"To these objections not even our most modern philosophers have been able to add really new ones; and as against them all we may confidently maintain the following truths as the result of our investigation:—
"The possibility of the miraculous rests upon the uninterrupted activity of a living God in the world.
"Its necessity arises, on the one hand, from the Divine end and aim of the world; and on the other, from the disturbance introduced into its development through sin.
"Therefore, although miracles are supernatural, they are not unnatural. Far from violating the conditions of life, of nature, or of humanity, they re-establish the life of the world which has already been deranged, and initiate the higher order of things for which the universe was created" (p. 328).
Of Baur, Dr. Christlieb writes:—
"Of all modern opponents of our old faith, the greatest is Dr. Ferdinand Christian von Baur, Professor of Theology at Tübingen (died December 2, 1860), one of the greatest, if not the greatest theological scholar of this century; after Neander, the most notable historian of the Church, not only in Germany but in the world; the most indefatigable of investigators, especially as regards the history of Primitive Christianity, in the elucidation of which he has deserved well of theology. He stands a head and shoulders above all our modern opponents of the miraculous.... If human power, human diligence, and acuteness, could ever bring about the overthrow of our faith, this man would have accomplished it. But our present theology is daily becoming more convinced that he was incompetent to this task, and that, in spite of all his unutterable exertions, he did not succeed in proving the merely natural origin of Christianity. This is one of the surest signs that the rock upon which our faith is founded is absolutely indestructible"[20] (p. 505).
I must not attempt to give the points of Dr. Christlieb's critique and refutation of the Tübingen theory, but refer the reader to his invaluable work.