The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-04
WONDERS IN BIBLE DAYS.
Rev. ]. ]. Lani0T Discusses the Rela-
ton Of Miracles to Religion.


ally Understood About Miracles-A
Series of Sermons On the Subject.
Rev. J. j. Lanier, rector of St Paul's
church, preached the first of series Of
sermons on The Relation Of Miracles to
Religion yesterday morning. His subject
was the meaning Of the word miracle in
the Old and New Testaments, as inter
preted by medieval theology His dis
course next Sunday will be the Relation
as Interpreted by Modern Theology and
the Sunday following, the Relation of Re
ligion to Miracles
Mr. Lanier's sermon yesterday wa S
deeply interesting. His text was from
Judges Glib: And Gideon said unto
him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with US.
why then is all this befalen US! And
where be all his miracles which our IA
theirs told us of, saying, did not the Lord
bring US from Egypt! But now the Lord
hath forsGken US and delivered US into
the hands of the Midianites.
III l treated this chapter Of Judges in
the way l shall generally treat such pass
ages in the future said Mr.. Lanier, Il
shall entirely ignore the question as to
| whether it is historically true or not. and
use it to teach and inforce spiritual
truths; true in the past, now and in the
future; true upon the earth, Mars or Ju-
plter; true anywhere in Gods universe,
but l do not so intend to treat this chap
ter.
THE SUBJECT OF MIRACLES
it is stated that the NIidianites con-
| quered the Israelites because they had
slnned against Jehovah. This is denied
| by many They say the Jsraelites
were scattered throughout an agricul-
tural country. The Midianites sud
denly appeared, swooped down upon
| them and conquered them. This would
have happened whether they had sinned
or not. The Midianites coveted their pos
sessions and took them as we have those
of the Indians; as the English have those
OF the LuIuS IN South Africa. As to the
appearance of the angel, that
is put upon par with
the Arabian Knights tales and those
| from the Koran, excellent tales for chill
dren. AS for the story of the fleece it
fares no better. For the present DO not
| give you the reason why these assertions
OF Scripture are denied, nor do give you
the reason why they should be believed.
simply note the fact that among people
| who think and those who do not think
among people in the church and among
people out Of the church, unbelef in mi
| racles is widespread In fact it has been
said that if the church ever fails il will
| be because il insists upon a belief in
case, and all the greater necessity that
we should clearly grasp the idea of a
miracle in the Old and New Tesla
ments, as interpreted by medieval
theology; by modern theology; and the
| relation Of religion TO miracles.
THE WORD MIRACLE.
After treating of the derivation of the
word miracle and its use, Mr. Lanier
took up its use in the Bible
The tranSlators of the Revised Yer
| sion,n he said, do not use the word mira
Gle at all in the Old Testament; in the
| New Testament they use it only nine
times, while the authorized Version used
it thirty times. Many of the translators
did not wish to use the word at all
Wherever it is used the marginal reading
is much better.
Now, we know what the word miracle
n cans in the Bible. It means one or all
OF these: A sign, prodigy, wonderful
deed, or power in nature or in man,
wrought directly of God.
The question now arises, what is
the significance of these wonderful
things How did they affect the religious
life of the Hebrew race2 How did they
translate them2 Explain theml What
was the message they told to their race?
Before we can attempt to answer
these questions, we must find out, if DOS
siOle, their idea of the universe, of the
to the universe and to the Hebrew race.
This will give us their philosophy of the
kOsmOs. This will enable US to answer
these questions. The first chapter of
Genesis will give US this philosophy,
which is as follows: There was time
when there was no existence except God
I'm the beginning (when that was we
arenot tOld) He created the heavens and
the earth. How he created the earth we
are not told, but all other things he Gre
ated by word of mouth. The last of all
to be created was man, and he in
the image of God. GOD saw that every
thing ne had made was good To do all
this took six days. On the seventh day
he rested. Here we have clearly stated
what IS called now ''the carpenter theory
of the universe a machine capable of
running itself, all forms of life having the
power of prOpagating themselves per Sc
God might die and the universe would
run itself, provided it did not get ont OF
order. Man was lord of the world, all
things subject to him. Man received his
orders from God, and so long a he obeyed
them all would be well. Perfect happi-
ness reigned in the Garden of Eden and
would so continue unless man disobeyed.
Man disobeyed and was cast out How
| ever, they were still in the presence of
the Lord, but Cain committed murder and
went out from the presence of the Lord
Only small remnant remained then to
Elohim Most Of mankind added sin unto
sin. Deluge came; only one faithful fam
lily left; Noah's, saved in the ark
Apostacy again, only Abraham called,
whose seed alone would be Jehovah's
people henceforth forever.
THE JEWISH IDEA OF GOD.
"Thus" said Mr. Lauier. Il have very
briefly sketched the Jewish idea of God,
his relation to the universe, his relation
TO them. But how did they know that
they were his especial people? BY signs.
prodigys, wonderful deeds, what we call
in technical language, miracles If things
went along in the ordinary way that
was the world running itself If any
thing extraordinary occurred in nature
that was the interference OF God with
His world. For if it turned out i'll because
they had sinned if it turned out ILL., What?
for their benefit, so they translated it,
J ehovah had nothing to do directly with
the ordinary man of strength but if a
man of exceptional valor arose, as Samp-
son, he was directly gifted with this
strength by Jehovah. Jehovah had
nothing to do with the man of ordinary
intelligence, but If man arose
like Moses, like Samuel, God
directly revealed to them their
knowledge. Jehovah only spoke to
1 t.. IL. Il.