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pitched our own camp ou that ground. It was commonly said amongst us 

 that thousands of the enemy had been killed ; and in discussing the matter 

 with my brother-officers I mentioned my disbelief in such an enormous 

 slaughter ; for I had passed over the field, and was altogether incredulous. 

 I agreed to go out next morning w ith a brother-officer, to count the bodies 

 of the killed, in order to ascertain the strict truth. Accordingly, we set 

 out, and rode over the whole field, as far as we could tell ; over all those 

 places where the hardest fighting had taken place and the greatest slaughter. 

 We carefully counted every dead body belonging to the enemy, and there 

 were not more than 250 of them. After that I was much impressed with 

 the necessity of receiving with the utmost caution the statements of history 

 as to the number of men killed in battle. I have only one other remark to 

 make, and that is with reference to historical criticLsm as applied to the 

 Holy Scriptures. I may not, perhaps, echo the views of any of those here 

 present, but I will state my own belief. "With regard to miracles and the 

 question of extraordinary phenomena, I adopt most heartily the remarks of 

 Mr. Titcomb, w^hich appear to me to bear out the line of argument contained 

 in that excellent book of Mr. Warington's. But I do not believe that any 

 historical criticism whatever will convince a human being of the truth 

 of the Scriptures. I believe that spiritual things are only to be spiritually 

 discerned, and that they are not to be discerned by means of historical cri- 

 ticism. You may bring all your knowledge of science, and of language, to 

 illustrate the meaning of Scripture, but it w-ill not convince a man of the 

 truth of Scripture if he be not otherwise convinced. The only thing that will 

 convince a man of that truth is the operation of the Spirit of God, which is 

 only to be gained by prayer. (Cheei-s.) 



Mr. J. Allen. — I should like to ask this question: If the Scriptures 

 reveal to us an evil spirit, who has wrought miracles, and shown signs and 

 wonders, to deceive if possible even the elect, and if the Scriptiures also show 

 us cases of witchcraft, should we reject as miraculous all seemingly miracu- 

 lous events which we know cannot proceed from God ? 



Mr. H, C'adman Jones. — To my mind it is hardly putting the matter on 

 a perfectly satisfactory ground, to say that a miracle is to be believed in only 

 when it is worked to attest a Divine commission. The question is purely a 

 question of evidence — is there evidence enough on which to believe it ? Xo 

 doubt a person who believes in a God, and who believes that it is consistent 

 with His character that He should send a revelation, will have little diffi- 

 culty m believing that He should send a miracle in order to authenticate 

 His message to man, that being the only conceivable means by which the 

 Divine message can be authenticated ; for although the internal evidence of 

 a divine mission is the strongest of all, to those who feel it, and those who 

 have once received revelation, and who have seen how worthy it is of God, 

 have but little need of external evidence ; still you can give no answer 

 to those who ask for a reason for their belief, unless you can appeal to some 

 external evidence. Less evidence, therefore, would be required in such a 

 CAse, as to an alleged miracle of such a nature that it could not be regarded 



