"If the principle of miracles be set aside, then all the heights of Christianity will be levelled with one stroke, and nought will remain but a heap of ruins. If we banish the supernatural from the Bible, there is nothing left us but the covers" (p. 286). "The negation of miracles leads to the annihilation of all religion" (p. 286). "Many are averse to the miraculous through fear of superstition, and they overlook the sharp discrimination of Scripture between belief and superstition, between miraculous power and witchcraft. Whereas the sorcerer pretends to make supernatural powers subservient to _his_ person, the prophet or apostle accounts himself only the instrument of God. It is God who alone works. The Son Himself seeks through His works not His own honour, but that of His Father.[19] Notice the unobtrusiveness of miracles in the holy Scriptures, how Christ sharply repels the vain curiosity and vulgar thirst of His age for wonders, and His prohibition of their publication. Compare with these features the sensational miracles of the Roman and Oriental Churches--images of saints who sweat blood, nod the head, roll the eyes--or the Whitsuntide marvels among the Greeks and Armenians at Jerusalem, when the Holy Ghost lights up candles (but not hearts), and you will confess that such feats of legerdemain jugglery betray, in their external pomp and straining after effect, anything but a Divine origin. A glance at the internal evidences of the truth in miracles, at their moral and religious character, which reflects and serves not only the power of God, but also His truth and holiness, and must prove pre-eminently their Divine origin, will show that it is not a very difficult task for any one to defend his belief in the biblical miracles against the charge of superstition" (p. 297). [19] John viii. 50-54.