Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1881-02-03

ibis interruption OF tn0 uHluFdl law ChlAGu
the Christ comes to us attended by some great
and unique considerations. need not review
the common evidence supplied by the pages OF
history. Many persons Of high standing nave
left word that this parsonage arose from HIS
grave. This testimony has always lain open
to you all. Do not fear to give It weights; IL IS
very direct and powerful. prefer to lead you
to note the fact that all the Tationalism and
naturalism thai have risen up IN such power
and richness Of late wears have not been able
to exclude miracle from the universe, Their
logic has reduced the number of the depart
ures from the kingdom Of law, but has not
been able to cast one single doubt upon the
miraculous as being actually possible and prob
able. Under that form OF thought wonders
diminish In number but increase In dignity.
1t was long ago confessed by eminent Chris,
tian lOgicians that no miracle need be thought
credible unless it was performed for ire
mendOus reason. The long argument
of DIR, Trench, an evangelical Christian, fully
eabOrates this idea that beneath a miracle
great reason for Its permanenCe must exist.
Tne acute rationalism of our century,
while it lessons the number of these variations
from law, cannot do more than Join with
Christian logic in affirming that when God
pushed aside His common order Of sequence
1t was for some great end.
The destructive power of science Is called TO
q halt by the fact that the universe itself is
miracle. 1t finds law In the world, butthe dis
OOVery comes too late-tO escape miracle
science must find law that can make
WOrlQ. ULCc mere all Jno pn6uOH6Hh VI OuE
heavens and land and sea, all the phenomena
of life and death, light and heat and shadow,
the laws can be found which regulate them or
continue them, but to get all these things here
naturaltsm Is compelled to bow its head IN
silence and ask help from the absolute Will OF
alawmaker Now, the continual wish Of God
is a law, an isolated wish is q miracle. In
securing its universe science is compelled to
admit an isolated wish and thus joins with
the Christian in assuming miracle.
NQfUT0Iigm Ia QOmnnllp0 AT one DOlnG
in It's process to open the gate OF won
derland and let in a universe. We
accept of that miracle not only because the
universe is here, but because the reason for
the miracle is so vast, All the stars and plan
cts with all their beauty and grandeur, all the
sublime distances and motions in the depths
of space, all the floods Of light sweeping
through the solemn silences of the upper
realms, all the occupants Of any or all worlds,
all the blossOming fields, all the singing birds,
all the rational beings who think and love and
smile all the inmost recesses of the mind and
soul, unite to compose a reason for that mira
Gle we call the material world. In obedience
to call so loud, so eloquent so fearful the
will of God rushes outward into life. One
miracle, the universe, came. 1t is Justified
not simply by the fact, but by the grandeur OF
the fact.
Science, thus compelled to ask its own world
from miracle Is not in a position to deny that
a reason might return vast enough to war
rant one more isolated wish Of God. Having
gotten her world by miracle science should
permit the religious soul thus to secure its
prize. And the Christian hastens to accept of
the offer and to believe in the supernatural of
Chri t. This wonder is not founded upon any
inadequate cause. The soul does not repair to
this Jesus as a savage or q barbarian marks
the flight of birds or as O Caesar watched a
ShOOting-star to learn some path for personal
vanity to follow, but to the wonderful in Jesus
the soul turns as to something that marks out
the highway Of the human race as to a new
n n uTirit of ol
body which materialism so loves. lnthesuper-
natural origin 81 the material world the Gre
atOr expresses His love of all those forms and
qualities which till up this hmttless space;
once again comes this Creator in the Christ
to cause to pass before us the kingdom of the
soul. Upon miracle both countries find fOun-
datiOn. The most ardent imagination cannot
affirm that the ClamOr Of demand for a mate
rial was deeper or louder than the clamOr of
demand for O spiritual being and an immOr-
tality. The miracle upon which the latter re-
poses is as dignited as the one upon which the
sun and moon and the light and shadows rest.
Man is not great when his foot rests upon
time Onlyj his greatness demands the world
where life does not end nor hopes fail. The
wonder OF the material fails unless we add the 1
wonder of the spiritual The sun shines In vain
for the mind Of man If the grave Is to termi-
nate the light Of life We love our children
and friends in vain If we all move toward an
endless separation to come In q few days or
years. Our physical realm Is made Valua- |
bic by the assumed spiritual empire that |
surrounds 1t and reaches beyond. Let |
history be emptied, indeed Of its stories Of
let the lives of the saints be rewritten
II need be and divested of the miraculous, let
this be called an empire of uniform cause and
effect, and yet let us make room for two inn
mense deviations from that irOn-like causation |
-the miracle Of creation and the miracle of
Christ. BY II gateway of wonder man came
upon this globe; by the same gateway let us
hope to pass out, The supernatural in this
Jesus is the best hope of the world; 1t is the |
only hope. He is the place where earth blends
with Heaven-that line where sea and sky |
meet. He is the only miracle we need, but the |
need of Him is infinite. Our public morals, |
our intellectual development our private |
our sad partlngs here, our meas
ureless love of life, all ask that Jesus Christ |
may always stand before mankind as the em-'
olem of a supernatural, blessed shore. ,.tl