METHODIST REFORMERS. In 1849 certain points in Methodist procedure were attacked in anonymous pamphlets called "Fly Sheets," which resulted in the expulsion of many ministers from the original Society. They, with those sympathising with them, have set up a distinct machinery of methodism, although still regarding themselves as Wesleyan Methodists, illegally expelled.

METROPOLITAN. A Bishop who presides over a province is called a
Metropolitan.

MICHAEL (St.) & ALL ANGELS. A festival observed on the 29th of September. St. Michael is described in the Old Testament as the guardian angel of the Jewish people; and in the New Testament he is the great archangel fighting for God and His Church against the devil. (See Angel.)

MILITANT, THE CHURCH. The name given to the Church on earth in the
Prayer following the Offertory. Militant means fighting, and
is used of the Church on earth in contra-distinction to the Church
Triumphant, the Church above.

MILLENNIUM. Latin, a thousand years. Certain people look for a return of Christ to the earth before the end of the world, and hold that there will be a first or particular resurrection limited to the good, and a reign of Christ with all the saints upon the earth for a thousand years, or millennium. This doctrine is chiefly based upon a most literal interpretation of part of the book of Revelation (chap, xx.), which is confessedly the most figurative and mystical book in the Bible.

MINOR CANONS. Priests in Collegiate Churches next in rank to the Canons and Prebendaries, but not of the Chapter. They are responsible for the performance of daily service, and should be well skilled in Church music.

MINISTER. One who serves. A term applied generally to the clergy about the time of the Great Rebellion. It is equivalent to the Greek word rendered Deacon. An effort was unsuccessfully made in 1689 to substitute minister for priest throughout the Prayer Book wherever the latter word occurred.

MIRACLE. Latin, A Wonder. The general notion of miracles, viz., that they are necessary proofs or credentials of our Saviour's commission from God, can scarcely be maintained on Scriptural grounds. (Matt. vii. 28.) A better definition of miracles is given by Archbishop Thomson: "The miracles of the Gospel are works done by Christ in the course of His divine mission of mercy, which could not have proceeded from ordinary causes then in operation, and therefore proved the presence of a superhuman power, and which, by their nature and drift, showed that this power was being exerted in the direction of love and compassion for the salvation of mankind."

If the miraculous works of Christ were disproved and done away with, two miracles would still remain which are unassailable, viz., the character of Christ, and the message of Christ. Therefore the question is not whether miracles by themselves are probable, but whether the Lord from heaven, who lived on this earth—for none could have invented the story of His life; who left a message on earth—for none could have invented that message; added to his utterances certain marvels of love and compassion to draw men's eyes towards Him for their good. This may be called the historic consideration of miracles; the scientific is briefly as follows:—We are told that the phenomena of nature are so many links in a chain of causes and effects, and to suppose that God breaks through this chain, is to make God contradict Himself. To this it may be answered that apart from any question of miracles, there are already flaws in this chain of causation, or rather, powers from without that can shake it, as, for instance, the outbreak of a war rendering a country, which should have been fertile, barren and wasted. Holy Scripture is not responsible for the phrase, "suspension of the laws of nature." Theologians do not dogmatise about the nature of miracles, and it would be well if science were less zealous for the inviolability of laws, the outside limits of which she cannot now ascertain. Miracles are but a part of the Gospel, and we judge them by the setting in which they are placed. Those who received them at first were not made Christians by them. (Mark ix. 23, 24.) To us they are not even the beginning of faith, for Christ was our Teacher and Friend before our infant minds could conceive what miracles meant. He, the sinless Lord, is our first miracle; His teaching is our second miracle; and a third may be added, viz., the transforming power of the Gospel in human hearts.

The reader is referred to the sermon on Miracles in Archbishop
Thomson's "Life in the Light of God's Word," "The Reign of Law," by
the Duke of Argyll, and Sir Edmund Beckett's "Review of Hume and
Huxley on Miracles."