274 THE VERY REV. H. WAGE, D.D., ON SOME OP 



phenomena, in a word, which are the results of motion and 

 action in accordance with the Laws of Nature may vary 

 indefinitely ; but the laws themselves are invariable. 



But wliile maintaining this qualification of the recent soften- 

 ing of the idea of Laws of Nature, it certainly helped to relax 

 the tension represented by Tyndall between Science and Keligion 

 when Huxley so positively insisted on the relaxation, and even 

 went so far as to say that " no event is too extraordinary to be 

 possible ; and, therefore, if the term miracle means only 

 ' extremely wonderful events,' there can be no just ground for 

 denying the possibility of the occurrence." The practical effect 

 of this concession was to throw the whole question of belief in 

 supernatural intervention in human and physical affairs upon 

 the evidence for them. Huxley was content to say that there 

 Avas no sufficient evidence for the miraculous events reported in 

 the Bible, or even for the cardinal truths of religion, such as 

 the Christian belief in God, and he introduced the term 

 " agnostic" to express a simple suspension of belief. It seems to 

 me that this challenge puts the defenders of the Christian Faitli 

 in as favourable a position as they can well occupy, and that 

 it is one from which they are not justified in shrinking. We 

 ought, I think, to be perfectly ready to accept Hume's statement 

 of the case, namely, " that no testimony is sufficient to establish 

 a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its 

 falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it 

 endeavours to establish." We ought, I think, to be bold enough 

 to say that the falsehood of the testimony of the New Testament 

 to the miraculous events which it records would be more 

 miraculous than the events themselves. Of course, ou the basis 

 of the old belief of the Church — not yet, let me interpolate, 

 disproved — that the Scriptures were inspired by God, this 

 position is impregnable ; for it is obviously inconceivable that 

 testimony inspired by God should be false. 



But without assuming that supreme premise, consider only from 

 a human point of view what is involved in the supposition of the 

 falsity of the records of supernatural events in the Gospels,, In the 

 first place, it is not merely that the accounts of a number of par- 

 ticular miracles would be rejected, but that the very substance 

 of the accounts of our Lord's actions would be invalidated. 

 Immense ingenuity has been expended in attempting to explain 

 away the miracles winch are more particularly described, such 

 as the feeding of the multitudes or the walking on the sea. But 

 even if these attempts had been more endurable than they are, 

 what is to be said of such general descriptions of our Lord's 



