ated in the Scripture may be divided for our
consideration into three classes. To the first class belong most of
those which are related in the Old Testament, but some also which are
conspicuous in the New Testament. They are, in some cases, the poetical
and imaginative representation of the profoundest religious ideas. So
soon as one openly concedes this, when there is no longer any necessity
either to attack or to defend the miracle in question, one is in a
position to acknowledge how deep and wonderful the thoughts often are
and how beautiful the form in which they are conveyed. It is through
imagination and symbolism that we are able to convey the subtlest
meanings which we have. Still more was this the case with men of an
earlier age. In the second place, the narratives of miracles are, some
of them, of such a sort that we may say that an event or circumstance in
nature has been obviously apprehended in naive fashion. This by no means
forbids us to interpret that same event in quite a different way. The
men of former time, exactly in proportion as they had less sense of the
order of nature than have we, so were they also far readier to assume
the immediate forthputting of the power of God. This was true not merely
of the uneducated. It is difficult, or even impossible, for us to find
out what the event was. Fact and apprehension are inextricably
interwoven. That which really happened is concealed from us by the tale
which had intended to reveal it. In the third place, there are many
cases in the history of Jesus, and some in that of the apostles and
prophets, in which that which is related moves in the borderland between
body and soul, spirit and matter, the region of the influence of will,
one's own or that of another, over physical conditions. Concerning such
cases we are disposed, far more than were men even a few years ago, to
concede that there is much that is by no means yet investigated, and the
soundest judgment we can form is far from being sure. Even if we
recognise to the full the lamentable resurgence of outworn superstitions
and stupidities, which again pass current among us for an unhappy
moment, if we detect the questionable or manifestly evil consequences of
certain uses made or alleged of psychic influence, yet still we are not
always in a position to say, with certainty, what is true in tales of
healing which we hear in our own day. There are certain of the
statements concerning Jesus' healing power