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February 3, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIZ
The Defence of the Faith
MIRACLES ARE FACT, NOT FANCY.
A favorite plan of attack with the old avowed infidelity
was to deny the reality and the possibility of
miracles. Along this line of controversy the friends and
foes of Christianity contended. Scepticism has devised
more insidious methods of late, and under the guise of
patronizing and interpreting the Scriptures assumes
to ingeniously explain away the miraculous element
that appears in particular Biblical statements. As one
of many, instances, Dr. Van Dyke, writing in the "Toronto
Presbyterian" of Joshua's commanding the sun
to stand still, characterizes the narration as "poetry,
imagination and heroism," intending thereby, as stated
by one of his critics, to deny its historical character.
The reply to every such criticism of the sacred record
is that if this plain account of events, as they are said
iu nave transpired, is only imagination, then all events
which are described as supernatural may be assigned
to the same class, because the only reason for denying
them is that they cannot be explained upon natural
grounds.
The very idea of a miracle is that it is something
superior to the processes of ordinary laws. When we
come to apply the test to the cardinal facts of redemption
we are confronted with the same alternatives of
accepting the statements of revelation, or rejecting them
because they cannot be explained by our knowledge of
natural law. The incarnation of Christ is one of these
facts. The unity of Deity and humanity in the
person of Jesus must be accepted, not because we can
explain it, but because we are taught it.
The fact of the resurrection presents the same alternatives.
This is the crown and culmination of all
miracle. Upon this, as a fact, inspiration bases its
claim to our confidence in the entire redemptive work
of our Lord. Yet this fact is as difficult of explanation
as is the fact that the sun stood still upon Gibeon. The
miraculous element in either case constitutes the essential
value of the narrative, and the record would be
uicctniiigiess ana impotent it its statements were only
imaginary and poetic. It is difficult to refrain from
suspecting of this class of interpreters the tendency and
purpose to have as little as possible of the divine immanence
and control in the affairs of men, and to
exalt as much as possible their own personalities as
modern Daniels come to judgment.
A similar, though more pronounced, case is mentioned
and commented on by an exchange, and in such
terse and withering terms as the following:
"There has come from the Chicago University Press another
attack upon the mracles of the Bible by a learned professor
in a Michigan college. He looks wise and says that
there was no need of miracles. Then he looks wiser and
declares that some miracles are Incredible. The trouble with
the professor is that he has not yet accepted the first verse
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ucuesis, 'in tne beginning God created the heaven and the
earth.' if he believed in a God great enough to create the
universe he would find no uiftculty in believing that such a
God could stop the revolution of the earth for twentyfour
hours, turn water nto wine, multiply loaves and fishes, or
do anything else that he might choose to do. It is a
pity that learning should so dwarf a man's conception of God.
It is a pauperizing process.
"It ought to be said that these unbelieving professors do
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not altogether represent the institutions to which they belong.
There are other professors in their faculties of equal or
superior learning who believe in the miracles In the Bible, but
the man who jumps overboard from an Atlantic steamer attracts
more attention than a thousand other passengers who
remain on deck and behave themselves. There is no real
conflict between the Bible and up-to-date learning. The conllict
is between the Bible and the unbelief of certain professors
who imaeine that the mnHpm soienHfle <=r>i?-it t~
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to faith In a personal God still at work In this world. They
are waging war against the facts recorded in the Bible
and confirmed by the reason of a man who believes in a
God of almighty power and infinite wisdom. In the last
analysis it is a conflict between gods, the great _God revealed
in the Bible, and the little gods born in the brains of learned
unbelievers."
EVOLUTION.
Mr. George Paulin, formerly an avowed evolutionist,
has written a book entitled, "No Struggle for Existence"
in which he renounces his once cherished philosophy.
His renunciation appears in such statements
as these quoted from its pages:
"I must, in all honesty, confess that logically, as the
matter presents itself to my mind, the argument is in favor
of those who believe in the doctrine of special creations as
our fathers believed it. After having believed in evolution
for many years, my studies have convinced me it is a mis
take, and I have been reluctantly brought to admit that the
Christian doctrine of oreation is more in accordance with
the facts of nature than is the theory of evolution.
We have ever believed that the self-respect of humanity
and the upward reach of the soul for better
things would consign evolution to the haunts of the
class of theorists and adventurers who are pleased to
bewilder curious and credulous minds with crude imaginings,
and who reject faith in a Creator and the hope
of immortality.
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the heart consents, but it will not correct one's affections,
appetencies, or desires. The word in the heart
goes to the root of things. It corrects the very sources
of the life. Hiding it in the heart means taking it in
so deeply that it reaches the innermost recesses.
If conscience smite thee once, it is admonition; if
twice, it is condemnation.?Anon.
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might
not sin against thee." The proper place to get the
word of God is in the heart. It must come by the
ear of the head, but it must not stop there. It must
get into that part of man which controls and determines
his life. "Out of the heart are the issues of
life." It is not what a man knows or what a man
thinks that shapes him, but what he loves. He believes
in the thing he likes. He does the thing that
he inclines to do, and the inclination is in the heart,
not in the head. The heart rules the head and makes
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into the heart, therefore, is carrying that word to the
centre of man's being, the springs of his life. Hidden
there it affects the character, determines the will,
shapes the life. It elevates and ennobles the soul. It
gives permanence and character and grace and development.
David's hiding the word in his heart was in
order to his avoiding sinning against God. The word
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