What is a miracle? A miracle is not, as Hume defined it, “something
_contrary to the laws of nature_,” but something above the laws of
nature, or something that the laws of nature, in their legitimate and
ordinary operations, could not produce. For instance, the laws of
nature, in their legitimate and ordinary operations, from parents, can
produce offspring, and bring them to manhood and womanhood. But the
laws of nature, in their legitimate course of operation, never produced
a man and a woman, without parents, or never brought into existence
a man and a woman, at sufficient maturity to care for themselves and
live, without parents. No law of nature, in its legitimate and ordinary
course of operation, brought Adam and Eve into existence, at maturity,
and without parents. In other words, no law or laws of nature, in their
legitimate and ordinary operation, ever began the human race. In the
plainest terms, no law of nature ever produced a human being without
parents. In other words, it is not a miracle for children to come from
parents, but it was a miracle to create the first human pair. All who
admit that the human race ever had a beginning, must admit that it
began by miracle. It is not a miracle for an oak to produce an acorn,
nor for an acorn to produce an oak; but it is a miracle to produce an
oak without an acorn, and equally a miracle to produce an acorn
without an oak. The laws of nature, in the legitimate and ordinary
course of their operation, never produced an acorn without an oak,
or an oak without an acorn. The first acorn, or the first oak, was,
unquestionably, a miracle. The first man was a miracle. The second man,
the Lord from heaven, was a miracle. Isaac, the child of promise, and
the only son of Abraham, as Jesus was the child of promise, and the
only begotten of the Father, was a miracle. To sum all up, and express
it in one sentence, everything,—every species of animal, insect and
vegetable, began by miracle. The laws of nature create nothing, give us
no new species or kind, but simply propagate and perpetuate that which
was given by miracle at first. By the established laws of nature, the
human race have been propagated and perpetuated, but the human race had
its commencement in miracle.
The laws of nature never raised a man from the dead, instantaneously
gave hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, or sight to the blind. No
laws of nature can heal a leper in an instant, multiply “five loaves
and a few small fishes,” till the amount will be sufficient to feed
five thousand persons, leaving “twelve baskets full of fragments,”
or enable men to speak in some fifteen or seventeen languages, never
studied or learned in the ordinary way. A miracle may suspend laws of
nature for the time being, do something above them, or something that
they never perform; but to be a miracle at all, something must be
done above all human art, device or ability, and something which we
know the laws of nature, in their legitimate course, and ordinary
operation, never perform. When anything of this kind occurs, we
know that it could not have taken place without foreign and direct
interposition. This is a miracle; it is above and superior to all human
art or device; above and superior to any thing ever done by the laws of
nature, as well as different from anything they ever do.
“AFFIRMATIVE GOSPEL.”
We heard an illusion to the fanciful idea that some have conceived
of preaching an “affirmative gospel,” or, as some have expressed it,
“preaching the gospel _affirmatively_,” or, as we suppose, to come a
little nearer their idea, merely to preach, maintain and defend the
truth _affirmatively_, and let the _negative_ alone; or still, if
possible, to be more fully understood, to preach _truth_ and not preach
against what is _not truth_; to preach what _is to be done_ and not
what _is not to be done_. Look at the following Psalm I.:
1. “Happy is the man that walks _not_ in the counsel
of the ungodly.”
2. “_Nor_ stands in the way of sinners.”
3. “_Nor_ sits in the seat of the scornful.”
These three items are _negative_—things that the man whom the Lord
pronounces _happy, does not_. This is not leaving the negative part
out, but inserting it first, and pronounces the man happy that does not
these things.
In contrast, the Psalmist of Israel proceeds to give us the following,
which is affirmative:
1. “His delight is in the law of the Lord.”
2. “In his law he meditates day and night.”
The Lord gives the following guarantee to those who do not say the
negative part, but do the affirmative:
“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings
forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and
whatever he does shall prosper.”
What an awful contrast with this is the ungodly:
“The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind drives
away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor
sinners in the congregations of the righteous.”
