But how stands the case of the feeding of five thousand persons on seven loaves and two fishes? The seven loaves and two fishes had been previously produced, by the action of material forces out of materials already existing in the ground, in water, and in the air. Of such materials there was abundance at hand to produce the requisite amount of food for the feeding of the multitude. The only question was how to build them up into the forms of bread and fish. There was no occasion to create one single particle of matter. As to the nature of the forces employed to work the miracle the narrative says nothing. Nor does it imply that one of the ordinary forces of nature was suspended on the occasion. All that it asserts is the presence of a force adequate to build up the materials already existing into the forms of bread and fish, that force being God. In the manufacture of the loaves and in the catching of the fish, man had interfered with nature’s order by the blending of her powers. God interfered with nature’s order at a higher stage by building up the particular forms of bread and fish out of materials already in existence, by means of forces differing from those which come under our cognisance. The act of man is evidence of the presence of a being who is able to control the forces of external nature for his own purposes. The miracle would be evidence of the presence of a Being who is able to exert a mightier influence over them in order to effect his own. Equal ambiguity prevails in the use of the term “law.” What do we mean by law when we apply the term to nature? In physical philosophy, the Duke of Argyll tells us it is used in a great variety of senses. Its proper meaning is to denote an invariable sequence of phenomena. It is frequently made to include the conception of the forces at work which produce the phenomena. This ambiguous use of the word has been a source of endless confusion. The following quotation will furnish us with an example:—