way itself; that a miracle would not indeed convert you, but it would
be the first step towards thorough conversion; that it would be the
turning point in your life, and would suddenly force your path into the
right direction, and that in this way shocks and startlings, and all
the agitation of the passions and affections, are really the means of
conversion, though conversion be something more than they. This is
very true: sudden emotions--fear, hope, gratitude, and the like, all do
produce such effects sometimes; but why is a miracle necessary to
produce such effects? Other things startle us besides miracles; we
have a number of accidents sent us by God to startle us. He has not
left us without warnings, though He has not given us miracles; and if
we are not moved and converted by those which come upon us, the
probability is, that, like the Jews, we should not be converted by
miracles.

Yes, you say; but if one came from the dead, if you saw the spirit of
some departed friend you knew on earth: what then? What would it tell
you that you do not know now? Do you now in your sober reason doubt
the reality of the unseen world? not at all; only you cannot get
yourself to act as if it _were_ real. Would such a sight produce this
effect? you think it would. Now I will grant this on one supposition.
Do the startling accidents which happen to you now, produce _any_
lasting effect upon you? Do they lead you to _any habits_ of religion?
If they do produce some effect, then I will grant to you that such a
strange visitation, as you have supposed, would produce a greater
effect; but if the events of life which now happen to you produce no
lasting effect on you, and this I fear is the case, then too sure I am,
that a miracle too would produce no lasting effect on you, though of
course it would startle you more at the time. I say, I fear that what
happens to you, as it is, produces no lasting effect on you. I mean,
that the warnings which you really have, do not bring you to any
habitual and regular religiousness; they may make you a little more
afraid of this or that sin, or of this or that particular indulgence of
it; but they do not tend at all to make you break with the world, and
convert you to God. If they did make you take up religion in earnest,
though in ever so poor a way, then I will grant that miracles would
make you _more_ in earnest. If God's _ordinary_ warnings moved you,
His extraordinary would move you mo