President Kirkland. 1. A Discourse, occasioned by the death. of Rev. John Thornton Kirkland, D. D., LL. D. By FRAN- CIS PARKMAN. 2. Mr. Young's Discourse on the Life and On the Relations between the Holy Scriptures, and some parts of Geological Science. By JOHN PYE SMITH, 335 ART. V.- Letters to the Rev. Professor Stuart, comprising remarks Lectures on Modern History, from the Irruption of the North- An Address, delivered at the Consecration of the Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem. By DANIEL APPLETON WHITE, 373 THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SEPTEMBER, 1840. ART. I. MIRACLES AS AN EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY; AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE, IN BERRY STREET, BOSTON, MAY 27TH, 1840. BY DAVID DAMON.* I PROPOSE to address you, at this time, Fathers and Brethren in the Christian Ministry, upon the subject of the Christian Miracles particularly in their character of an evidence of Christianity as a revelation from God. "The present aspect of Theology amongst us"† must be my apology for the adoption of a subject which might otherwise be deemed but ill suited to the occasion of a Pastoral Conference. By miracles, I understand something more than the derivation of the term implies, that is, more than simply wonderful works, namely, such wonderful works as have been commonly supposed, by believers in Christianity, to be wrought by the special aid and interposition of God. It is to this class of wonderful works, if I mistake not, that the application of the term miracles is generally restricted. By the Christian miracles, I understand those, and only those, of which we find the record in the New Testament. How do men know that, among all the wonderful works * We are happy to be permitted by the author to lay this Address before our readers. - .ED. This was the subject of the Address, assigned by the Standing Committee of the Conference. which have been wrought in men's view, there are some which were wrought by the particular aid and interposition of God? This is the first question which presents itself to us in entering upon this subject. Men do not know this as certainly as they do that they themselves exist that two added to two are equal to four that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles that of two fruit trees, which are in view at a few paces before them, one is taller than the other that is, strictly speaking, they do not know this at all. But men so judge and believe of certain wonderful works, presenting certain characteristics, and not of other works, though truly wonderful, which are wanting in some or all of the same certain characteristics. Men judge and believe certain wonderful works to be wrought by the particular aid and interposition of God, because the works seem manifestly to transcend human power, and the power of all beings of whom they have any knowledge or distinct apprehension, save God alone. The works differ also from all the usual and known results of the operations of the laws of nature, so called. They stand out by themselves, as the wide and fair creation did, at the blest primeval hour, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. They are also, for the most part certainly, beneficent in their nature and consequences. They are not trivial, intricate puzzles, of hard solution, and without a grand, useful, or permanent result, when exhibited and solved; but they are morally sublime, commonly in the proceeding, always in the result. The declared purpose for which they are wrought, when declaration is made of it, is worthy of the works themselves. Declaration is also often made by the doer of these works, that they are wrought by the power of God; and the doer should be supposed to know more concerning this point than the mere witness; not to insist that his general character and other words and deeds may go to confirm his credibility. For these and other like reasons, men, that is, some men, many men, in the exercise of their common sense and sober judgment, after careful and scrutinizing observation, believe the works to be done by the almighty power and special interposition of God, while of other works, wanting some or many of these characteristics, they have not the same belief. The common mind is so constituted as to believe in view of the supposed phenomena; and therefore so it does believe in fact. Unbelief is the exception, belief the general rule or result, in the instances given. The question concerning the agency and power by which miracles are wrought is a question concerning beliefs and the grounds for them, not concerning knowledge, demonstration, or intuition. The moment absolute knowledge begins, there is an end of belief properly so called. Something different - not perhaps stronger, or better, or more efficacious practically but something different has come instead of belief. You may persuade a man out of his belief into another belief, by strong reasons, but you cannot persuade him out of his knowledge into another knowledge. If he knows, there is an end of reasoning and faith. Hence an atheist, while he remains an atheist, cannot believe in miracles, in the sense in which I use the term, though he may believe in wonderful works as matters of fact; and may even profess to believe that, in reality, there is no wonder in wonderful works. Hence also an ignorant believer in the semi-almighty power of Beelzebub may possibly believe that Beelzebub did the works, which, if there be any Beelzebub, Beelzebub cannot do. But it does not hence follow that men of good common sense, capable of just observation and comparison, and believers in one God, should not believe, and have not sufficient grounds for believing, just what they do believe, that the works, which they consider as specially God's works, were wrought by his power, and wrought for the ends specified and declared by the subordinate agents and doers. But it is objected-"All we actually see is the work alone." Well, are we to draw no inference from what we see? Can reason and faith extend no further than actual vision? So thought not a certain one of the New Testament writers. He says, "faith is the evidence of things not seen." For myself, when I see a man violently beating a horse, I see that the horse is beaten; but I infer something more, namely, that the man beating is violently, and probably is unreasonably angry. The old homely proverb "Seeing is believing," if taken literally, is essentially an untruth. The operations of seeing and believing are not identical, but distinct and different. I not only may, but I must draw inferences from what I see; and I am yet to learn, that I and many of those who differ from me in present opinion concerning miracles, should not draw the same inferences, especially as it respects the power by which they are wrought, if we could be made eye witnesses of their actual performance. There are other objections made to ascribing any wonderful work to the divine power, agency, interposition, or aid; but as they are likewise objections to ascribing any weight to miracles as evidence, they may as well be considered after answering the inquiry which is presented next in order. Those who have gone with me thus far, will probably be willing to proceed with me to this next inquiry. This inquiry is How and in what way the Christian miracles were and still are an evidence of Christianity as a divine revelation, it being considered as already ascertained, that the miracles were wrought by the interposition and power of God? At this stage in the discussion, the miracles present themselves to us in two aspects; and we may view them, and ought to view them, from two different positions. First, we will place ourselves in the position of those who were original eye witnesses of the miracles, to whom also the person who wrought or exhibited the miracles, came teaching, as a divine revelation, those truths, which taken collectively, we now denominate Christianity. The teacher comes, and I hear him say weighty and excellent things. They approve themselves to my understanding and conscience. I believe some of them to be truths, and I think it probable the rest are also true. I begin to be disposed to become his follower. But the teacher puts forth most extraordinary claims. He declares that he is commanded and commissioned by the God and Father of all to inculcate these truths, that I must receive them as a revelation from God to men, that they have a divine authority and sanction, such as the truths taught by the wise men of the world have not, nay, such as the very truths themselves, without the sanction, would not have had, that is, if none but the wise men of the world, the scribes, pharisees, and philosophers, had taught themand that by disregarding them now, I shall commit a greater sin against truth and the God of truth than I could have done, if he had not come and taught me as he has done. Doubt and hesitation arise in my breast. I perceive a claim to a higher inspiration than other teachers have asserted for themselves. I perceive a claim of having first been taught as well |