The Saint Paul globe., 1898-11-07

If there is any doubt, hold to a natural power.
If there is any act on the part Of him who
produces the result that would indicate the
least possible Jugglery with natural agencies.
suspend your Judgment, give all due sway to
known and to possible human energies. But
when it is evident to thinking men that no
created energy is invoked or could have been
invoked, then say the cause is from above.
Take the resurrection of our blessed Lord as
narrated in history, He announces beforehand
again and again that He would rise from the
dead. He is nailed to the cross, His side is
pierced with a lance in order to test well
whether He is alive or dead; He is put into
the grave; the soldiers Of the Roman empire
are set as guards, because it had been said
He would arise the sepulchre is closed with
a large stone. Yet at the moment foretoid
by Himself He rises from the tomb; for forty
days He walks on the earth, is seen again
and again by His disciples and friends, on
one occasion by even Ave hundred people He
establishes His religion, which remains
permanent fact. Where is in this the posi-
bll1ty Of a natural cause?
THE CASE OF LAZARUS,
dead for four days. so much so that 1t was
necessary to rid the house of the body.
christ comes. stands at the opening of the
sepulchre, touches not. comes not in
tact with the body OF Lazarus, but simply
says arise and Lazarus arises. Willing
as We are to give full sway to all possible
energies. yet. with all the progress of the
nineteenth century, with all the knowledge
OF mechanical forces of nature, If any man
bid the dead arise. and the dead do arise,
we VIII say there is something more
than created force. and it is of such clear
miracles that we speak when we put GER
tam facts forth as the foundation of the
christian religion. OF course, these facts,
such as l narrate, must be proven historical
~. 1t is not enough for one to say so many
years ago this miracle was wrought. We
take the assertion as given and submit it to
an the rules of historical criticism and we
abide by the verdict. Do we doubt facts of
the past when history, according to an
proved rules. narrates them? No. We con-
less 10 political results, we confess to wars,
noted on the pages of history. In the same
manner and under the same rules of criti-
clsm we examine the life Of Christ.
We question how it is really proved that He
was really dead; that He arose again and
when we have the testimony of numerous
men ana women who knew Him alive, who
Knew Him dead, who knew Him living again
VINO were willing in the light of the Augustan
age to give their lives in testimony of what
they asserted, We believe that He was really
dead and really rose again. l have no time
this morning to go into full historical evil
dence; l am only telling what miracle is
and establishing the possibility of miracle.
1t is objected that miracles are spoken of
In all religions; In those religions which
Christians hold to be false; therefore mira
c!es spoken Of in the Christian religion may
also be false.
OTHER so-CALLED MIRACLES.
What are those so-caIed miracles in pa
gan rehSlon! Assertions narrated by poets,
their own fancyings, or attributed to ages
away back in the darkness of history. How
dlHerent from such are the miracles that
Christ wrought in the fullness of historical
light, attested by witnesses of whom history
Is fully eonYersant. The fact that false mira
cles are quoted In the world only shows the
conviction Of humanity that If God were ever
to speak TO man He would work miracles as
evidences OF His power and truthfulness. The
circulation OF false money only proves the ex-
tstence of good money. The claim made bv
false religions to miracles shows simply that
miracles are the ordinary means of communi-
cation between God and His creatures when
Gcd desires to establish such communication
1t is said that in past days the ignorant
people often thought that thing was mrac-
ulous which we now know to be simply nat
ural. Very we'll That was their ignorance
and we are willing to admit that there are
many forces of nature which we do not know
we cannot trace back to definite causes, but
in the future we will. But when we speak
certain situations where there is and be
no play of natural energies, known or un-
known existing or possible.
1t is said so many things occur today that
might be called miraculous; such as faith
cures; so much is done by the Imagination in
curing certain diseases; all you have to do
is to work up the mind of the sick person
to certain condition, the mind reactng on
the body produces results which are beyond
the reach of medicine itself and which might
be called miraculous, were not the miracles
kind.
MIND AND BODY.
We do know and confess the mind has a
certain power over the body, and where the
mind may in any manner be the cause, we
shall not speak of miracles. But are there
not supposable cases, where plainly the mind
is not in play? VIII al the faith cure i'm
aginable bring a man four days dead out of
the grave. When we talk of miracles we
consider only results which are manifestly
beyond the reach of all imagining of all
faith cure, of all power Of impre ssion of one
find on another. OF manifest clear miracles
we speak when we say that the Christian
religion is based on miracles.
Christs miracles show that once there was
a break in the So-called religious develop
ment of the world. They show that God at
a given moment said l will speak to men
1 have not spoken heretofore | will
speak through my begotten Son. bid Him
walk through Palestine and do works which
humanity had never done, and never seen
and bid Him show His very power that
omnipetence itself has become visible that
God comes into the world in a new manner,
IN A SUPERNATURAL MANNER.
in miraculous manner. The Christian re-
ligion more a continuation of the
development of the outgrowth of what had
gone forth in the past, than the miracle of
Easter Sunday, Of the resurrection, can be
considered an outgrowth an evolution Of
the human energies that had previously be-