It is for the gain of religion that it should be broken,--of the spiritual religion whose God is not a tradition, a reminiscence, but a living presence, inhabiting alike the clod and the star, the flower in the crannied wall and the life of man. So thinking of God the religious man may rightly say,[10] "If it is more difficult to believe in miracles, it is less important. If the extraordinary manifestations of God recounted in ancient history appear less credible, the ordinary manifestations of God in current life appear more real. He is seen in American history not less than in Hebrew history; in the life of to-day not less than in the life of long ago." FOOTNOTES: [5] _Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church_, Vol. II, p. 362, American edition. [6] 1 Kings xiv. 1-7. [7] It is not intended to intimate that there is no such darker reality as a "possession" that is "demoniac" indeed. It cannot be reasonably pronounced superstitious to judge that there is some probability for that view. At any rate, it is certain that the problem is not to be settled by dogmatic pronouncement. It is certain, also, that the burden of proof rests on those who contend that there can be no such thing. On the other hand, it may be conceded that the cases recorded in the New Testament do not seem to be of an essentially devilish kind. On the general subject of "possession" see F. W. H. Myers's work on _Human Personality and Survival after Death_, Vol. I. (Longmans, Green & Co., New York and London.) Professor William James half humorously remarks: "The time-honored phenomenon of diabolical possession is on the point of being admitted by the scientist as a fact, now that he has the name of hysterodemonopathy by which to apperceive it." _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 501, note. [8] See _Dictionary of Psychology_, art. "Psychical Research." [9] Dr. Peloubet, _Teachers' Commentary on the Acts_, 1902. [10] Dr. Lyman Abbott in _The Outlook_, February 14, 1903. II II SYNOPSIS.--The present net results of the discussion of the miraculous element in the Bible.--Evaporation of the former evidential value of miracles.--Further insistence on this value a logical blunder.--The transfer of miracles from the artillery to the baggage of the Church.--Probability of a further reduction of the list of miracles.--Also of a further transfer of events reputed miraculous to the domain of history. The cultivation of scientific and historical studies during the last century, especially in its latter half, has deepened the conviction that "Through the ages one increasing purpose runs;"