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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3747, 30 December 1880, Page 2

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib,—Whoever if at all'acquainted with the history of the war against Christianity as it has been carried on by infidels for the last centuries, would suppose that she was the declared enemy of everything that involves the happiness of man... la , reply to "Sceptic's question" is the authorised unmutilated version of She English Bible and New Testament, true : in every word and particular, &o." If we suppose God to have commissioned any individual to publish to the world - truths which had been hidden from it, or to confirm and, illustrate those which had before been hidden from it, so to confirm and illustrate those which had been obscurely revealed, it were reasonable to expect that he would enable him to give some satisfactory proof of his divine com* mission; .md it is not easy to conceive of any proof more satisfactory than must result from the performance of, miracles. Suppose, if you will, that we had no decisive evidence that God's revelations to the world are yet closed, and that some individual were to stand forth, at the present day, claiming to be an authorised • messenger from Heaven, who had come to introduce a new dispensation; he sorely would have no right to expect that his extraordinary pretensions would be ad* mitted without evidence; bat suppose he were to show himself in the ac^of putting forth a miraculous energy; suppose, at his bidding, the dumb should speak, and - the blind see, and the dead live, and the tempest die away into a calm, should we not be obliged to say, " This man must be. what he claims to be ; for verily he could not do these mighty works unions God were with him. And as God eannnot deny 'L himself by lending his power to the aid of impbt£iUVr it is impossible but that the doctrine wlucTrSM^iOfiulcatej must be. true." Though miraolescaTf^aljyr prove the truth of any doctrine, or system of doctrine, indirectly by proving the divine,, mission of him who introduces it, yet the evidence which they furnish as making an appeal not only to thei\ judgment and '-■■■ feelings, but the very senses is perhaps the highest of which the nature of the subject is susceptible. Christianity claims miracles of the ..most unexceptionable kind and sustained by evidence which it is impossible successfully to gainsay; When Jesus entered upon his minister, and began to preach the doctrine of the kingdom, he began at, the sane time to.' , perform those mighty works which . stamped his oomtrission with the teal of divine authority. Though he was never:. V prodigal of his miraculous power, never employed it for purpose to which it was not necessary, yet so frequent was it brought into exercise that the risible eon* trolling of the powers of nature^eemed to be his every, day employment. And while his. miracles were as numerous as the highest incredulity could have de*

manded, they were performed in ciroum* ;.■ stances tbe most unfavourable to impos* tare; in the broiad light of day; often in the presence of many witnesses, and of those too who we're most interested to disprove his claims; not to ..say that the / miracles,themselves were generally of such a nature as no imposter would hare dared . to attempt or imitate. They wen also of > . the most beneficient tendency: were ■( directed to the supply of human wants, and the relief of human woe: were worthy in all respects of him, the design of whose mission into the world was to seek and Bare that jwhich is lost, and, finally, they were performed without any of .that ostentatious parade with which imposture is so apt to surround itself:, the pouring ' of light upon the path of the blind, the waking v.) of the dead from the sleep of : the' sepulchre, the .assuaging of the

elements when they wrought into a tempest, was each effected by the same easy and natural exertion of power with which he performed the most common action of life. In short it is impossible to conceive of anything which could have given additional strength to the evideuce that the miracles of Jesus were the effect of a divine power dwelling in him. As I am taking up too much of your space, by your permission, I will continue my letter at another time.—l am, &c,