COMMON AND UNCOMMON MIRACLES by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1901

COMMON AND UNCOMMON MIRACLES

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

DAVID PAULSON AND W. S. SADLER.

Dr. Vierworn, the German physiologist, makes the statement that the limit of our knowledge is reached when we have reduced everything to one Great Cause. This Great Cause for all things, he says, some have named the Unknown, others have called it God.

Even scientific men, whose minds have not been illumined by the light of revelation, recognize to a certain extent that there is a Master Spirit that pervades the universe, and is responsible for the harmony and order everywhere manifested. The principles that control the physical world lie parallel with those that control the spiritual world. In a certain sense, the smallest cell in the human body is endowed with something of that divine wisdom that is manifested throughout the universe. In the smallest things we may discern God at work; and we need not be surprised that in this vast complexity there are many things taking place that we can not explain. But as we become more acquainted with the known, we become more and more intelligent with reference to that which has before been unknown.

The simplest thing that God does is a miracle; but owing to our familiarity with the daily occurrence of His working, we may regard it as a very commonplace incident. Other things, which we have not observed so frequently nor understood so well, we may term a miracle. In Num. 17: 6–9 is described an uncommon miracle. A piece of almond timber budded, blossomed, and bore almonds in a night. But when another piece of the same kind of wood buds, blossoms, and bears almonds, only requiring several months in which to accomplish the task, it is a matter of no surprise to any one. Yet one is as inexplicable as the other. Christ fed five thousand persons by multiplying bread. But when the same miracle, only requiring several months’ time, is performed on a Kansas or Dakota wheat field, it is not regarded a miracle; and yet it requires the same divine power to take one kernel of wheat and make fifty out of it, as it required to take one loaf of bread and multiply it into fifty loaves. Christ once made wine in an instant, but He repeats the same miracle in every cluster of grapes that hangs from the vine. When a man is instantly healed, we say a miracle is wrought; and a meeting is called to thank God in a special manner. But if God, in His infinite mercy, takes six months to accomplish the same results, frequently neither the sufferer nor his friends feel under any special obligation to praise God for the restoration: they will, however, probably praise the doctor, or some horrible drug that had hindered his restoration.

Sometimes a miracle is defined as something that is out of harmony with natural law; but this definition is a result of ignorance rather than of knowledge. The law of gravitation says that everything shall come down, yet every growing tree apparently deviates from it,—defies it,—not only carrying up wood into the air, but tons of water as well, and yet no law is violated. The following lines are from an article by Mr. French, in Scribner’s Magazine:—“The Labor of a Single Oak.—A single oak of good size is said to lift one hundred and twenty-three tons of water during the months it is in leaf. This moisture is evaporated, and rises to form rain-clouds. All the trees are busy doing the same thing. From this estimate of the labor of a single oak, we can gain some idea of the immense force which the forests exert in equalizing the evaporation and precipitation and preventing periods of inundation and drought.”

When we see something happening that we can not explain, we call it a miracle, while those miracles that we are accustomed to see daily, we regard as simply commonplace events; but is not one as truly a miracle as the other?

The fundamental principle is that physical and spiritual truths operate on the same plane; and both of them are in reality beyond the realm of human explanation. God has a divine plan for each man: and when the man forgets to pray, he wanders away from this divine plan; while the man who prays finds the divine order. Every miracle that Christ wrought upon earth had a tendency to call the attention of the people to the miracles which He is constantly working all about us, but which we have overlooked. The only lesson that many of the people learned from the feeding of the five thousand was that if they followed Him the next day, they would get another meal. But the real lesson that should have been learned is that every loaf of bread is a miraculous gift from God. When Christ bade the man to arise and walk, it should have taught the people that whenever they observed a man walking, it was the power of Christ that enabled him to do so. A progressive miracle is as much a miracle as an instantaneous one. We are as utterly unable to explain the one as the other.

There was but one Aaron’s rod that budded, blossomed, and bore almonds in a night; but there have been millions of almond branches that have done the same thing, only requiring a longer time. For every loaf of bread that Christ made in an instant, He has created millions that have consumed more of the element of time. For every cup of wine that Christ made in a moment, there has been an infinite number which it has required months to produce. For every single sick man that God sees fit to heal instantaneously, there are thousands whom He knows it would be safer to conduct through progressive healing. It takes time for some men to get fully in harmony with God. If God does not work the instantaneous miracle of healing for a sick man, it should be evidence that He has still some great lesson for the man to learn. God has promised that He will renew the strength of those that wait upon Him. However, this waiting period should not be merely a period of idle expectancy, but should be improved in putting away wrong habits,—ceasing to do evil and learning to do well,—and in thoroughly co-operating with nature in other ways.

The climax of Christ’s life was reached when He prayed, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” The greatest faith is displayed by the greatest submission. When God makes a man’s bed in sickness, it is not the most unfortunate thing in the world to be sick. It is better to be sick and in harmony with the Lord, than to have wonderful things done by Satan, which Christ will afterward pronounce spurious. The faith that can trust God in the darkest hour is greater than that which will apparently bring fire down from heaven; for even the devil will be able to do that.

We must recognize that everything that comes from God’s hand is a miracle, and must fasten our faith upon a truth that produces miracles, rather than upon the miracles themselves. The conversion of a man at a gospel mission is a wonderful miracle; but it is no less a miracle for a man to be able to walk out of the mission, even when he is not converted. The first is a spiritual miracle of an unusual character, the second is a physical miracle of daily occurrence.

TRUTH GREATER THAN MIRACLES

This is an age when people are asking and looking for things sensational and miraculous. The desire to behold some supernatural manifestation seems to be uppermost in the minds of a large number of professed Christians. At the present day, plain and substantial principles of truth are little appreciated by the average mind. People are seeking for remarkable and unusual things; and so to-day, with the presentation of every great truth, we find the people making the same demand that Herod made of Christ, “Show us a miracle.” In the estimation of many, miracle-working is regarded as the greatest test that can be applied to any truth or movement, in order to determine its divine origin, or to detect errors in the principles underlying the teachings of any new theory or doctrine.

Heaven-born principles of truth may be presented in their most practical and self-evident phase, and yet the people of this age clamor for the miracle. Truth, eternal truth, does not seem to be sufficient for the average Christian. Many professed truth-seekers seem utterly unable to recognize truth by its flavor. The Spirit of truth is the flavor of truth. Divine truth is flavored with the divine Spirit, by which it may always be recognized, just as any flower may be recognized by its characteristic odor. There is a far greater evidence of the truthfulness of truth, than the miracles which the truth may produce: it is the flavor, or Spirit, of the truth which is in the truth, and which can not be separated from the truth. This is the supreme test of truth. This is a test that Satan can not successfully counterfeit, which is not true of visible signs and wonders and the working of apparent miracles.

THE DANGER OF MIRACLE-SEEKING

Many and serious are the dangers attending this miracle-seeking disposition. Satan’s deceptions will be so subtle, and his apparent miracles so marvelous, and so nearly approaching the genuine manifestations of the working of God, as recorded in the Bible, that, if it were possible, “the very elect” will be thereby deceived. Matt. 24: 24. But, thank God, it will not be possible; for the elect know the truth. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8: 32. They have received the love of the truth—the truth for the truth’s sake—that they may be saved: and they will be saved.

The power to discern and appreciate truth by its flavor is a power that renders the true child of God unsusceptible to the influence and deceptions of this master miracle-working power. The fact that the devil will have many accomplices who will pose as teachers of truth and workers of miracles is clearly evidenced by the bitter wail of earth’s lost sons and daughters, who say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” Matt. 7: 22.

True and genuine miracles will consist not so much in the thing done, as in the results produced by the working of the miracle; namely, the love of truth and the spirit of sincere obedience. Every Christian should be on guard against the danger of making apparent miraculous demonstrations the basis of his faith or the ground of the acceptance of so-called truths or principles which may be taught in association with these manifestations. Remember that our adversary, the arch-deceiver, once deceived even the angels in heaven. Is your discrimination better than that of an angel?