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Show j Miracles True and False, j Providence (R. I.) Visitor.) So much has been written of spiritism spir-itism that even reasonable Catholics have asked themselves if it is possible possi-ble that God permits miracles to be wrought in favor of false religions. That the achievements accredited to spiritism are marvelous can hardly be doubted unless we wish to deny all reliability to human testimony based on prudent investigation; but at the same time it is not a difficult matter to discern the cures worked by spiritism, however striking they may be. from the works of which God alone iis capable and which he perpetrates oniy to the glory of the ope true church. To begin with it may be ascertained, ascer-tained, upon careful study, that the wonders wrought by spiritism are purely in the natural order; that is, they require no power beyond that of nature, as we know it, to bring them into operation. For example, most of the so-railed cures attributed attrib-uted to spiritism may be found to be those of essentially "nervous diseases wherein by producing certain effects upon the nerves the disorder is expelled ex-pelled or at least made to be forgotten for-gotten either by imagination or by the substitution of some 'oth0!- stimulant stim-ulant to direct the mind into other channels. Indeed, o .many people suffer from what are commonly i called imaginary sickness that as ' a rule a cure is not difii ult if only some influencing factor can be brought to bear to make the invalid imagine that the sickness has gone. Such a factor is belief a strong, vivid faith, a faith that will blindly attach itself (.-, the object of -belief, a faith that wiil remain unshaken against the most convincing evidence. evi-dence. If the object to which the faith attaches itself is a person, es- j pe dally a strong person, a real leader 1 of men. the cure becomes all .tne move easy beauso in this case hardly more than suggestion is I necessary, to effect the cure. Thus ja man may bring himself to forget that he has a headache if h" tries hard enough although he may have suffered from headaches for many years: he remembers his illness only when he adverts to it: he feels no pain as long as he can keep his mind occupied with something else. But no amount of spiritism can make a blind man forget that he has been blind from his birth 1 and restore to him his sight, or make a dead man forget that he is dead and bring him back to life again. It will bo well, therefore. to understand just what is meant by a miracle and what is accepted by the church Pfi such. In the first place a miracle must be a work above the power of all the visible nature. More than that it must be a work performed by no created being. This, however, refers more to fact than to power; it may be possible that the good or evil .spirits are able to do the work; but in the case of a miracle it must be evident that the work has been done by God alone. We may know that God j himself, has performed the miracle when in confirmation of i?ome doctrine doc-trine or in testimony of the holiness of some person a visible sign is given that is evidently above the power of the material creation: otherwise God would be leading us into direct and invincible error. Miracles are commonly divided into three classes according to their nature. In the first class are those works which are in direct opposition opposi-tion to the laws of nature. For instance in-stance it is the nature of every material ma-terial substance to exclude all other bodies from the same space which it occupies. When, however, two bodies are made to occupy the same space this law of impenetrability is suspended a work above the power of man. We have' an example of a miracle of this class when our Lord appeared in the 'midst of his a pontics pon-tics coming through' the barred doors and windows and standing in the 100:11 with them. In the second class of miracles we have those works which are wrought whore nature itself is powerless to act, although the action ac-tion is not in opposition to nature as in the first class. Such a miracle 'is the resurrection' of the dead to life. Thus when our Lord commanded com-manded Lazarus to come forth from the grave in which, he had been for four days and wherein his body wafl already corrupting we have performed per-formed a work clearly above the power of the visible universe. In the third ciass of miracles are reckoned those which may indeed be performed even by man but ' not in the manner in which they are ! performed. The man recorded in the scripture who nan been lying sick on his bed for thirty-eight years might, perhaps,, .have been cured by human means: out not instantaneously instantane-ously as when o'ur Lord bade him take up h'is bed .and walk. The 'same may be said of many of the j miracles of Lourdes. In these three classes we have examples of works that are' 'clearly I above the power of any human being. It is only such works that I the churc h recognizes as miracles, and only, after it, has been made evident that a'l the other conditions for knowing that they have been wrought by God alone have been fulfilled. We have yet to hear of any person or any religious body outside the church who can lay claim to such testimonies of the divine approbation. The powers of spiritism may, indeed. work wonders, won-ders, so as to deceive even the elect; , but they cannot restore the dead to life, or put sight into orbs which nature has despoiled of their integerity. |