r sort of world
from the one we are in. But, until this organ is established, we have
good right to doubt the _ipse dixit_ of self-appointed oracles.

When we examine the whole question of miracles inductively and
deductively, I think that we must acknowledge that their basis is
exceedingly weak. Already, the educated world is in a fair way to
outgrow them; and this tendency will undoubtedly increase as science
continues to explore the world we live in.

In conclusion, it seems worth while to call attention to the fact that
very few people realize what they are really believing when they accept
miracles. They do not know enough about nature to grasp the real
content of their beliefs; and, until they do, their belief represents
simply a point of view which has not been confronted with its
implications. It expresses innocence rather than virtue. Let us
glance at a couple of the biblical miracles to show what they involve.

Tyndall has brought out, very strikingly, the difference between the
miracle supposed to have aided Joshua in his battle with the Amorites,
as this appeared in the eyes of an Israelite of old, and as it appears
to a man of science. For the one the miracle probably consisted in the
stoppage of a fiery ball less than a yard in diameter, while to the
other it would be the stoppage of an orb fourteen thousand times the
earth in size. "There is," he writes, "a scientific as well as a
historic {136} imagination; and when, by the exercise of the former,
the stoppage of the earth's rotation is clearly realized, the event
assumes proportions so vast, in comparison with the result to be
obtained by it, that belief reels under the reflection. The energy
here involved is equal to that of six trillion of horses working for
the whole of the time employed by Joshua in the destruction of his
foes." If we pass from the great to the small, from the employment of
tremendous forces to the reconstruction of endless, minute relations,
the same divergence between superficial appearance and the reality
stares us in the face. Let us consider the raising of Lazarus from the
dead. It is a well-known fact that the nervous system begins to
disintegrate very quickly after death. Now research has shown that
there are nearly a billion of cells in the brain alone. Think of the
disorganization which would ensue in such a complicated system after a
period of four days. Those who are acquainted with the delicacy of
organi