SCIENCE AND MIRACLES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9993, 14 March 1910, Page 4

SCIENCE AND MIRACLES.

Professor H. Langhorne Orchard read the Gunning Prize Essay for 1909 at a meeting of the Victoria Institute, held at the Royal Society of Arts, Adelphi, recently, his subject being "Th 3 Attitude of Science towards Miracles.'' That belief in the fact of miracles was thoroughly compatible with the true scientific temper, might, he said, be now stated as a truism. A miracle was more than an unusual occurrence—it was produced by the action of the supernatural; and it was coite ded that science di 3 not reach to such action. It might be replied that, in the, case contemplated, the action was expressed by some phenomenon in Nature, and that science was com-

petent to take note of and report upon the phenomenon. As to the

question whether miracles had actual- j ly occurred, science answered in the I affirmative. She told us that events had undoubtedly taken placa which come within the definition of miracles, Among these events were the creation of this world of matter; creation of living organisms and the character of Jesus Christ. That these things were miraclea would be admitted by all scientists, even by evolutionists, except those who assert that matter was eternal, and even they must perforce admit the last two examples. Bible miracles were, a priori, probable from the nature of the phenomenon, and also from the conditions under which they were said to have taken place. The Bible miracles were not mere accompaniments of the revelation, but were inseparably bound up with it. A very important feature in them was that they explained what was otherwise inexplicable. The exodus of the Israelites became unintelligible if the miracles said to have attended it did not really take place, and no explanation was (in such case) possible of the memorial feast of the Passover. The faith of Christians was bound up with the miracles of the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the character of Christ. Take away these miracles, and they might take away Christianity. Miracles explained Christianity, and nothing else did. They gave the key to its doctrines, they accounted for its wonderful rise and spread, and the Divine vitality of iis continuous history. If Christianity was true, they I were true also.