m to turn
to blood by some juggling trick at which the priests in Egypt were
but too well practised; and Pharaoh seemed to have made up his mind
that Moses' miracle was only a juggling trick too. For men will
make up their minds to anything, however absurd, when they choose to
do so: when their pride, and rage, and obstinacy, and covetousness,
draw them one way, no reason will draw them the other way. They
will find reasons, and make reasons to prove, if need be, that there
is no sun in the sky.

Then followed a series of plagues, of which we have all often heard.

Learned men have disputed how far these plagues were miracles. Some
of them are said not to be uncommon in Egypt, others to be almost
unknown. But whether they--whether the frogs, for instance, were
not produced by natural causes, just as other frogs are; and the
lice and the flies likewise; that I know not, my friends, neither
need I know. If they were not, they were miraculous; and if they
were, they were miraculous still. If they came as other vermin
come, they would have still been miraculous: God would still have
sent them; and it would be a miracle that God should make them come
at that particular time in that particular country, to work a truly
miraculous effect upon the souls of Pharaoh and the Egyptians on the
one hand, and of Moses and the Israelites on the other. But if they
came by some strange means as no vermin ever came before or since,
all I can say is--Why not?

And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod
and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout
all the land of Egypt.'

Whether that was meant only as a sign to the Egyptians, or whether
the dust did literally turn into lice, we do not know, and what is
more, we need not know; if God chose that it should be so, so it
would be. If you believe at all that God made the world, it is
folly to pretend to set any bounds to his power. As a wise man has
said, 'If you believe in any real God at all, you must believe that
miracles can happen.' He makes you and me and millions of living
things out of the dust of the ground continually by certain means.
Why can he not make lice, or anything else out of the dust of the
ground, without those means? I can give no reason, nor any one else
either.

We know that God has given all things a law which they cannot break.
We know, too, that God will never break his own laws. But what are
God's laws