by which he makes things? We do not know.

Miracles may be--indeed must be--only the effect of some higher and
deeper laws of God. We cannot prove that he breaks his law, or
disturbs his order by them. They may seem contrary to some of the
very very few laws of God's earth which we do know. But they need
not be contrary to the very many laws which we do not know. In
fact, we know nothing about the matter, and had best not talk of
things that we do not understand. As for these things being too
wonderful to be true--that is an argument which only deserves a
smile. There are so many wonders in the world round us already, all
day long, that the man of sense will feel that nothing is too
wonderful to be true.

The truth is, that, as a wise man says, CUSTOM is the great enemy of
Faith, and of Reason likewise; and one of the worst tricks which
custom plays us is, making us fancy that miraculous things cease to
be miraculous by becoming common.

What do I mean?

This: which every child in this church can understand.

You think it very wonderful that God should cause frogs to come upon
the whole land of Egypt in one day. But that God should cause frogs
to come up every spring in the ditches does not seem wonderful to
you at all. It happens every year; therefore, forsooth, there is
nothing wonderful in it.

Ah, my dear friends, it is custom which blinds our eyes to the
wisdom of God, and the wonders of God, and the power of God, and the
glory of God, and hinders us from believing the message with which
he speaks to us from every sunbeam and every shower, every blade of
grass and every standing pool. 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?'

If any man here says that anything is too hard for the Lord, let him
go this day to the nearest standing pool, and look at the frog-spawn
therein, and consider it till he confesses his blindness and
foolishness. That spawn seems to you a foul thing, the produce of
mean, ugly, contemptible creatures. Be it so. Yet it is to the
eyes of the wise man a yearly MIRACLE; a thing past understanding,
past explaining; one which will make him feel the truth of that
great 139th Psalm: 'Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid
thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is
high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold,