"[6] The Duke, however, in the general
tenor of his book, does not differ from the common doctrine, except in
one point. He does not deny the efficiency of physical causes, or
resolve them all into the efficiency of God; but he teaches that God, in
this world at least, never acts except through those causes. He applies
this doctrine even to miracles, which he regards as effects produced by
second causes of which we are ignorant, that is, by some higher law of
nature. The Scriptures, however, teach that God is not thus bound; that
He operates through second causes, with them, or without them, as He
sees fit. It is a purely arbitrary assumption, that when Christ raised
the dead, healed the lepers, or gave sight to the blind, any second
cause intervened between the effect and the efficiency of his will. What
physical law, or uniformly acting force, operated to make the axe float
at the command of the prophet? or, in that greatest of all miracles,
the original creation of the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] _The Theory of Natural Selection._ By Alfred Russel Wallace. London,
1870, p. 368.
[6] _Reign of Law._ By the Duke of Argyle. Fifth edition, London, 1867,
p. 123.
_Mr. Darwin's Theory._
We have not forgotten Mr. Darwin. It seemed desirable, in order to
understand his theory, to see its relation to other theories of the
universe and its phenomena, with which it is more or less connected.
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