The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-01-04

NEW YORK C1TY-Fifth Avenue Pres
building, was filled in every part Sunday
morning to hear the Rev. Hugh Black,
MA, associate of DR.. White in the Free
St. Georges Church, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Mr.. Black had for his subject Jesus His
Own Sign and Miracle" The text was
from Matthew xii: SO: "Then certain of
the scribes and Of the Pharisees answered,
saying: Master, we would see a sign from
Thee. But He answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign; and there shall no
sign be given to it, but the sign of the pro-
phet Jonas" Mr.. Black said:
We gather from its source, as coming
from the Pharisees, that this question had
a malicious purpose to undermine the au-
thority of the new Teacher with the peo-
pie by asking from Him what He could
not or would not perform, but from the
historical connection in which the evan
gelists place it the purpose was not only
malicious, but almost insulting. Our Lord
had been in the pursuit of His beneicent
healing ministry, had cured many suffering
men and women, and the Pharisees' expla-
nation was that He had power from an
evil source; He did it, they asserted, by
virtue of His connection with B%eelzebub,
the prince of devils. And now, after this
explanation of the signs and wonders
Jesus did among men, they came with the
insulting question. Master, we would see
a sign from Thee" What sort of a sign
did they want, and what sort of evidence
could convince them if they could attrib.
ute His healing ministry to diabolic art?
The yelled insult of the demand is the
supercilious passing over of all He had
been and of all He had done, as if it did
not count and as if He must now begin to
do something of sufficient magnitude to
convince them that His pretensions were
trustworthy.
Now there is a demand for evidence
which is legitimate. evidence which is
necessary for the highest faith, but in this
case, apart from the hypocrisy OF the ques-
ton, there underlay a wrong conception OF
revelation and a wrong conception Of the
nature and the place of miracles. They
wanted Christ to perform some prodigy, as
if a piece OF. woodworking could be real
evidence of spiritual things; hence, our
Lords rebuke. 1t is a religious rebuke.
God should be; recognized for what He is,
and the recognition Of Him should not be
dependent upon external signs, which IN
themselves, after all, have no spiritual sig
nifcance.- Christ's feeling as regards this
il feen through u BidpuiS touSA teSoAaSo
by St. Mark, who writes that when the
Pharisees came seeking a sign from Him
Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit. 1t
showed to Him a lamentable dullness of
soul, to think that the recognition of the
spiritual should be made to hang on prodl-
gies and on miracle-mongerlng OF any kind.
"There shall no sign be given unto this
generation" This attitude of our Lord,
notice, is not contradictory to the value
He elsewhere placed on miracles as evi-
dence. He pointed, you remember, to His
deeds of mercy to authenticate His claims
when, as in the case of John the Baptist,
there was a sincere desire to know the
marks of the Messiah; but His miracles
were moral acts to educate and to reveal,
not to surprise and to. astonish. He knew
from sad experience that it was possible
for men to believe in the reality of miracles
aud at the same time lose all its true evi.
dental force, even to ascribe it to evil
powers as the Pharisees did.
There shall be no sign given to curios-
ity mongers." There can be no sign gwen
to those who imagine that the spiritual
can be proved by the material. Mere won
der working is no evidence of the things
which Jesus came to teach the world. Men
are not to be led to God, then or now
mep are not to be led to God, in the sense
thf Jesus meant-by displays and conjur-
in, tricks. The demand of the Pharisees
showed a radically false idea of the whole
nature and place of the miracle and the
same mistake is possible to us. and posi-
BILE to us in many ways and forms. we
make the same mistake. for example, when
we think that faith in God would be easier
to us if only some portent were vouch-
safed to us; if only we could see some ply
steal evidence, especially designed to con-
vince US. We fall into the Pharisets' error
and merit their rebuke when we sigh for
the gertrude which we imagine would
come from a celestial appearance or from a
voice from heaven, or if we could put our
finger into the print of the nails.
To understand Christ's attitude on this
question we need to have our minds dis
abused of the idea that a mere miracle in
the sense of prodigy Is ever evidence OF
spiritual things. Some miracles are signs,
indeed, but only when there Is spiritual
evidence in them; that is, when they are
more than mere woodworking, which
the Pharisees here desired. For example,
our Lords healing ministry was a great
and constant sign of the love OF God, car
rying O revelation with as truly as any low
ing word of the Master ever did. This let's
light in upon the true way in which to
view the whole question. Our Lords mir
acles cannot be separated from the great
revelations Of His whole life and teach
ing. His words and His works are core
lated: the miracles are not to be looked on
as isolated exhibitions of power, but as
themselves contributing to the revelation.
They were not signs, but vehicles of teach
ing. They are not signs externally at
tached to the teaching to give It weight,
and therefore to make it creditable; not
unexplained occurrences testifying in a
mysterious fashion to the possession of d.
vine power; they did not evidence the
teaching, they themselves are the teach.
ing. They are parallels in action instead
of in words, moral and spiritual in their
way. They are ar integral part of the rev.
elation of the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. They have IN Essential place in
the whole round of the Christian revela-
ton as fruits-fruits of the pity of God,
as manifestations Of the divine love, apd
wisdom; they are part of the manifesto.
ton of Christ; they are mot guarantees of
His message as the Phafisees here meant
them, but part of the message itself, as
much evidences of Gods love as His gra-
cious, tender words are or ever could be,
therefore Christ's miracles are never to be
conceived of as mere displays of power.
He persistently refused, from first to last
to work wonders to make men believe. 1t
is not that the demand for evidence is
wrong, it is a natural demand that proof
should he given Of al ~elaiI2ns. hut we must
make sure what really is evidence. A mir
acle is in itself no proof of "a moral truth,
and a miracle can never in Nself engender
spiritual faith-not if one rpse from the
dead would it necessarily imply the exist
ence Of God and the souls Immortality.
Of course, it is true that every miracle was
a sign-a sign designed to induce to spirit
nal results, to lead men to God, but. like