The existence of this power is recognized, and has been experienced, in the church of the Lord. But, here we stop by asserting that _that miracle in nature means that God works in other ways than those determined by the plans and laws of nature_. It is the very same power of God that works through the miracle as through nature restrained by laws. 2. _The Miracle and the Church of the Lord_ If, then, we leave the sphere of nature for that of the church to seek an expression of the power which is working here, we find one formed by Paul the apostle: _The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ_. But as God's power in nature chiefly acts according to certain laws and plans, unheeding them only now and then--so does the power of His Son in the church. It acts regularly, determined by laws and order, and unrestrained only now and then. In this there is, in both cases, a very great blessedness to be found. We have been created to abide by conditions which are determined by well-defined plans and laws, and we would be seriously troubled by being the objects of merely arbitrary and unrestrained powers. When Jesus made bread for the hungry multitude in the desert, it happened through the free interference of powers--not in accordance with accepted laws and plans. But now suppose that the farmer were to expect bread in this manner--that certainly would lead him into a painful state of doubt: He had not sown his seed in the spring, for he was sure a miracle would be wrought so that the crop would be ready by harvest time. Summer elapsed and he looked anxiously for the miracle which was to bring him the crop. According to the ways of human thinking it lasted too long before the miracle happened! What painful restlessness and uncertainty! No, there is greater surety and satisfaction in the order predicated upon laws, that seedtime and harvest shall not cease, and that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. But as God thus has endowed nature with His power so as to make it adopt certain laws with the end in view that man's worldly existence shall be based thereon, so Christ has endowed His church with the power of resurrection which works through His institutions according to laws, and _upon this action, regulated and determined by laws, rests the existence of Christians_. By doing so He has not, however, exhausted Himself or confined Himself so as to make it impossible for Him to work through other methods, but we are restrained even as are those means through which the power of His resurrection comes to us.