AMERICAN ENCYCLOPŒDIA. _Miracle._ “It is usually defined to be a deviation from the course of nature. But this definition seems to omit one of the elements of a miracle, viz., that it is an event produced by the interposition of an intelligent power for moral purposes; for, otherwise, we must consider every strange phenomenon, which our knowledge will not permit us to explain, as a miraculous event. A revelation is itself a miracle. If one claims to be a teacher from God, he asserts a miraculous communication with God; this communication, however, cannot be visible, and visible miracles may therefore be necessary to give credibility to his pretensions. The use, then, of a miraculous interposition in changing the usual course of nature is to prove the moral government of God, and to explain the character of it.” THEODORE PARKER. “A miracle is one of three things. “1. It is a transgression of all law which God has made; or, “2. A transgression of all known laws, or obedience to a law which we may yet discover; or, “3. A transgression of all law known or knowable by man, but yet in conformity with some law out of our reach.” He says that a miracle, according to the first definition, is impossible; according to the second it is no miracle at all; but that there is no antecedent objection to a miracle according to the third hypothesis. PASCAL. “A miracle is an effect which exceeds the natural force of the means employed to bring it about.” HUME. “A miracle is a violation of a law of nature.” DR. THOMAS BROWN. “A miracle is as little contrary to any law of nature as any other phenomenon. It is only an extraordinary event, the result of extraordinary circumstances; an effect that indicates a power of a higher order than those we are accustomed to trace in phenomena more familiar to us, but whose existence only the atheist denies. It is a new consequent of a new antecedent.” HORNE’S INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. “A miracle defined is an effect or event _different from the established constitution or course of things_, or a _sign obvious to the senses that God has interposed this power to control the established powers of nature_ (commonly termed the laws of nature), which effect or sign is wrought either by _the immediate act_, or by the assistance, or by the permission, _of God_, and accompanied with a _previous notice_ or _declaration_ that it is performed according to the purpose and by the power of God, _for the proof or evidence_ of some particular doctrine, or in attestation of the authority or divine mission of some particular person.”—Vol. I. p. 203.