The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-20

ceiving that Jesus Himself never con fused the essence of His religion with any miraculous power He may have possessed. Always He held the two as separate and distinct, neither necessarily implying the other He thought that men ought to ac- cept His teaching. ought to be able to rec ognize the Dlvineness of 1t, without the evidences of signs and wonders; and He was far from complimentary to those who couldn't. He regarded them as occupying a lower spiritual level tan they had any right to occupy. His blessing was pro- nounced on those who had not seen and yet believed.
 And 1t Is not clear why this must neces- sarily have been His attitude if He really meant what He seemed to mean when He taught the Parable of the Good Samari- tan-that man fulfils one-half of the ob- legations of essential religion by kindness which stoops to lift and help a fallen brother; if he meant what He said when He declared that the love of God and the love of man was the essence of everything commanded in the law or taught by the Prophets?
 Love Better Than Miracles.
 For consider: This essential religion, the religion of kindness, love, unselfishness, could not be so well established on earth by any conceivable miracle so we'll wit messed or revealed by any conceivable miracle, as it can by thousand and one human deeds and thoughts unmiracu- lous. A religion of love, kindness. unsel- tishness can need no other certificate of it's divine character than love, kindness. unselfishness How can it, and why should it?
 Take that wonderful story of the Good Samaritan and the wounded traveler The Samaritan, we recall, had compassion of the unfortunate man. bound up his wounds carried him to the inn nursed him through the night and agreed to pay all cost of his entertainment there until his recovery. Now let us suppose that the Samaritan, when he saw the wounded man lying on the roadside, had been conscious of the power simply to speak a word and heal him, and had ex- ercised that power; suppose he had done nothing more than merely open his lips and say, Be thou healed, and fed, and sheltered. "--would that have furnished as good proof that he really loved his fell bowman, as the ordinary unmiraculous things he did, demanding on his part per sonal inconvenience and personal sacri- fee?
 There are two soldiers on the battle field both wounded unto death. The broiling sun beats down upon them; both are wracked with the agony of thirst. One of them procures, somehow, a little water. barely enough to relieve his own suffering if he drinks 1t all. But he will not do that. He will not drink any of It. He passes the water to his wounded comrade-there have been such cases. Would that soldier have furnished proof of his love for his fellow man one-tenth, one-hundredth, so great, if he had pos- sessed and exercised the miraculous power to tap the ground with his bay onet and cause a spring to gush up within reach Of his companion?
 The pages of the Old Testament record many miracles, some of them as astound- ing as any to be found in the pages Of the New. But read through them all, and we shall not be able to hit upon one as- cribed to any man which went so far to prove his love of either Cody or man, as many thing he might have done in no sense miraculous. When Elijah, e. g., miraculously increased the meal in the woman's barrel, did he furnish proof of his love for a fellow-beins as strong as he might have furnished if he had been on the point of starving and had shared his own last crust with that womany 7 In every case, a miracle as such proves nothing whatever but the power to per- form it. Whether it serves good or serves III must be determined always on ground not miraculous. Elisha causing the ax- head to float on the water was not prov ing that he was a good man; he was sim- ply proving that he had the power 10 make an ax-head foat--to defy, or seem to defy. the law of specific gravity; sim ply that and nothing else.