It will perhaps be urged that the resurrection of a dead man, or the cure of a man born blind by a word is a violation of the laws of nature. Whether this be so can only be determined when we are acquainted with the means by which such an event may be brought about. The assertion itself is a mere general statement that, as far as human observation has gone, dead men have never returned to life; and that blindness has never been cured at any person’s command. But with respect to a resurrection it may be objected that it is an observed fact amounting to a complete induction, that all men die and that after death has taken place it is a fact no less universal that with the exception of a few alleged instances to the contrary no resurrection has ever taken place. It may therefore be said to be a law of nature that all men die, and that death is followed by no resurrection. This, however, if put into other language amounts to the following proposition. That it is a law of nature that these results must follow, as long as the present forces which we observe and no others are in energy. But it would cease to be so as soon as any others capable of producing such a result were brought into activity. The truth is that death is a phenomenon which is caused by the joint action of a multitude of natural forces. But if these were overborne by any force of nature, or by the Author of nature calling any unknown force into activity, or even by the energy of his own creative will, it would be absurd to call such an event either a violation of the laws or of the order of nature, and therefore to affirm that it was incredible. Death is the result of the action of the natural forces which we observe around us. No natural force with which we are acquainted can effect a resurrection. If it be affirmed that in this sense a resurrection is contrary to the laws and order of nature, the expression is ambiguous and misleading, for it is intended to be inferred that such a violation would be contrary to reason and therefore incredible. But the affirmation that a miracle is contrary to the order of nature requires further consideration. What do we intend to affirm when we speak of an order of nature or of an event being contrary to it?