March 1926
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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after all, in even a miracle there may in fact be no real invasion of the order of the universe. When the engine backs, wheels about, changes track, it as truly obeys law as when it moved on straightforward; there is, however, an intelligence guiding the machine, and bringing a new law to bear upon its motion. How do we know that a mir acle invades or interrupts nature’s fixed order? What if it be the engineer, the intelligence of the Creator, simply bringing a hew set of laws to bear upon the universe? When the secret things are revealed, we shall doubtless find that there are In this universe of matter and of mind two planes for the operation of law. One is the ordinary plane, the lower level, where everything moves in a uniform line and method; another, the extraordinary plane, the higher level, where the special intervention of the engineer introduces, for wise reasons, a new force not commonly in operation. It may be safe to take still more positive positions than these. Every act, by which intelligence voluntarily inter rupts the working of mechanical law, has in it the essence of the miraculous, on a smaller scale. For example, you throw, a ball through the air. I put out my hand and catch it. It would have continued to fly, till another mechanical law which we call gravitation, bringing It to the earth, had arrested its motion; but a different agent has been brought to bear; a voluntary, intelligent force suddenly puts forth its energy and controls the working of a blind, mechanical force. There is no disorder introduced into creation, but there is a new power at work, which shows an intelligent agent. What does God, in a miracle? Let us suppose it literally true that the sun stood still while Joshua fought the Amor- ites, and that this is not a poetic description, from "the book of Jasher,” of a prolonging of daylight. The mechan ical law would require the continued rotation of the earth on its axis, but there comes in the voluntary, intelligent force to control the working of the blind and mechanical, and show the presence of the divine agency. Is not this occurrence like the other, but on a grander scale suited to prove the power of God? Lazarus died and was buried. The operation of mechan
mind as well as of matter. In order to a miracle, a marvel which shall show the power of God, there must be some proof of the Intervention of an Influence that Is neither lim ited by the laws of matter nor by the laws of mind. How will such proof or sign be likely to be furnished, If at all? There can be but one answer: There will be an interruption of those fixed laws which we have seen to guide the movements both of matter and mind. The objection urged against miracles, as an interruption of fixed laws, is not well taken. If there be a miracle at all, it must evade the fixed order; otherwise, however it might impress as curious or even marvelous, it would become no sign of a presence of power greater than those forces which obey the fixed order, and which we call mechanical, because like the movements of a machine, they cannot act outside of fixed limits. Suppose an ignorant and superstitious savage suddenly, as in sleep, transported to the very centers of the highest civilization! He stands beside a railroad track, and the iron horse rushes by. He looks with amazement at the rapid revolution of the driving wheels, and the majestic move ment of that symbol of mechanical omnipotence. He falls down to adore, but you arrest him. You tell him that is not a God; it is simply a machine; it moves according to a fixed law, and within the limits fixed by the rails, which also represent law. He cannot believe it. How shall you, con vince him? There is but one way. Show him that there is a power above the engine that can change its course; invade what appears to be a. fixed order and a uniform law of its motion; and if he have mind enough to appreciate your method of proof, he sees that the engine is a machine, and nothing more. You show him how, by the hand of the engineer, its motion is arrested; how, by the hand of the switch tender, its very track is changed at will; how, by the quenching its fires, it can be made motionless and inert. Now, mark, you have given him a sign that some power greater than the engine is present, by interfering with its ordinary and uniform course. A very ignorant man knows that it is of the nature of a moving body to move on in one direction. When a moving body actually stops, backs, turns about— when all its ordinary, movements are reversed, we
ical laws would bring decay; but a new force, voluntary and intelligent, controls the mechanical, and there is no decay. At the word of the Son of God the breath re turns. Man cannot restore the dead; yet he can revive a body out of which breath has fled, where there is no pulse, and where even ani mal heart is scarce left, as in the recovery of one who has been drowned. The liv ing embraces the lifeless, warmth goes from one body to the other, breath passes from one to the other. All this could not be accom plished by mere mechanical force. Leave that body to the operation of natural law, atod there will be no breath nor pulse. But bring a voluntary, intelligent force to bear in time, and the decree of death, ordained by
conclude there is a power above the mechanical— and we call that power intel ligence. If God gives us a similar sign of His pres ence, it must be in such a way as to show a power, not only superior to blind mech anism, but even to human Intelligence; and that can be done only by some process which seems to reverse the ordinary laws both of mat ter and mind. We say, “ seems to reverse,” for it is not necessary that any law be either violated or sus pended: let it only be plain that the divine engineer is guiding the engine, to con vince me that he is present; and my need is met, though I may not understand the complex s y s t e m of laws which has a place for the miracle. Let us t a k e note that,
Phlla- former o f the Edltor- happlly o f real is the
Bethany Presbyterian Church and Sunday School, delphla, Pa., of which Dr. Arthur T. Pierson was a pastor, and Mr. John Wanamaker Superintendent Sunday School fo r many year*. Mr. T. C. Horton, in-Chief o f The K ind's Business, was at one time associated w ith these godly men in this center soul saving work. Dr. A. Gordon MacLennan present much loved pastor.
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