Science and Christian Faith 95 I t is this class about which the chief discussion goes on. They are miracles in the stricter sense of a complete transcendence of nature’s laws. What, in the next place, is meant by the uniformity of nature?. There are, of course, laws of nature—no one dis putes that. I t is quite a mistake to suppose that the Bible, though not written in the twentieth century, knows nothing of a regular order and system of nature. The world is God’s world; it is established by His decree; He has given to every creature its nature, its bounds, its limits; all things continue according to His ordinances (Psa. 119:91). Only, law in the Bible is never viewed as having an independent existence. I t is always regarded as an expression of the power or wisdom of God. And this gives the right point of view for consider ing the relation of law to miracle. What, to begin with, do we mean by a “law” of nature? It is, as science will concede, only our registered observation of the order in which we find causes and events linked together in our experi ence, That they are so linked no one questions. I f they were not, we should have no world in which we could live at all. But then, next, what do we mean by “uniformity” in this connection? We mean no more than this—that, given like causes, operating under like conditions, like effects will follow. Quite true; no one denies this either. But then, as J. S. Mill, in his Logic, pointed out long ago, a miracle in the strict sense is not a denial of either of these truths. A miracle is not the assertion that, the same causes operating, a different result is produced. I t is, on the contrary, the assertion that a new cause has intervened, and this a cause which the theists cannot deny to be a vera causa —the will and power of God. Just as, when I lift my arm, or throw a stone high in the air, I do not abolish the law of gravitation but counteract or overrule its purely natural action by the intro duction of a new spiritual force; so, but in an infinitely higher
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