THE SCRIPTURAL IDEA OF MIRACLES. 



73 



and Indian legend and Greek myth, suited rather to a 

 magician than to a Saviour. But, as Origen wisely says in 

 answer to Celsus, Sliow me the magician who calls upon 

 the spectators of his prodigies to reform their life. . . . The 

 miracles of Christ bear the impress of His own holiness, and 

 He ever uses them as the means of winning to the cause of 

 goodness and truth those who witnessed them." The very 

 opposite is true of tliese apocryphal narratives. They may be 

 truly called " unhistorical," and by their very contrast they 

 testify to the liistorical character of the four Gospels. 



§ 9. Gospel Miracles CxVery their own Evidence with 



THEM. 



Among the essays of De Quincey there is one on " Miracles as 

 Subjects of Testimony."* The writer puts Hume's argument 

 in a nutshell, and divides the pos-sibilities of testimony into 

 three classes : first, the case of a single witness ; secondly, that 

 of many witnesses ; thirdly, that of our own selves. After 

 dealing shortly with the first and second, he discusses the 

 third more fully. Here experience comes in, and doubt 

 vanishes. He further distinguishes evidential miracles, which 

 simply prove Christianity, from constituent miracles which are 

 Christianity. The first are Credentials, the second Essentials. 

 These last include our Lord's birth and resurrection. He 

 proceeds to dwell on the moral purpose of Christ's miracles 

 and of His mission generally, and points out that the end 

 aimed at called for supernatural means, inasmuch as it is at 

 least equal in importance to the end of original creation. 

 This witness is true, and it is specially interesting as coming 

 from such a source. A scientific study of the Bible teaches 

 us that Christianity is part of a large scheme. On the one 

 hand it is the undoing of the personal and social evils by 

 which human life is infested and debased. On the other it is 

 the brinciino' men of all sorts and conditions into true relation- 

 ship with the Fountain Head, and the enabling them by His 

 spirit to share His nature. 



We are thus in a position to verify Christianity for ourselves, 

 to " try it," as Coleridge once said. If we find that Christ's 

 mission is producing its normal results wherever its conditions 

 are fulfilled, then we are prepared to endorse the narratives 

 taken as a whole. If, on the contrary, we fail, after careful 



* Works, vol. viv234 (Authoi^s Edit. 1862). 



F 2 



