399 
Mr. Row. — Well, Professor Rawlinson is against yon. 
Mr. Moule. — And Dr. Birch is against the view that there is proof. 
Mr. Row. — Well, no proof can be hoped for, because we have none of the 
early original manuscripts. But all I contend for is this, that if these 
numbers present great difficulties to us as believers, when an unbeliever 
says to me that he cannot accept them, I am justified in saying that numbers 
are very liable to mistakes and corruption. The question really before us 
is how we are to act with persons who reject Christianity with respect to a 
great number of these difficulties, for it is not a case of one or two, but 
of several of these exceedingly high numbers. Take the thousand men said 
to have been destroyed by Samson with the jawbone of an ass— this is a 
large number for any one man to have destroyed.* In one part of Mr. 
Gosse’s paper he lays down the necessity of believing in an indefinite multi- 
plication of miracles beyond those recorded in the Bible, and there are 
several paragraphs where he thus entirely misapprehends the position of 
those who differ from him. I am sure we shall all agree that we must 
not be too ready to ascribe miracles to Almighty God when there is 
no sufficient occasion for them (hear, hear), — not because we wish to 
limit the power of God, but because we do not think it was His will 
to work them. We do not deny that He could have worked all these 
miracles had He so chosen, but we say we have no adequate reason for 
believing that He would have worked them. (Hear, hear.) Every writer on 
Christian evidence lays it down that the moral circumstances of the case 
largely modify the evidence on which we believe a miracle. If any one 
presents me with the miracles of the apocryphal books of the New Testa- 
ment, I should at once reject them, without any inquiry, on account of their 
unworthy character, without any evidence, or in despite of any evidence 
that might be adduced. So I act with respect to the alleged miracles of 
spiritualism. They are unworthy of Almighty God, and derogatory to His 
moral nature. What I strongly urge is, that we venture on most dan- 
gerous grounds in asserting an indefinite multiplication of miracles where 
* That Samson’s strength was immense all his actions against his enemies 
attest ; e. g. the cords that bound him were found to be “ as flax burnt with 
fire,” &c. Again, it is rather on the person using the weapon than on the 
weapon itself that the effect of its use depends : how long it took Samson to 
kill the Philistines we know not, but it is intimated that his strength was 
specially given to him for the occasion, and therefore miraculous. Refer- 
ence to the Sacred text shows that there was necessarily a miraculous 
element in Samson’s life, for it was ordained that he should “ begin the 
deliverance of Israel,” at a remarkable period in their history. That Sam- 
son’s exploit on this occasion made no ordinary impression, may be gathered 
from the following : — Josephus, writing 1800 years ago, describes his acts, 
and says the place “ is now called the Jawbone, on account of the great 
action there performed by Samson, though of old” (this is, anterior to 
Samson’s calling it Ramath-lehi) “it had no particular name.” Recent 
travellers have found that it still retains the name. — Ed. 
