THIS ORDER IS GOD'S ORDER.

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If Nature had no order-or Man did not get acquainted with it he could not live. Wise Bishop Butler says that the only distinct meaning of the word "natural" is "stated, fixed, settled." And, we may, without irreverence, say it would have been unkind in God to have placed Man in a world without "stated, fixed, settled" order; for, in such a world Man could have had no pleasant life. The establishment, or preservation, of the Order of Nature, is one of the highest proofs of God's beneficence and of His care for Man. And, if man neglects to learn that Order, he is very blameable. Man ought to consider it his bounden duty to get acquainted with the Order of Nature; because it is God's Order, and God preserves it for Man's benefit.

I say it is God's Order. We do not stop to debate the question of God's existence. You and I have been over that ground together, again and again; and I trust we are perfectly agreed on that most important of all questions. I repeat, the Order of Nature is God's Order. As regularly, and as statedly and unerringly, with regard to time, mode, or measure, as God may choose to conduct

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BECAUSE GOD IS ALMIGHTY,

the operations of "Nature"—that is to say, of His own Creation-they are never conducted without Him. He imparts to them no energy which enables them to go on of themselves. Nature never becomes independent of God. It exists solely by His sovereign Will and Energy. He could stop all the movements in the Universe-He could arrest all the operations of Nature--He could deprive Nature of all her forces-He could annihilate all Nature in a moment, if He chose. Otherwise He is not the Almighty, the Absolute One.

Who, then, except the most positive and determined Atheist-Who, except the man who really believes that God does not exist-shall be bold enough to affirm that Miracles are impossible? Since Nature is unconscious and unintelligent, and knows of no laws, neither can obey them ;-since even the wisest Man of Science, or the profoundest philosopher, can tell us of no Law of Causation why the Facts of Nature are repeated, or recur, in the same mode or manner, or at stated times, day by day; since Nature exists solely because God keeps it in existence;-since it is His energy alone which continues the operations of Nature ;-who

MIRACLES ARE POSSIBLE.

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shall dare to say that He cannot, if He chooses, suspend the usual Order of Nature, or, by some act, and for some reason worthy of Himself, transcend the usual Order of Nature?

We affirm our belief, from the reasons we have rendered—and, I trust, it is the unanimous and united decision of this audience-that a Miracle is possible: i.e., a deed which is an exception to the Order of Nature: a deed suspending or transcending what are called the Natural Laws, or the Laws of Nature.

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MEANING OF A MIRACLE.

TH

III.

IS A MIRACLE PROBABLE?

HIS is another weighty question asked by the doubter- Suppose you have shown that Miracles are possible, is there any reason to be alleged, worthy of God, why Miracles should be performed? How can the universe which God has made so admirable, as it regards its order, need to be altered? How can the beautiful order God has instituted need to be mended?"

One wonders that everybody does not see at once that this is an entire misrepresentation of the ' whole question. No Christian supposes or believes that a Miracle is intended to mend the order of Nature, or correct some defect in it.

A Miracle has a meaning and a purpose of its own a purpose which the usual Order of Nature could not effect. A miracle is not intended by the Almighty to mend the order of unconscious and

IT IS FOR MORAL AGENTS.

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unintelligent Nature; but to produce an effect on the minds of God's intelligent creation, and to make way for a spiritual and saving change in them.

It cannot be unworthy of God, or inconsistent, or a sign of imperfection, in Him, to institute an Order of Nature for one purpose, and to transcend it for another and a higher purpose. He sullies none of His attributes by suspending or transcending the order of Nature. The order of Nature is useful to His creatures; but He transcends that order for a higher use, and one still more worthy of Himself.

Our moral nature is inexplicable-we can give no reason why we have a moral nature—if there be no Moral Governor. And as this our moral nature proclaims to us that vice deserves punishment and virtue reward—and yet vice often goes unpunished and virtue unrewarded, in this life-we clearly reason that God's moral government is only begun here, and that there must be a future state where it shall be completed-where vice shall be justly punished and virtue rewarded.

If there be no future state, we feel that our pre