Questions on Chapter 11.

been the condition of the illiterate masses? How poorly qualified were they for such an investigation, and how little inclined to such an exercise! But relying, as he did, solely upon his miracles, he could point the blind beggar, the unlettered cottager, the vine-dresser, the shepherd, the publican, the fisherman, the poor, the maimed, the halt, and all the multitudes of common people, to the wonders he performed — to the water blushing to wine, to the man born blind seeing plainly, to the lame man throwing aside his crutches and leaping as the hart, to the howling tempest hushed to silence, and to the dead coming to life at his bidding — and say to all, “Believe me for the very works’ sake.”

Let the proud and insolent cohorts of infidelity come on in bold array, and hurl against God’s holy Son their poisoned shafts of deadly hate; let Jew and pagan both unite to snatch from off the head of Zion’s King the crown imperial he so justly claimed; let them demand of him where his credentials are, by which to prove his mission is from heaven. He stands erect in presence of opposing foes, and bids the wheels of nature pause; he speaks the word, and all the universe stands ready to attest the claims of his Messiahship. Does infidelity demand his credentials, he brings not his demonstrations nor his logic from the Academy, the Lyceum, or the Portico, but all the hidden forces of omnipotence that slumber concealed in the deep recesses of the material universe instantly become vocal in attestation of his divinity. At his bidding, the liquid element becomes a pavement of adamant beneath his tread, and the finny tenant of the deep becomes his tax-payer. With the same power that once said, “Let there be light,” he speaks the word, and visual luster flashes from the sightless ball. The signature of his mission is engraven, not with pen upon parchment, nor with chisel upon marble, but with the finger of Omnipotence upon the dome of nature. He whose behest all natures and all beings obeyed, fixed upon the throne of his own unoriginated divinity, could exclaim in majestic triumph’ “The works that I do, they bear witness of me.” QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER 11.

QUESTION 1. In reference to the connection between the truth of a miracle and the truth of the system in behalf of which it has been performed, what three distinct theories have been advocated?

2. Who was a prominent patron of the third theory?

3. What is the objectionable part of his statement?

4. Wherein does his view differ from the second theory?

5. How may its absurdity be shown?

6. How may its inconsistency with Scripture be shown?

7. Explain the first or true theory.

8. What Scripture testimony has been appealed to by those who depreciate the evidence of miracles?

9. How may those objections be set aside?

10. How may it be shown that the first theory is confirmed by the general testimony of the Bible?