The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

4 THE PLACE OF MIRACLES
and to all believers who can reach the same point of
view, it was the beginning of faith. How to bridge
this wide chasm That is our problem in this discourse.
To reach a right standpoint in this question is no
mere exercise of curiosity : it is a vital matter.
Ultimately, it results in one of two alternatives the
acceptance or rejection of historical Christianity. To
eliminate miracles from the Gospel record is to lose
the record as history altogether.
For the miraculous
character of this record penades it throughout, and
is found in every written and traditional source
embodied in the Gospels. " The simplest, probably
the earliest, Gospel (that of St Mark) is, if anything,
fuller of miracles than the others ;
profound record of Christ's
the latest and most
teaching lays the greatest
stress upon the ' signs ' which accompanied it. Again,
it
has often been pointed out that our Lord's teaching
is closely bound up with His miracles. But it is not,
I think, so commonly noticed that the miracles not
only illustrate and explain the teaching, but are
inseparable elements in our conception of the character
of Christ. . . . His example, which has been the
mainspring of a moral revolution in the world, consists
chiefly of miraculous works." * A non-miraculous
Christ is substantially a mythical Christ. True,
there are many devout believers in Him who reject
the miraculous, and retain enough of the buoyancy of
their early faith, enough of the faculty of spiritual
communion with the source of all blessing, to attain
a high level of spiritual life. The shipwrecked
* The Place of Miracles in Religion, the Hulsean Lecture
for 1 891, by the Bishop of Southampton, pp. 43, 44.