Philosophical Results of Denial of Miracles [pp. 85-94]

THE PRINCE TON RE VIEW.
grow. We wish in this article to do something to show the relations and the presumptions of these two opinions; the one for,
and the other against, the supernatural.
If a position we are holding begins to seem to us indefensible, and we are contemplating the propriety of changing it, it
may aid us in our decision to consider how much must be yielded
with it, and the strength of the ground to which we shall retreat.
We can rarely be so sure of our proof in complex questions as
not to find it both fit and wise to consider the more remote bearings of a new proposition. A difficulty may show itself at a
long remove from its source. Such a consideration is our present purpose.
Suppose us to surrender miracles on the ground of the scientific presumption against them,-the universality of law-what
other positions must be abandoned in succession? How far
shall we need to go before arriving at that impregnable camp
that is finally to receive us? This inquiry is legitimate. It is
not merely saying we will not yield this lest we be called on
to yield that also, but it is taking a broad outlook at truth, that
we may reach the proof arising from its general coherence.
Doctrines cannot be settled by themselves alone, since they
do not derive their force from themselves alone, but receive and
give strength in all directions. We need not say that, illogical
as men are, and sneeringly as they often speak of logic, a truly
sound logic is the coherent force of thought, and that which
time is always bringing to the surface of belief, as certainly as
real forces are recorded on the face of facts.
If we reject miracles, we shall at once be embarrassed by answers to prayer. How can the prayer of the weakest saint be
allowed to do that which has just been denied to prophetic
power in its highest manifestation? Law is as sacred and irrevocable in the one case as in the other. A feeble compromise
may be found for the thoughts in the supposition that the answer
of prayer is included in natural laws; but we shall sooner or
later see that the fixed lines of law cannot take up the variable
petitions of men, and that these also must be submitted to overruling forces. An independent, general law that gathers up and
makes answer to the changeable wishes and wants of men is an
absurdity. Moreover, the laws of the world, whioh have been
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