El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-02-11
The Supernatural in Human Action.

| III,
Rev. H. w. Moore, of the Presbyte-
rian church, gave another one of his
| interesting talks last night, at the
regular Wednesday night meeting.
The address was on the Sunday school
| lesson OF the coming Sabbath; and
| for that reason was of special inter-
est.
In opening, the speaker referred to the
immensely improved condition of wo-
! man under the Christian dispensation,
and the steady tendency to raise her
more and more to the level of the other
sex. Greece and Rome have given us
standard models of literature and
government: but in those times woman
was merely a thing. A Roman citizen
could divorce his wife at any time by
giving her a writing of enforcement,
and no legal proceedings were neces-
sary. Cicero divorced his wife because
she had no more money to give him,
and 1t was no unusual thing for Ro-
man woman in the course Of her life
time to have fifteen or twenty husbands.
Why, man could even condemn his
wife to death. When Christ came he
changed all this, and ever sirce that
time the status of woman has been
steadily risen.
Then taking up the main theme of
the appearance of the angel who re-
leased the apostles from the Jerusalem
Jail by supernatural interference, the
speaker said there was no reason why
the almighty should not send his angels
as ministering spirits to carry out his
VIII on this earth. God made this
world and all that is in it, he started
the wheels of life on this planet to
rolling, and by what strain of reasoning
can he be prevented from making such
changes and alterations in the course
of events as he sees fit? Evolution, OF
course there is evolution: but it is
strictly in accordance with the divine
will. Why do men try so persistently
to explain away the miracles, and
ascribe them to what they call natural
causes, and claim that after God had
started the machinery of life into mo-
sion. there all his power ended? Some
men. l suppose, will try to ascribe this
miraculous release OF the apostles from
Jail as due entirely to natural causes,
and deny the interference of the super
natural. There is such thing as the
Interference of the supernatural
in human action. Were it not
so the Christian religion would not
be worth anything. The birth and
life of Christ were turnings aside
and will men for that reason alone
ieny the miraculous facts connected
With his appearance on earth? Ifthere
ire no such phenomena, what in the
lame of common sense is the use or
7alue of prayer? Every answer to
prayer is the exercise of the divine
light to participate actively in the
Iffairs of human kind. Every human
oul converted from sin and turned to
5od is miracle, an interference of the
in human action.
The speaker made reference to Rev.
lyman Abbott, Mr.. Beecher's sue
lessor, who seemed to claim a steady
and natural evolution apart from the
Interference of any divine agency, and
'alled attention to the fact that the
congregational ministers of Brooklyn
had declared that such views were
hose of Mr.. Abbott alone, and by no
means reflected the sentiments of his
brother ministers. Mr.. Moore's lee
ures are not merely scholarly, but
hey are thoroughly spiritual. He
alks straight gospel, and does not seek 4
In fact he remarked last I
hight that minister who shaped hisf
ermons with a view to popularity
made a mistake.