When we come to the argument itself we observe it is not kind generally used by religious apologists. They so often their eyes on soma apparent break in the order or law of Nature in order to prove the presence of God.' The argument of Jeremiah is just the opposite. It is the keeping of Nature's laws that amazes him, the as surance, that they will not get out of gear and forces run amok. He does not box the compass to find instances of destructive waterspouts and floods. He is sufficiently impressed by the restraint, the measures, and the resulting gentleness of Nature as we characteristically know it—tha work of one who has "placed the sand for the bound of the sea, and though the waves toss themselves yet can they not prevail, though they roar they cannot pass over it:''? But some one will say, Does not the Bible record again and again such unprecedented events as the crossing of the Red Sea, the delaying of a sunset and so on, and not the prophets use them as arguments for God? Certainly they do, but please notice that the miracle in the. Bible is only ised as an argument with those It is the same in the New Testament in the case of those who do not already believe, Jesus himself refused to make his extraordinary acts of power an argument for his divinity. That suggests one of the temptations overcome in the wilderness. No sign shall be given to this generation," he said. Again he laid down the principle in that strange parable of Dives and Lazarus, in. the words: "If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe through one rose from the dead." Faith's real ally is reason not credulity. Or to get: a closer analogy to the teaching of the prophet Jeremiah turn to the Apostle Paul when he was dealing with. the Gentile population of Lystra, God has not intruded himself in men's affairs" he argued, "nevertheless He left not himself without witness in that he did'—(what? marvels?) No. "In that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness"—the argument of Jeremiah again.
Seeing that so many people the are held up by miracles, find them a stumbling-block to faith, fix had we not better follow the great teachers of the Bible and put the chief weight of our argument for God on the wit ness that is intelligible to outsiders? As for the believer he lives in a world of miracle. He needs miracles to express his sense of the dealings of God with his soul. But let us educate our children and plead with all outside the Church on tha strength of those arguments that are naturally within the range of all. Mr. James Douglas, the well-known journalist, has just been telling of his conversion to a religious outlook and says it is the magic he stole "from the rolling ridges of Exmoor and out of dreams of mossy Devonshire lanes." If a man does not feel the argument of the sea and of the seasons, of morning and of midnight lig will never be convinced of God by the earthquake or volcano, and if he were he would have a wrong notion of the character of God. It seems to me that sometimes. God's ambassadors use a foreign Yanguage, whereas the preachers of the Bible always speak so that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.