It has also been urged that miracles may obey a law of miracles. The best illustration of this idea is that which has been supplied from the supposed operations of Mr. Babbage’s calculating machine. He supposes that a machine might be constructed which could go on grinding out a particular set of results for a long, yet definite period of time; then by the operation of the same machine, that a fresh order might be introduced; and afterwards that it might revert to the original one; and that this operation might be continued for ever. If therefore the great Author of nature had so planned the machine of the universe that whenever a miracle was requisite in His scheme of Providence this abnormal event occurred, like the new series introduced into the calculating mill, in that case miracles might be said to follow a definite law, which might be designated the law and order of miraculous intervention. It is impossible to deny the ingenuity of this theory, but unfortunately it is not only one which takes for granted that the perfection of mechanical contrivance is the only thing that the Creator had in view in the production of the universe, but even if this were an unquestionable fact, it could afford us no help with respect to all the most important miracles recorded in the New Testament. How is it possible, I ask, to account for many of our Lord’s miracles on such a supposition? It is expressly affirmed that this supernatural energy was frequently made to depend on the faith of the person who invoked His help. Could any miracle‐ working mill be even conceived of, which could bring out, as part of the normal law of its operations, the cure of blind, deaf, and leprous men by a word, or effectuate His own resurrection from the dead, or ascension into Heaven? Such occurrences could not be produced by the action of any machine which has the smallest analogy to a calculating mill. But further: such an operation would be impotent to answer the purposes of a miracle, unless the particular result was announced beforehand by one who was completely ignorant that the machine was capable of producing such extraordinary results. This ignorance would likewise have to be extended to those to whom the announcement was made. It would also be necessary that the announcer should proclaim that on a particular day and hour the machine would grind out the particular result of the cure of a blind man, or a resurrection from the dead. The ability to do this would be utterly abnormal, and impossible ever to be ground out by the self‐acting agency of any conceivable machine, however cleverly constructed. Mr. Babbage’s miracle‐working mill, however ingenious a conception, must therefore be dismissed as incapable of affording us the smallest help in the present argument.