Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
571. "Miracles," says Fuller, "are the swaddling-clothes of the
infant churches," and, says Trench, "we may add, not the
garments of the full-grown. They were as the proclamation
that the king was mounting the throne; who, however, is not
proclaimed every day, but only at his accession. When he sits
acknowledged on his throne, the proclamation ceases. They
were as the bright clouds which gather round and announce the
sun at his first appearing : his midday splendour, though as full,
and fuller indeed, of light and heat, knows not those bright
heralds and harbingers of his rising. Or they may be likened
to the framework on which the arch is rounded, which framework
is taken down as soon as that is completed."
572. Dr. Walter C. Smith, a popular Scotch poet-preacher, on
one occasion tried to explain to an old lady the meaning of the
Scriptural expression, "Take up thy bed and walk," by saying
that the bed was simply a mat or rug, easily taken up and
carried away. "Na, na," replied the lady, "I canna believe that.
The bed was a regular four-poster. There would be no miracle
walking away wi' a bit o' mat or rug on your back."
573. An organ is an instrument curiously framed or adjusted
in its parts, and prepared to yield itself to any force which
touches the keys. An animal runs backward and forth across
the keyboard, and produces a jarring, disagreeable jumble of
sounds. Thereupon he begins to reason, and convinces himself
that it is the nature of the instrument to make such sounds, and
no other. But a skilful player comes to the instrument, as a
higher presence, endowed with a supernatural sense and skill.
He strikes the keys, and all melodious and heavenly sounds
roll out upon the enchanted air. Will the animal now go on to
reason that this is impossible, incredible, because it violates the
nature of the instrument, and is contrary to his own experience?
But the player himself, and all that can think it possible for him
to do what the animal cannot, will have no doubt that the
music is made by the same laws that made the jargon. Just so
Christ, to whose will or touch our mundane system is as pliant
as to ours, may be able to execute results through its very laws
subordinated to Him, which are impossible to us. Nay, it would
be itself a contradiction of all order and fit relation if He
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