l8 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



definition does not necessarily involve the idea 

 ' of a "violation of the laws of Nature." It does not 

 involve the idea of the exercise of Will apart from 

 the use of means. It does not involve, therefore, 

 that idea which appears to many so difficult of 

 conception. It simply supposes, without any 

 attempt to fathom the relation in which God 

 stands to His own " laws," that out of His in- 

 finite knowledge of these laws, or of His infinite 

 power of making them the instruments of His 

 Will, He may and He does use them for extra- 

 ordinary indications of His presence. 



The reluctance to admit as belonging to the 

 domain of Nature any special exertion of Divine 

 power for special purposes, stands really in very 

 close relationship to the converse notion, that 

 where the operation of natural causes can be 

 clearly traced, there the exertion of Divine power 

 and Will is rendered less certain and less con- 

 vincing-. This is the idea which lies at the root 

 of Gibbon's famous chapters on the spread of 

 Christianity. He labours to prove that it was 

 due to natural causes. In proving this, he evi- 

 dently thinks he is disposing of the notion that 



