74 



CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, ON 



reading and enquiry and personal thought, to find the mission 

 of Christ to be a force leading to a God-like life, then we must 

 reconsider our position. 



Hear the view of one of our most thoughtful writers on the 

 subject. Mr. Lecky in his History of Morality (vol. ii) says, 

 " It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an 

 ideal character which has filled the hearts of men with an 

 impassioned love, and has shown itself capable of acting on all 

 ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions ; and has not only 

 been the highest pattern of virtue, but the highest incentive 

 to its practice ; and lias exerted so deep an influence that it 

 may be freely said that the simple record of three short years 

 of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind 

 than all the disquisitions of philosophers and than all the 

 exhortations of moralists." 



§ 10. Conclusion. 



I have been trying to show the relative position of scriptural 

 miracles, nature and science. If miracles are not impossible, 

 if experience verifies Christ's mission of which the miracles 

 is an integral part, if Christ Himself be the miracle of miracles, 

 the conclusion seems obvious. 



In discussing tlie physical phenomena which we call miracles 

 we are really dealing with the spiritual, we are studying the 

 footprints of Him Who is supreme. Whose throne is in heaven 

 while His feet are on earth. We are dealing with what are 

 called the powers of the world to come, and with a sphere 

 where much which is now called supernatural or superhuman, 

 will prove to be natural and human. The scriptural idea of 

 miracles is that they bring God to the front, they are con- 

 densed and perhaps accelerated samples of divine action. 



In Hume's posthumous dialogue on natural religion there are 

 some such words as these : " Supposing there were a God who 

 did not discover Himself immediately to our senses, were it 

 possible for Him to give stronger proofs of His existence than 

 what ap|)ears on the whole face of nature ? What indeed 

 would such a Being do but copy the present economy of 

 things, render many of His artifices so plain that no stupidity 

 could mistake them, and afford glimpses of still greater artifices 

 which demonstrate His prodigious superiority over our narrow 

 apprehension ? " 



This is true, Init it is not everything. As Christ's teaching 



