OCR Text |
Show CHRISTIAN SCIENCE DENIES CREATION Miracles PossibIe--Na Disarrangement of the j j Laws of NatureSubject to ihe S3me Proof as Historical facts. I (Written For the Intei-mountain Catholic.) : t 'i'lv attention paid to our Ogden correspondent ' I i for two reasons. First to .-how that, miracles arc I -h( and secondly that Avhilst real miracles I ' ;nto; God's inlerveni inn, Chris! ian Science has i j 1 made good its claim ly proving thai its so-called j Avoiiderfid works or prodigies may not lie-the re- ! j Mih nf nitural cjium. Being wrouplit in iNo visible ' old' r, a miracle miy he proved like any historical ; ew 111. i Wiih some like Hume, who declared that, no tos- lii!:"uy could convince him a miracle is possible, for , ir i- more probable thai men will lie. than to sup-) sup-) ": 1 luil nature will si mit of her' course, there is t 3 1 reasoning. Miracle, in the Catholic sense, are ; la w creations, and the immediate wirk of God. A I miracle j- ii"t tlie werk of nature, so iu a real mir- : acle which is iTlucd hy the direct and immediate I net inn f iod. nature has no part and as a oonso- ; u ne docs not ao out of its course. It is no vio- ; la'iori or Misprision of the laws of nature, hut sim- i ply an effect j 1 rod need in the visible order hy the ; Creator for some purpose in the order of regenera tion for which Ho sent His Son into this world. Miracle-, lx intr simply modification of the laws I if impossible, as rationalists suppose.ihcn these laws of nature should have a character of necessity, that i-. ihey should he such, ihat we could not conceive ; iliem different from their actual state. Our intel lect should detect, a contradiction in supposing or. J imagining the laws of nature different from what they are. But those laws of nature though constant and uniform in th-Mr action, art; not thereby made necessary. There is no contradiction or absurdity in supposing them quilo different from what they i are. According to the laws of nature man's life I j- restricted to a 1W years. There is no eontradic- j lion in supposing that man might live 1,000 years, ; and what we now term the ordinary span from GO to 70 years might be from ('( to 7M years. To sup-j sup-j po-e ibis would not be absurd. This shows that the j j; f law, which controls jhe expansion of life or exis-' exis-' j tejice. is .not absolutely necessary in iu essence. I We might even conceive llic present life endless or f immortal. So, too, we might conceive an absence of ihe bnv of gravitation, by which all bodies not. supported are doomed to fall. It would not be a contradiction for one's imagination 1o perceive a ; body suspended in mid-air without being supported. The laws, as they now exist, constitute what is 1 1 nned the ordinary course. Had they been different, dif-ferent, what is now termed ordinary' would be extraordinary, ex-traordinary, namely, miracles. The present laws of Hal ure. now termed ordinary vero originally the offspring of miracles, namely, creation. Their preservation is a continuous miracle, because they Lave no support, but the good plea-ure of the Supreme Su-preme Being, who. by his simple word, created the nuiver.-e from nothing and slill sustains it from i;:!ling back into that uothingless from which it was called forth. A miracle then is simply a modification modifica-tion in creation, that, is, a small miracle in the miracle of miracles, namely, creation. How then deny the pos-ihility of miracles, since the same pow-rr pow-rr l lull created ihe universe and all living creatures ;nd creates every day under the form of preserva-tiv. preserva-tiv. j- able 10 modify. On this important point which i- the foundation of all religious belief, ! namely, crealiou. Creator and creature, Chris- ; i liau Science joins is.-uo with incredulity and rn'ioMali-m by denying - creation. Mrs. Eddy - "It' mind is first, it can not produce i' -ppo sin-, matter. If matter is first, it can-re' can-re' produce mind. Like produces like. In natural hi-tory iho bird is not the product of a Leasr. All must le mind or else all must be matter. ciiier can produce the other." .Cod then, accord ing to Chri-tian Science is incapable, of creating, j '. Chri-tian Science confines its narrow creed to the s older of generation, and denies (iod's omnipotence, i The argument "if mind is first, it cannot produce ; mailer." is like licit of the school boy, there, could J ( be no hen without an egg. or no egg without a hen, ; which t hen is tir-t the hen or ihe rggf Mind. : J Clinstiau Sciences Supreme Being, is restricted ::nd would not create the universe. Cut mind and j matter like the hen and the egg are actual ex- i-einces. and both are eternal, for "Christian Sci- ;? i nee reveals that the universe, inclusive of man, . i is a- eternal a- God." Could it al--o reveal whether Vs the hen or the egg first, came into existence, and f 1 Lev. ? Are both like ihe "universe, inclusive of I num. ciernal A- Christian Science has no bo 's e inning for ii::iii r the universe, which are eternal, it haves us iu darkness as to1 creed up to twenty i tannines ago. All that period going back into I ( teniiiy is setlled by making the re ligious belief of ihe patriarchs and the Synagogue a lie. Mrs. Ed- i,'- revelalion disposes of all these difficulties in ! thi- fashion, "Thai God formed man of the dust of ihe ground and broaihed into his nostrils the . ; breadi of life, is a lie." 5ut all 1 his en passant. We rome ugaiii 1o ihe objection urged against miracles ; by unheliev. r-. We are told that ihe modification in the law- of nature is not consonant wiih infinite v i-doni. 'I li;it it would indicate a change in the ' divine will, and ihat the Creator who "saw that i 1 his worktls were good," yielded, under certain ; eiivimi-iaiiees. u, disarrangement in ihe laws of j tiaiure in favor f mira.-K. All of which would i wm inconsistent, with our idea of infinite wisdom, j Din there, js no disarrangement in the work of creation. It i- not an extra touch put on by the . ; miracle. It simply au-es 1 his work of his, namely, r r reat ion, to produce an effect purposed and decreed v"m heginning, at the same moment as the i Hee)ee uf creation, making it a part of the very plan i ! -realioU. Like legislators, who, when they de- I'tn the law. provide at ihe same time for e'xeep-I e'xeep-I 'i';iis to the law. When engaged in the work of cre- ! ' ! '"ii. divine power could make it different from I,''lf't 11 now, and cause to he supernatural what ; Is now natural, or to be miraculous what is to us ' i ',V,"i rlliT f'rfi"ar-v- W,lat c'od could at the time I i st;ibhsh as a rule, He established as an exception J 10 1,0 Induced later, and at a time, when it would pr ve an appropriate- end. This exception. with r ' j J"1"'1 to'ii is a mirach-, hecau it departs from C r'-"-Vr of the rule, and is not the offspring of its ordinary, course. But when the miracle is" traced back to its origin, namely, to the will that decreed it at the tune, when there was yet no ordinary or-dinary law, it comes under the term of a particular , and special creation, which shows ihat God's providence provi-dence and wisdom agree with each other in the action ac-tion which we designate as miraculous. Miracles then not being contrary to the power of God or his wisdom, may have existed and may e:ci-t every day of this world's evolution. When real miracles, such as Christ performed, are related, the same proofs that are sufficient to prove any historical fact should be suffiicent to prove such an event. Xo more evidence should he required to prove a miraculous event than is needed to prove any historical event. If a real miracle it is easily proven as a natural event. |