Page:The kernel and the husk (Abbott, 1886).djvu/174

158 XV

——,

You demur to the parallel that I draw between the Old Testament and the New Testament: "The Battle of Beth-horon can be disentangled from the miracle of the stopping of the sun, just as the battles of Salamis and Regillus can be disentangled from the visions which are said to have accompanied them: and so of other Old Testament narratives. But is it possible," you ask, "that the life of Christ can be disentangled from miracles? Do not His own words and doctrine imply a continual assumption that He had power to do 'mighty works' superior to those of ordinary men?"

You could not have put your question more happily: for you unconsciously illustrate the almost universal confusion—common to a great number of theologians and agnostics as well as to the ordinary Bible reader—between "miracles" and "mighty works." You are really asking not one but two questions. Your first question asks about "miracles;" by which you mean some kind of suspension of a law of nature, or, if you prefer it, some act not conceived as explicable in accordance with any natural law by the person who is attempting explanation. Your second question asks about "mighty works," a phrase of constant occurrence in the New Testament, by which phrase we may understand works superior to the works of ordinary persons, but not necessarily suspensions of the laws of nature. Works may be