But it will be objected that even if we concede that the Creator is ever present energizing in the works of nature, and even if the forces of nature are viewed as the expressions of His energy, His action in conformity with unchanging order is the worthiest conception of Him, and to assert that He ever has varied from this mode of action is to degrade Him. Such being the case, to affirm that miracles have been wrought by Him, is to introduce a degraded view of the character of God, one alike inconsistent with His wisdom, immutability and power.
I reply: that the objection overlooks the existence of purpose in the divine mind, and that it may not be confined to the realization of a mechanical result. The purpose or idea of creation in God includes the production of both the material and the moral worlds. If this be so, one harmonious purpose, including the divine manifestations, both in the material and moral universe, may be carried out by a succession of progressive manifestations, each forming a portion of one great divine plan. A miracle, therefore, as a part of such a moral intervention, would be no interruption of the orderly action of the divine mind, but a portion of it.
But further: if God exists, He must have other attributes besides those of a mechanist or a chemist. He has created not only the material universe, but a moral one. God, therefore, must be a moral being, and a [pg 152] person, for moral attributes can only be conceived of as belonging to a being who is possessed of personality. It follows, therefore, that manifestations of Himself, under aspects suitable to moral beings, are as much to be expected as manifestations of His power or of His wisdom addressed to an intellectual nature. The supposition, therefore, that all His manifestations can only be made through the laws of material nature, and in an unchanging series, and that it is not a portion of His purpose to manifest Himself as a moral being, is only valid on the denial that He is one. It involves the absurdity of denying to God that freedom from the trammels of necessary law which as matter of fact He has bestowed on man.
If therefore God be a moral being and not an impersonal force, it is perfectly consistent with the highest conceptions of Him, that He should manifest Himself in the moral as well as in the material universe. This is the more necessary, because philosophy is never wearied with telling us, that we can know little or nothing of His moral attributes from material nature. As a part of such manifestation a miracle is addressed to our highest reason.
It is absurd to argue on the assumption that there is a God, and then to found our reasonings on principles which are inconsistent with it. If there is a God, He must be the creator of the universe. It must, therefore, have been consistent with His perfection and immutability to create. It follows, therefore, even on the assumption of the truth of the Darwinian theory of creation, that a new order must have been introduced, when God first breathed life into the lowest forms of matter. But if He introduced a new order then, that is to say, when He first deviated from the previous order of His existence, and performed His [pg 153] first creative act, how can it possibly be contrary to reason to affirm that He has repeated it. A miracle would be such a repetition, or, in other words, the introduction of a new series of events.
I fully admit that reason is opposed to the supposition of such an order of nature as to require repeated interferences with it, assuming that what is intended is a frequent meddling with it to set it right, not constant presence and superintendence. Still more is it opposed to the idea of arbitrary interruption of law. The entire validity of these reasonings which we have been considering proceeds on the assumption that the argument requires this. I care not what some Christian apologists may have said on this subject. The New Testament affirms in the most unequivocal language that revelation is the steady carrying out of a pre-determined purpose in God to make a manifestation of Himself not only to man, but to other rational beings besides man. The objection therefore falls to the ground.
The assertion that it is impossible to conceive of the supreme Being acting otherwise than we see him act in nature, may be met by a direct denial. On the contrary the presence of evil, moral and physical, forms the greatest difficulty connected with the belief in theism. The elder Mill was so capable of conceiving that if a supreme Being existed, the order of the universe would have been so wholly different from its present order, that it led him to affirm that the proof of His existence was altogether wanting.[3] But intelligent Christians fully recognize in the immutable order and regularity of the universe and the eternal prevalence of law, the operation of His infinite wisdom and power. [pg 154] Unless there was such a general regularity and order in the universe, the evidential force of miracles would be deprived of all value.
It follows therefore, whichever views we may take of the mode in which a miracle may be performed, that there is nothing in the idea of it which is contrary to our reason. Whenever it is affirmed to be so, the assertion originates in an ambiguity in the use of terms, or in partial views of nature, or of the mode of the divine working, or from confounding under a common name phenomena so different in character as those of mind and matter, or by making assumptions respecting the divine operations which contradict the laws of the universe, or respecting the divine character, which reason refuses to endorse. How far the known or unknown forces of nature may be employed in the performance of a miracle is an abstract question that we have no means of determining. The agency of some of the known forces of nature is unequivocally asserted in the Old Testament to have been the media employed in the performance of some of its miracles. No such affirmation is made in the New Testament. Still there is not one word to imply that any of the forces of material nature were for a single moment suspended in their action. The only assertion made is the presence and active energy of a force capable of producing them. That force is the Creator of the universe bearing witness to the divine mission of Jesus Christ. “The Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me.” “The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.” (John v. 36, 37.)