57 
APPENDIX. 
From the Christian Observer. 
REPLY TO DR. MARTIN. 
What is a Miracle. , 
BY REV. J. L. GIRARDEAU, D. D. 
In four successive numbers of the Southern Presbyterian, Dr. J. L. 
Martin has recently attacked an article written by me, and published in 
the last Presbyterian Quarterly, in defence of the contra-natural char- 
acter of the miracle. The article was almost whelly occupied in vindi- 
cating against objections, the position that the miracle is contra-natural. 
When the argument had been finished, it occurred to me that the view 
sustained by it might be applied to atheism, materialism, pantheism, evo- 
lutionism, and agnosticism. Dr. Martin, as if possessed of my conscious- 
ness, declares it obvious that the purport of the article was the refuta- 
tion of evolutionism. This is an entire mistake; and if he demands 
proof of a statement made by an old friend, I would refer to the whole 
apparent aim, strain, and tenor of the article, and to the very few words 
spoken in regard to evolutionism. 
It would have been perfectly fair for him to single out the special 
application of the argument to the evolutionist, and make it the point of 
attack ; but it was hardly so to say not a word with reference to the 
main contention of the article, and represent it as a ‘‘stupendous fail- 
ure,” because a single corollary did not, as he judged, refute the evolu- 
tionary hypothesis. Ruled, as his mind was, by this estimate of my 
argument, his whole discussion was foredoomed to be colored by pre- 
judice. 
My respect for Dr. Martin’s acknowledged abilities induces me, al- 
though reluctantly, to say some things in reply. His own recapitulation 
of his first two articles is: “Dr. Girardeau’s Quarterly article contra- 
dicts: 1. Logic, (1) in his redundant definition ; (2) in his incoherent 
argument. 2. The Confession of Faith. 3. Standard authors: (1) 
A. A. Hodge; (2) Chas. Hodge; (3) J. H. Thornwell.” The third 
article is devoted to proving that I contradict myself; and the fourth, 
