how are we to know whether a fallen or an unfallen angel adwas the author? The answer is not difficult. If with superhuman power in the work we see conjoined a moral did. excellence which our consciences approve as worthy in all respects of heaven, then we can have no hesitation in declaring it to be the work of God, either mediately or immediately. If an angel performed it, it must have been a holy angel, acting in obedience to God; it could not possibly have been a fiend. * I shall dwell a moment longer on this objection of the unbelieving Jews, for I am anxious to remove every difficulty out of your way in considering this important subject. In India, you are aware, multitudes of people believe that extraordinary works can be wrought by men who are in league with devils, or possessed by them. So far as my experience extends, I have seen no cause to think that these possessions, and the works and words accompanying them, are at all superhuman ;—but it would be very rash to assert that there are no real cases of possession in India, even in the nineteenth century,—and to say that such things never did, and never can, occur, would be highly presumptuous. Take then all such cases of either real, or pretended, diabolic influence; examine them; and you will see that light is not more opposite to darkness, than they are to the miracles of Christ. The works ascribed to bhutas, or devils, in India, are often absurd-almost laughable. In other cases they are malevolent. They may, in some cases, excite feelings of terror, and in other cases, of disgust,but they ever are repulsive and unlovely. How different from the lofty and gracious works of Christ, from which there so brightly shines a holy and heavenly radiance which convinces and attracts every heart that is not perversely in love with darkness! * By mediately we mean performed through the medium of other agents; by immediately, we mean performed by God himself directly. The Briefly, then, to repeat and sum up the whole. works of Jesus Christ were clear manifestations of super human power. They were no less clear manifestations of benevolence and holiness. To deny that the person whe performed them, was sent by God, is wholly unreasonable The objection of the Jews, that they were performed b Satanic power, is absurd; for-even if we should admi that God might yield Satan sufficient power to perfon such mighty works,-yet, to suppose that Satan would per form them, is to suppose that the devil is a holy and be nevolent being that is to say, that Satan is not Satan. NOTE. I am, &c. A few additional remarks on this very important subject may be useful to the more advanced student. The works performed by Christ are designated in the New Testa ment by various names-such as works, signs, powers (i. e. powerf works), wonders. They were not wrought solely to afford evidence of His Divine mis sion. They were manifestations of Him-of His power, wisdon goodness, love, holiness,--the effluence of the glory of the Sun of Righ eousness. They were often, so to speak, embodied teaching-trut rendered visible and palpable. A miracle has been defined by the enemies of Christianity, as a vi lation of a Law of Nature. This definition is entirely inadmissible. Sometimes the friends of Christianity have defined a miracle as a sus pension of a Law of Nature. But this definition is not happy; it is, at all events, imperfect and obscure. Some The word Miracle is certainly used in two different senses. times it means any superhuman act-any act to which human power is not equal. Sometimes it means an act to which only Divine power is equal. Let this ambiguity be carefully noted. When we speak of the order of Nature being controlled by God and a miracle effected, it is plain that this may be in either of two ways Either, a direct volition of God may do it; or, one law of Nature may be affected, and overruled, so to speak, by the intervention of another As an instance of the latter kind, we may refer to the drying of the Red Sea where the Israelities crossed it. We read that "the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land." The natural gravitation of the waters to their lowest level was counteracted by the violent wind: one law of Nature was supervened upon another. Yet the miracle was as real and remarkable as if a direct volition of God, without intermediate agency, had withdrawn the waters. 51 LETTER VI. THE EVIDENCE FROM PROPHECY. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, ONE of the most important arguments in proof of the truth of the Christian Religion, is drawn from the Prophecies which are contained in the Bible. Both in the Old and New Testaments there are found declarations of events that were still future at the time the declarations were made; and these are so numerous and definite as to afford a most satisfactory test of the truth of the book in which they are contained. If they should have occurred as was predicted, it is not possible to deny that the book is from God; if not, it is, of course, to be rejected as false. Prophecy defined. By a Prophecy we mean a declaration of something still future, the occurrence of which it is beyond the power of human sagacity to foresee. Man possesses no power of penetrating far into futurity; all he can do is to draw some inferences from past and present things as to the probable course of events that are still to come; but very few of the most sagacious men on earth would presume to hazard any conjectures regarding events that were to happen many years after their own day. But in the Bible there are hundreds of statements clear, definite, and minute, respecting occurrences removed very far from the time at which the speaker lived. It has been justly said that Prophecy is a miracle. What are commonly called miracles, are miracles of power; a prophecy is a miracle of knowledge. A miracle of power and a miracle of knowledge differ in this respect, that the former carries its evidence with it as soon as it is perform ed, whereas the latter becomes convincing, not as soon as it is given, but as soon as the prediction is fulfilled. Let us note the precise place which Prophecy holds in the Christian system. The scheme of religion in the Old and New Testaments is briefly this, that man Its place in the Christian is a fallen being, and that, for his restora system. tion to the Divine favour, there has been manifestation of God in human nature on earth, in the person of Jesus Christ, whose life of spotless holiness and expiatory death open up a way to pardon and to the bles edness of heaven. This manifestation of God in huma nature did not take place till about four thousand years after the fall of man; Christ then came, in what the Bible call "the fulness of time," the time most suitable for the execution of God's high purposes in the redemption of the Its first use. human race. Therefore, in order that those men who lived at an early period of the world's histor might repose their faith upon the Mighty Deliverer who had not yet actually come, there needed to be prophecies that is to say, statements regarding his coming, his work his character, his life, his death, his resurrection. Without these, the religion of those who lived before Christ would have been exceedingly different from that of those who lived after him, and the mode of salvation could not have been the same throughout all ages of the world. The prophecies delivered before Christ came, served the same purpose to men in those days, that history does to us. The early believers looked forward to Christ, we now look back to Him; but He is the central object on which the eyes of all believers are alike fixed. There are also prophecies respecting the Jewish people, and the nations with which they were brought into connexion, such as Egypt, Syria, Edom, Babylon, &c. The intention of these, as given to ancient believers, may be seen from a simple illustration. Suppose a son who had hitherto lived in his father's house and under his father's immediate care, were about to go to live in a foreign country where he must see all kinds of wickedness practised and be exposed to constant temptation,-how anxious would the father be to warn and counsel him beforehand regarding all these dangers! If the father could foretell what his son would be exposed to, he would. It is thus that God deals with his Church. He warns,-He foretells what events will happen to it and to the nations of the earth, when it is desirable that such things should be known. Second use. And now, observe how very beautifully Prophecy, which subserved these most important purposes at first, afterwards answers another end not less important. When a prophecy is fulfilled, it becomes an undeniable evidence of the superhuman knowledge of him who uttered it. Thus the prophecies which, when delivered to the ancient Jews, were of exceeding importance as instructions and warnings, are now of exceeding importance as evidences of our religion. Every promise of blessing in case of obedience every threatening of punishment to disobedience becomes, when the prophecy is clearly fulfilled, an unanswerable argument for the truth of the Scriptures. It Such, then, is the nature of Prophecy, as it can be inferred from the Scriptures themselves. This idea of Prophecy you will admit, is equally reasonable and interesting. According to this you will easily understand that the predictions contained in the Scriptures must be numerous. was of the highest importance that the ancient Church should be well informed regarding the Prophecies very nume- great Deliverer who was to come; and also that the chief events that were to happen to rous. |