20 
take place. Thus, although nothing is more natural than that a 
man should carry water into a house, yet the fact that our Lord 
was able to tell Peter and John that they should, at a particular 
time and place, meet a man bearing a pitcher of water into the par- 
ticular house at which He was to celebrate the Passover with 
them, was a remarkable miracle. In the same manner, although 
there was nothing contrary to nature in a hsli having a piece of 
money in its mouth, yet our Lord’s being able to tell Peter that 
such should be the case of the first fish that should come to his 
hook, gave a miraculous complexion to the event. A similar 
observation may be made with regard to some of the plagues of 
Eg}^pt, which might in themselves have arisen from natural 
causes, but were marked as the finger of God by the fact that 
Moses was inspired to predict them. To miracles of this 
nature. Archbishop Trench applies the epithet providential.^’ 
In the foregoing observations, I have used the expression 
Laws of Nature,” for convenience, and because they are in 
general use. I would, however, refer again to the Appendix 
(Note B.) for some remarks on this expression selected from 
the same communication of Doctor Pomney Robinson to which 
I before referred. 
14. To return, however, to miracles in the proper sense of 
the word. Bishop Watson says, as quoted in Mant’s Bible, — 
I think it idle, if not impious, to undertake to explain how 
the miracle was performed; but one who is not able to explain 
the mode of doing a thing argues ill if he thence infers that 
the thing was not done. The machine of the universe is in 
the hand of God. He can stop the motion of any part, or of 
the whole, with less trouble, and less danger to injuring it, 
than any of us can stop a watch.” 
15. The miracle specially referred to in this quotation is that 
described in Joshua x., when the sun and moon are said to 
have stood still while Joshua was pursuing the defeated kings. 
And as that miracle has been made the subject of much 
adverse criticism, it may be well to say a few words about it. 
We need not discuss the various views of commentators as to 
the facts related. Some point to the fact that the passage is 
professedly a quotation from a book of whose inspiration we 
have no proof, namely, the Book of Jasher. Others look 
upon the circumstance as figuratively described, and take the 
words to mean nothing more than that Joshua prayed that the 
destruction of the enemy might be accomplished before sunset, 
and that God answered his prayer. And reference is made to 
Homer’s Iliad (ii. 412) as recording a similar case; Agamem- 
non being there represented as praying that the sun might 
not go down until he had sacked Troy. These views, as I 
