Arizona republican., 1912-09-16
As to Miracles

pr Thomas F. Day, for eighteen years professor of Old Testament his tory and Hebrew in the San Fran cisco Theological seminary, a Presby- terian institution. resigned last week in order to avoid expulsion. This was the continuation of a struggle of eight years between Dr. Day and the direc- tors of the institution growing out of the views of the doctor which were regarded by a part of the board as heretical At first the accused pro- lessor had the support of safe ma iority of the directors but his enemies made steady assaults upon the board year by year. replacing his friends with those who were unfriendly to him. so that last year his majority was reduced to one and it became plain that further defense of him was hopeless.
 The offense of MT. Day was that of attacking the doctrine of miracles. He began with the proposition that God had never interrupted the or derIy course of nature. That in it. self, while summing up all the OppO- sition to the popular theory of mir acles. sounds so reasonable that one would hesitate to dispute it. His next proposition was that every so- called miracle should be regarded as the result of the operation of natural laws. That was not so bad but when Dr Day went farther and declared that a miracle which could not be eX- plained to be the result of the opera ton of natural laws, never happened, he threw out a bold challenge which the church believed it was forced to accept.
 Whether it did so wisely. is a mat ter with which we have little to do at this time. but we think that Dr. Day unnecessarily precipitated the trouble. He raised a question which really has nothing to do with the general scheme of religion. Whether or not We believe that the whale swal- lowed Jonah or, that at the command of Joshua, the sun stood still that he might have more time for the slaugh- ter of the enemies of Israel, we still may believe that God is all powerful and all wise It is reasonable to be- lieve that God would not establish great and immutable laws and then violate them for a trivial purpose.
 But Dr Day is not competent to say that this or that miracle is in conflict with natural laws of which the most profound scientists confess they know so little The knowledge of the wisest is only elemental Some things are known now that were not known some centuries ago Well known natural laws are now pro- ducing results that then would have been considered wondrous miracles. We have reason, also, to believe that the world has forgotten some things and that the ancients had certain knowledge of natural laws that has since been lost
 But this discussion raised by Dr. Day is not, as we have said, essential to the general scheme for saving the souls of men. At the same time the punishment inflicted upon this 'here- tic" was not essential to the preser- vation of the integrity of the chucrh which within the last century has ac- ceped as natural, many changes which a century ago seemed impossible.
 The churches are now doing more good than every before. They are stunning those controversial shoals upon which faith has been so often shipwrecked. The laity is no longer deeply interested in matters of little moment which were once subjects of the most acrimonious debate. The laity has come to look upon them as of no more importance than the issue between the Big-endians and the Little endians.