore be deposed to by those who have seen 

 them or heard them. But the witnesses cannot bear witness 

 to the final, though they can to the instrumental, cause. It 

 is, of course, perfectly open to any one seeing or hearing what 

 I have described, to say that the body was not really, only 

 apparently, dead; or (if that supposition is not possible) to 

 say that life was restored by some recondite law hitherto 

 undiscovered and unknown to us. The conclusion to which 

 the facts described above would lead reasonable men would 

 depend upon circumstances. Suppose that a being should 

 appear, announcing himself as a teacher sent from Grod to 

 instruct and awaken mankind to a sense of their relation to 

 Him ; suppose that, in accordance with this claim, He, in 

 burning words, exhorted men to repent and turn to Him ; 

 that thousands did so repent and turn to God ; suppose that, 

 in prosecution of His claim, and in attestation of it, He 

 wrought miracles. 



Suppose, further, that His life was in harmony with 

 His teaching ; that, so far as we could learn, He lived a 

 pure, blameless, holy life, — we should instinctively believe 

 that His claim was well founded. Suppose, for example, 

 that such a person, in attestation of his claim to be a teacher 

 sent from God, raised a dead body to life : suppose we 



