themselves give, they are utterly incompetent to perform
their contemplated functions. If they are super-human, they are not
super-Satanic, and there is no sense in which they can be considered
miraculously evidential of anything." (Vol. i. p. 25)

Now, this difficulty is the merest theoretical one,--a difficulty, as
the saying is, on paper; and never can be a practical one to any sincere
believer in the holiness of God and the reality of goodness. Take the
miracle of miracles, the seal of all that is supernatural in our
religion, the Resurrection of Christ. If there be a conflict now going
on between God and Satan, can there be a doubt as to the side to which
this miracle is to be assigned? It is given to prove the reality of a
Redemption which all those who accept it know to be a Redemption from
the power of Satan. It is given to confirm the sanctions of morality by
the assurance of a judgment to come. If Satan had performed it, he would
have been simply casting out himself. If this miracle of the
Resurrection be granted, all else goes along with it, and the children
of God are fortified against the influence, real or counterfeit, of any
diabolical miracle whatsoever.

The miracles of the New Testament are not performed, as far as I can
remember, in any single instance, to prove the truth of any one view of
doctrinal Christianity as against another, but to evidence the reality
of the Mission of the Divine Founder as the Son of God, and "the Son of
God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil."

2. With respect to what are called ecclesiastical miracles, _i.e._
miracles performed after the Apostolic age, the author of "Supernatural
Religion" recounts the notices of a considerable number, assumes that
they are all false, and uses this assumed falsehood as a means of
bringing odium on the accounts of the miracles of Christ.

More particularly he draws attention to certain miracles recorded in the
works of St. Augustine, of one at least of which he (Augustine) declares
he was an eye-witness.

Now, the difficulty raised upon these and similar accounts appears to me
to be as purely theoretical as the one respecting Satanic miracles. If
there be truth in the New Testament, it is evident that the Founder of
Christianity not only worked miracles Himself, but gave power to His
followers to do the same. When was this power of performing miracles
withdrawn from the Church? Our Lord, when He gave