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CHRIST'S CONSCIOUSNESS OF POWER.

He felt and saw that by the mere act of His will the sick were healed and the dead raised to life, there could be, and there was, no doubt, no misgiving, as to the reality of His divine mission. He had the simple and calm confidence of one who knew that He had received his power from on high. For His own sake, therefore, it was necessary that he should have this witness to the character which He assumed."

We conclude, then, that Miracles are probable, because God could not leave His fallen creatures, inevitably, to the fatal ruinous consequences of sin, but must provide a Redeemer for them;-and that Redeemer needed not only to produce His miraculous credentials to mankind in order to assure them of the truth of His mission-but He needed miraculous powers to be assured of the truth of it, Himself.

C

HRISTIANITY had enemies, very early.

But it is a remarkable fact that the earliest foes of Christianity did not question the reality of the Miracles of Christ.

In the second century, Celsus, a physician, wrote a book against Christianity; but we learn from Origen, who replied to his treatise, that Celsus threw no discredit on the fact of Christ's miracles. In the third century, Porphyry, a Platonic philosopher, and a man of considerable powers of mind, wrote a book against Christianity; but the fragments of his work, preserved by Eusebius and Jerome, shew that he did not deny the reality of Christ's miracles. In the fourth century, the Emperor Julian wrote a book against Christianity :

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THE OLD NOTIONS OF MAGIC.

his reasonings are preserved by Cyril; but neither did he call the miracles of Christ in question.

"How was it, then," you will ask, "that these men, whom you call enemies of Christianity, granted the reality of the miracles of Christ, and yet they did not acknowledge Him to be the Saviour-the Redeemer of mankind?”

The answer is that they said Christ performed His miracles by Magic. If any one were to tell us so, in our day, some of us might be inclined to give the reply which used to be given by old sailors, on board 'Men of War,' when any one told them an incredible story:-"Tell that to the Marines."

"But, what did they mean by Magic, and the performance of miracles by Magic?" you will ask again.

Let me, first, observe that there was no Science, fitly and deservedly so called, in ancient times. What we call the ancient Astronomy, the old Ptolemaic System, was, you know, a huge collection of blunders. Geography was so imperfect it was not worthy of the name; while Chemistry, Geology, Optics, and a score of other important branches of knowledge were either entirely or comparatively

THE OLD NOTIONS OF MAGIC.

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unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and to later European people. The men who were called philosophers, in ancient times, held that the Universe is composed of Four Elements-Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. And some of the philosophers held that there are Dæmons, or Spirits, who have command over these elements: Spirits of the Fire, Spirits of the Air, Spirits of the Earth, and Spirits of the Sea, or Water.

Now, the men who were called Magicians asserted that they held communication with these Spirits, and received power from them to perform deeds which men, by their merely natural powers, could not perform; and to bring about purposes which men could not accomplish by their natural intelligence or strength. These so-called Magicians gave it out that they had to proceed to some lonely spot-some wild wood, or deserted heath-in the night, and either under an eclipse of the moon, or during some particular configuration of the planets. That they had to make a magical circle on the ground, shed the blood of certain small animals. within it, and then write magical names on the ground, also within the circle:-Tetragrammaton,

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THE OLD NOTIONS OF MAGIC.

Schidbarshemath-Selthan, Malchabeth-arsirin-heberuah-Schehakim, and other strange associations of syllables you will not care to hear. That, then, they had to utter 'incantations,' or words of such magical power, that the Spirits would most surely respond to them by appearing to the Magician in a visible form. One Spirit, they said, usually appeared in the form of a black horse, another in the form of a bear, another like an eagle, another like a lion, and so on.

Undoubtedly, all this was false representation on the part of the Magicians. No deeds of this kind ever occurred. Yet, from the credulous and superstitious, the Magicians gained gold by their profession. Foolish men, ambitious men, wicked men, gave them money for their pretended aid, brought about by spirits, in the accomplishment of their evil or silly purposes.

The belief in dealing with dæmons, or spirits, was largely spread over the ancient world. Thus, the Pharisees said of Christ-"He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." And so it was that the Pagan philosophers of old said that Christ wrought His miracles by magic.