St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-02-16


light. He lives in a world of sense, and
the God who seeks him must find him
and impress him there And for him the
ideal IS almost synonymfo for the unreal;
he feels helpless to realize it, and when he
can not escape its claim he instinctiveIy
looks for some evidence of the power OF
God, whichcan accomplish what to man is
impossible. Where is he tof1nd that God?
The Creator does by natural forces all
that invariable forces can do, but they
can not do everything Gcd wants to do.
lnvariable forces are necessarily imper-
sonal; water browns the most righteous
of men as readily as the vilest wretch.
1t is impossible for unvarving forces to
reveal a person with whom we can have
personal relations, much less a person
who desires and seeks personal relations
with us. The Creator must be capable
of revealing himself as master of the ma
ch1nery of nature, and not confined to it;
if he desires us to know him as person,
and not simply as primal energy, what
more natural Tor God than these signs"
OF his personal knowledge and care?
GID Again, it is clearly to be noted
that the very character Of the miracle
proclaims its sharp limitations. Thrust
be exceptional, or it ceases to have value
as a supplement to the ordinary. The
groups, separated by great periods of
time; and even in the days of miracles
their occurrence was limited in many
ways. The worth of the message and
the goodness of the worker always had
to be Considered in connection with a
Sign" It is often said that now the
gospel has to prove the miracles; that
was as really true in Christ's time; it
had to prove them as divine signs and
not mere wonders, wrought by Satan's
power, for example. Those who would
not respond to the spiritual appeal, left
no door open by which the miracle could
enter as a persuasive to truth then
beyond their reach.
And miracles were always intended to
make themselves unnecessary. The era
of miracles, like the era of the crucifxion,
was bestowed ''once for ALL" after that,
faith is to do the work done in less in
structed generation by sight. The Cos
pei, backed by the miracles of Christ and
the apostles, trained up generation
showing the power of God in renewed
lives; and clear-eyed enough to see in the
words of Christ and in the preaching of
the apostles the very word of God, as
well as to see in the works of Christ and
the apostles the unique power of God.
And when this result was reached, the
ceased.
CIV Once more, Religion and Mir
acle'' is one question:; the christian re-
ligion and christian miracles is quite
another. All that is absolutely essential
for religion is belief in duty and in God.
Man must believe in duty, or he has no
righteous God; in other words, his God
is not the real God. and his religion is
not real. He must believe in God. or his
duty is mere morality, not religion.
But with these two honestly and practi-
cally in his creed, he can be religious
without knowing anything about the
future life, or the Bible. or Christ. OBJ
viouslv miracle is not essential to "reli-
gion."
But Christianity is not simply reli->
gion, it is distinct sort of religion, and
if we take out of it all that is not essen
tial to religion" we take out all that is
most distinct lively christian. It's chief
distinctive element is not in its ideas
about God, although these are in their
way distinctive; Christianity means the
ideas of Christ plus Christ himself, as
the dynamic which makes possible the
realization of those ideas. Christ is in
deed a supreme teacher and model, but
he is supremelv, not teacher and model,
but Lord and Savior. He is ''the power
OF OOQ unto SdlVaL1On.
Nowswhen we come to ask what would
be the effect of withdrawing the miracles
from the gospel story, we face kind of
examination in which few have had occa-
sion to train themselves. Suppose we
bring together all men that honestly be-
lieve in goodness; tor the purposes of this
paragraph we will call them all good men.
Then this remarkable fact appears; there
is no religious doctrine, no form of dis
tinctly religious experience, that is not
superhuous to some good men, and even
Objectionable to some. There are good
men who find no satisfactory evidence
of being that is good and all-powerful;
they call themselves atheists, and
support of human goodness. Just what
do they lose? By many good men the
personality of God is wholly unrealized
in personal experience, and some good
men protest against the doctrine as
narrowing his being" Just what do
they lose? Good men in our time are
proclaiming God that grows; in aban-
doning the familiar doctrine of Gods
absoluteness and infinite perfection, just
what do they lose? Many good men get
on without prayer, and even object to it,
as hindrance to self-reliance, or vain
protest against the divine DEGREES. lust
what do they lose? Many good men are
''incurious about Immortality" or even
declare themselves glad to lie down to
an eternal sleep. Just what do they
lose? Many good men oppose authority
in religion, whether from sacred book or
prophetic voice, claiming that the truth is
its own sole and sufficient authorization.
lust what do they lose? Many good
men see in Jesus of Nazareth the MODEST
of men, and no more; and they claim
that this Jesus means much more to them
than could any Goldman" IAN incom-
prehensble and even monstrous concep-
ton" Just what do they lose? If any
one will work his way through such
questions as these, he will be better fur
nished, both with intelligence and SYM
pathy, for the inquiry as to the value of
miracles in the christian system of belief
Philosophically one might answer that
to give them up because Of the ''imma-
hence of Cod in nature is practically to
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