The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-20
BREACHES
 ABOUT MIRACLES Rev. Quincy Ewing at Church
 of the Advent NO DIVINITY IN SIGNS Proof Not Essential to Falth-No Sal vation Found In Miraculous Deeds = Subordinate to
 Kind Acts.
NO DIVINITY IN SIGNS

The Rev. Quincy Ewing, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Advent, preach ed at the church yesterday morning on Christianity and Miracles taking his text from Matthew 7:22 and 2S Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me- ye that work iniquity." Mr. Ewing went into an explanation of the significance of mir aces and their relation to faith Refer ring to the text he said
 This must have been a rather startling utterance to the hearers of Jesus ser mon on the mount; startling as all utter anees are likely to be which present to men and women an ideal of religion which they are not accustomed to. or have kept tucked away in the dim background of their consciousness. The tendency of most people in every age has been to fuse the incidents with the essentials of their religion, to make no distinction between, to fancy that .Ae essentials can no more exist without the incidentals than the indicentals without the essen tials
 The people that Jesus was addressing from the mountain side were ready to be- lieve on Him if He gave them religion on their terms, certified to them as they thought 1t must be certified. They were ready to hail Him as Messiah, the mo- ment He convinced them that He could cast out devils, and read the future, and do certain wonderful works in defiance of the regular order of nature. They were on the look out, waiting and watching, for evidences of this sort to convince them that the truth He taught was divine truth, with authority to command their reyer- enee and obedience Theoretically, in some confused way, they may have known that the abiding essence of religious truth was something different and distinct from the power to cast out devils and defy the laws of nature; but. practically, they were not prepared to accept anybody as a divine prophet, a man sent from God; who didn't do these things. For, if He didn't do them, the presumption was that He couldn't; and, if He couldn't, why there must be something wrong with Him as a teacher of religion. He didn't stand as high in the divine favor as He ought to stand.
 No Divinity in Miracles.
 And so 1t must have startled many of the hearers of Jesus to learn from Him how little importance He attached practically none at all-to miraculous powers that they thought were necessary to establish a mans oneness with God. There they were gathered on that noun tain slope, thinklng-if this Nazarene teacher can foretell the happening of something next week or next month; can cast out devils, and in other ways astonish us with a manifestation of strange power not possessed by other men-we will believe on Him. will be- lieve that in Him God Is well pleased, and accept Him as Messiah; and there He was saying to them that, in the day of judgment many of His professed dis clples would call upon Him and be re- jected as doers of iniquity, notwithstand- ing their claim that in Ills name they had driven out devils. and uttered prophecies, and done many other wonderful thingsl
 How could this be, they must have thought How could 1t be that anybody would be rejected as doer of iniqnity, who had possessed on earth the power to perform miracles? For would not the possession of such power imply necessar- fly that the possessor of it was in Gods fo nd oOild qtfch a one be rejected at the day of judg- men? Naturally they werel startledl
 And, doubtless some of us would have been startled, too, had we been in that mountain side congregation; some of us who think that we cannot be Christians without believing in miracles, and so stand on the outside of the church; and others who think that the Christianity professed inside the church would not be worth having, if 1t were freed from the miraculous.
 For consider what Jesus was saying Nothing less than this-that the power to perform what seemed to be miracles might belong to bad men; that 1t did not prove anybody's goodness; did not estab- fish anybody's oneness with God; did not give assurance of anybody's spiritual sal- vation. He was sayinr that man might seem to cast out devils, and yet be him self a servant of the devil, g doer of the devils work
 We have been accustomed to think otherwise Has it not seemed to most of us that the best evidence we could have of anybodys Divine character and author ity would be the exercise of what we should regard as miraculous power in the name of God or the name of Christ? Are there are not many of us disposed to think that tha hest evidences of o11r re1ipfon would be destroyed. if it were shown that no miracle recorded in the Old or New Tes- lament none ascribed to Moses, Joshua Elijah. Peter or Paul, or the Christ him- self, ever really occurred? Do we not think. some of us, that we should have no ground whatever on which to rest our belief in the Divine Sonship and authority of the Christ, if the miracles which He Is said to have wrought were all eliminated from the pages of the New Testament?
 And yet according to Jesus. the mere power to perform miracles, as popularly understood, falls so far short of estab- fishing Divine character of the performer. that he may even be rejected as a doer of iniquity-cast out as one unfit to dwell in the kingdom of heaven.
 Faith Does Not Need Signs.
 tnd it is not only in the Sermon on the Mount that this thought was declared by Him-this thought that the wonder-work- ing or miracle working power does not prove the goodness. the Dlvineness of the possessor of it. When the disciples who had been sent out 10 preach the gospel returned saying, Lord. even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name he replied, Rejoice not that the devils are subject unto you: but rather rejoice because your names are written in heav-