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diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits : and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him; for there went virtue out of Him, and healed them all." Luke vi. 7-19. "And it came to pass on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and Doctors of the Law sitting by which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: And . . . He said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God." Luke v. 17-25. Also, our Lord's open appeal to His enemies to consider His public works as a proof of His Divine power and Messiahship: "Jesus answered them, the works that I do in My Father's Name, they bear witness of Me. If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works: that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."1 Some of the works here referred to are in Matthew xi. 4, 5, thus enumerated :—“ Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me."

Again Christ's enemies themselves being judges, there is not the slightest ground for question as to the supernatural character of the "mighty works" which He wrought among them. In John xi. 47, 48, it is thus written: "Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What 1 John x. 25, 37, 38.

do we? for this Man doeth many miracles. And if we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him; and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." His unrelenting persecutors afterwards pursued His Apostles in the same spirit; and the decision of their council as to the character of the miracles wrought in Christ's name by the Apostles was the same. On the occasion of the healing of a man who had been impotent from his mother's womb, "the high priest, with the rulers, elders, and scribes," held a council in Jerusalem, and having set Peter and John in their midst, asked them by what power or by what name they had wrought the miracle. "Then Peter, being filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. . . And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, "What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we can say nothing against it."1

These men "could say nothing against it!" What a pity that M. Renan, or some one endowed with equal learning and scientific skill, did not form one of their council. He could have said something against it, no doubt; for to test

1 Acts v. 22.

the miraculous character of a work, says this scientific gentleman, "requires great precautions, and long habits of scientific research.”1 But to this we would simply reply, that having dwelt at considerable length on the nature of the individual miracles performed by Christ and His Apostles, we need not here repeat what has been already said. Suffice it that the character of each and all was such as to preclude the possibility of deception to even a single observer from any class of society; and this, in view of plainly-stated and well authenticated facts, any unprejudiced man possessing a grain of candour and common sense must freely admit. We may also observe for the edification of this scientific gentleman, should he have an opportunity of scanning these pages, that science is in great part at once the cause and detector of modern jugglery and imposition; and to the detection of that to which it mainly gives rise it must be confined. If it essays to inquire into and explain the supernatural, it oversteps the boundary of its legitimate sphere. The realm of nature is its domain; the miraculous, like its Divine Author, is above and beyond it, and is of such a nature, notwithstanding Renan's assertion to the contrary, that the "common people," without the aid of science, are capable of testing it.

Allow me to add, that there are not wanting to "the common people" frequent opportunities of testing the virtue and power of the supernatural, even in modern times. Many a spiritual "new creation" has been supernaturally effected among them, the Divine character of which they are as capable of testing and understanding, as the "natural man,” M. Renan, is of testing and understanding the nature of any ordinary phenomena belonging to his legitimate sphere, the realm of physical nature. Miracles, Monsieur

1 Page 29.

Renan, allow me to further say, are not contrary to the
experience even of the present. There has been many a
special interposition of Providence, many a miraculous
answer to the prayer of faith offered on behalf of the sick
and the needy, even in our own day. Dispute it you may,
but contravene the fact you cannot.
A "cloud of living
witnesses," embracing men as learned
world can produce, can vouch for its reality and truth.
And multitudes more, through the power of the Spirit, will
continue to arise and testify to the efficacy of prayer in
these respects, until the time shall arrive when both physical
and spiritual healing, so far as they relate to our world, shall
be at an end.

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CHAPTER X.

PROPHECY.

HE power by which the vista of ages is pierced, and the events relating to the remote future revealed, must necessarily be Divine; and the fulfilment of predictions uttered at periods long anterior to the events must therefore afford irrefragable evidence of their Divine origin-a most convincing proof to every unbiassed mind that the person by whom the predictions were uttered must have been under Divine and supernatural illumination. Next to miracles, prophecy, genuine prophecy, may justly be regarded as the highest evidence that can be given of a supernatural communion with the Deity. It does not indeed carry with it any extrinsic proof of its Divine origin when first enunciated, except when accom panied by the exercise of powers otherwise miraculous with which God's prophets were also endowed; but as the future gradually unfolds, and events transpire in exact and manifest accordance with the terms of prophecy, ultimating in its literal and complete fulfilment, it affords conclusive evidence that the utterances were Divine, that the prophets were supernaturally endowed, and that the doctrines taught by them were dictated by the Spirit of God—that, in short, in the expressive language of St. Peter, "Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

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