The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-19

DR.. S. E. Bishops paper presented be-
low was discussed with great approval
CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.
Gods Revelations of himself as re-
corded in our Holy Scriptures. are in
extricably associated with miracles.
This is true both of the Old Testament
revelations and of the later ones given
through the Lord Jesus and his apos-
ties. Hence the main effort of the OPP
| posers of Christianity is diverted
toward discrediting the reality and ev-
en- the possibility of miracles. Their
main contention is that miracles are
such subversions of natural law that
they are necessarily impossible, and
therefore a priori incredible.
AS a coroIlary of this conclusion it
follows that all writings alleging mi
raculous occurrences are to he dis
| credited. Since miracles are neces-
sari1y impossible, such writings assert
| ing their performance cannot possibly
be the authentic work of honest eye
| witnesses. Thus the genuineness and
authenticity of the whole OF our Bible
! is at once dispreyed, and the work of
| those higher critics who accept this
| principle is reduced 10 the task of ac-
| counting in detail for the existence
of those understanding books and
for their early acceptance by the Is
raelite and Christian churches.
Adopting as their fundamental canon
| that miracles are impossible and in
credible, the work of destroying the
credibility of the historical books of
the Bible is pursued with the greatest
industry and ingenuity by the very
Toy aJo
as the Destructive" Higher Critics. In
pursuing this work they indulge in
unlimited conjecture, which with the
utmost conviction they put forward as
valid reasoning. OF course, if mira
cles are absolutely incredible, it is
merely necessary by ingenious conjec- |
lures to show how such miracles as the |
histories assert might easily have come !
to be believed. One conjecture is as
good as another to prove the mere pos |
sibility of erroneous testimony.
Tt is merely necessary for US to I'M
derstand that the real basis under |
lying all the argument of these de-
structive critics is the absurdity of be-
lieving in any Divine revelation which
is accompanied by the alleged miracles.
From this sole groundwork proceeds all
the ingenuity used in showing that the
writer's of the Gospels and the Acts /
We're not contemporary with the events
therein narrated, but We're later COM
pliers of traditional reports, so that
their testimony to the fact of the mir
acles is destitute of value. And the
same may be said Of the destructive
criticism of the Old Testament by
which the whole of Genesis and the
history of Abraham and the patriarchs,
1t <ApE d,
Israel is relegated to the class of i'm
aginative books.
The attitude on the subject of mira
cles and revelation now openly as ;
sumed in our current literature is illus {
trated in the Nineteenth Century of
last October by Walter r. Cassels,
where he 7dictatorially declares, cit is
not too much to say that miracles have {
been completely discredited. The {
central dogmas of the Church, which I
are in themselves miraculous are /:
dwindling away through the same proc S
ess of disintegration." This of course
refers to the great central miracles J
of the incarnation and the resurrec- s
ton of our Lord. 1t is implied that no Y
thinker can any longer ]
attach weight to these miracles, and {
this is calmly asserted in a leading Ia
British monthly. c
A leading German professor, Laden /
berg. in a recent address as president q
If the National Society of Naturalsts, c
used the following language with great s
applause: "The natural sciences have s
step by step undermined the funda-
mental assumptions of theology. 1t is !;
low almost an axiom that a miracle :
never did take place, and never will +
AXE place. The supernatural is pure :
v the product of a vivid imagination. 9
Even If there is a God, He is not above +
His laws in nature. 1t is now +
wen possible to trace back men and h
animals to a common ancestor, and :,
t is accordingly just as rational to 4
laim Immortality for the latter as for +
he former. 4" Mankind can only =
progress by setting aside all ideas of =
he supernatural. Just in pro- n
portion as men give up faith in the :,
beyond will they labor for the good =
hings of this earth. It is this aspect i
f things that awakens the feeling OF n
raternal love and cooperation among
nen, as is seen by the phenomenal
lessings that resulted from the French
The key note Of modern =
bought smust be the realization of the :
ighest good that the earth affords. =
These rantings were greeted by Wig =
rous applause and no protests, al -
1ough written protests afterwards ap- ~
cared from various sources. the r.
hole illustrates the increasing accept NJ
nee of the opinion that Science has n
roved the untruth of miracles and OF w
avelation. In view of the great prev ir
lence of such false teaching among pl
chools of science, it seems needfuI b,
,r Christian teachers to get their re
Ifnds especially clear as to the facts 'pl
Ivolved. NJ
1t is under the temporary incentive ii
such hostile utterances that the A
resent essay is composed, embodying m
,ch ideas as lie in the writer's mind of