To this the Lord adds the following conclusion:
“The Lord knows the way of the righteous,” or _approves_ it, “but the
way of the ungodly shall perish.”
The negative is to be preached and taught in all that pertains to
preaching and teaching as zealously and faithfully as the affirmative,
and is to be regarded equally as much of divine authority. The first
commandment the Lord ever gave to a human being was negative. It was in
these words: “You may not eat of it.” This was negative—what must not
be done. The Bible abounds with this negative teaching, setting forth
what may not be done. Look at the following list, gathered from I. Cor.
xiii. 4-8, setting forth affirmatively and negatively, or what love
_will and will not_ do. First look at the affirmative side, or what
love will do:
1. It suffers long.
2. It is kind.
3. It rejoices in the truth.
4. It bears all things.
5. It believes all things.
6. It hopes all things.
7. Endures all things.
This is the affirmative side, or what love _will do_; but the divine
authority does not stop at that, but tells us what love _will not do_.
See the following:
1. It is not envious.
2. Vaunts not itself.
3. Is not puffed up.
4. Does not behave itself unseemingly.
5. Seeks not her own.
6. Is not easily provoked.
7. Thinks no evil.
8. Rejoices not in iniquity.
9. Never fails.
The negative is longer than the affirmative in this enumeration.
The man with his affirmative gospel is like the man with his two oars,
faith and works, to his skiff. He pulled one alone for a time, and run
round and round one way, and then pulled the other, and run round and
round the other way, and then seized both and pulled them at the same
time, when his skiff moved straight ahead beautifully. We must take the
whole of the divine teaching, the affirmative and negative; what we are
to believe, and what we are not to believe; what we are to do, and what
we are not to do. We are to show not only what is truth, but what is
not truth; what is of divine authority, but what is not of divine
authority.
Had some of our affirmative gospel men been in the place of Paul, when
he came to Athens, they would have made no attack on the altar with
the inscription: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD,” but would have gone on
with their affirmative gospel. Paul was not of that type of preacher,
but brought their view of the unknown God into direct contrast with
the revelation of the true God—the Jehovah. He admits that theirs was
to them an “unknown God,”—“God who made the world, and all things
therein”—“Lord of heaven and earth,” and who “dwells not in temples
made with men’s hands,” and “is not worshipped with men’s hands, as
though he needs anything, seeing that he gives to all life, and breath,
and all things, and has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell
on all the face of the earth, and has determined before the times
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek
the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he
be not far from every one of us.”
Not content with this attack on their altar, and the inscription on it,
he proceeds to quote and turn their own poets against them: “Certain
of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’” Hear
him as he proceeds, and see how he wades into their ignorance and
superstition, and, above all, how utterly exclusive he is: “For as much
then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is like gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s
device.”
Now for the charitable part of his discourse: “And the times of this
ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent.” “The times of this ignorance” was before the gospel came, and
the “now,” brought in contrast with it, is since the gospel has come.
Seeing that the light has come, men are inexcusable to be in ignorance.
He proceeds to give a reason for the commandment, “to all men
everywhere to repent,” in the following words: “Because he has
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he has ordained.” But he knew that some man might
call that in question, when he closed up with the following: “Whereof
he has given assurance to all men in that he has raised him from the
dead.” That is, he has given assurance to all men, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, that he will judge the world in
righteousness, by that man whom he has ordained. The logic runs thus:
As he raised Christ from the dead, he will judge the world; and as he
will judge the world, all men, everywhere, are commanded to repent, in
view of the judgment.
The inscriptions to the unknown God must be set aside, with all the
doctrines and commandments of men; the traditions of Jewish rabbis
and Romish priests, with all the unauthorized lumber of Protestants,
and the devotees to each and all of them, must be shown that they are
unauthorized, and the man who shuns to do this, only does half work, or
rather, only half does his work, and will be responsible to the great
Shepherd and Bishop of souls.