"WE WOULD SEE A SIGN FROM THEE."
By Editor
THIS was the request, or demand, frequently made of our Lord by the Jews. Said the apostle, "The Jews seek after a sign." Jesus was grieved because that generation asked for a sign (Mark 8:12), and he tells us that "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" (Matt. 12:38, 39). The same thing is demanded by many in this generation. God's truth may be taught never so clearly, and the demand is, "Show us a sign, work some miracle, heal the sick, speak with tongues, do something of this kind, and then we will believe." It is not honesty of heart which prompts the request; it is not simple faith which demands it. Christ wrought many miracles, but he did not work one on demand, nor to prove to those that asked it that he was the Christ. Those who asked were simply repeating the temptations of Satan, "If thou be the Son of God," make bread of stones, cast thyself down from the temple. God works no miracle to satisfy vain curiosity, nor to show his power. And although miracles have frequently been wrought through the servants, apostles, and prophets of Christ, yet they have not always been present; in fact, the greatest prophet previous to Christ—John the Baptist—"did no miracle." The evidence which God gives to show that his messengers bear divine credentials is something better than signs or wonders. Signs appeal directly to the sense, are easily counterfeited by the enemy of all righteousness, and are therefore well fitted to be used in the work of deception. As an instance of this, a correspondent in the East sends us a copy of the Nashua (N. H.) Daily Telegraph, containing an account of how a certain Mrs. Murray was cured of a certain paralysis as the result of prayer and the making of "a novena to the blessed Virgin." We are asked what we think about it, especially as compared with what the Bible teaches concerning spiritual gifts and the miraculous power which God gives. Well, in the first place, we do not doubt that some kind of healing of some kind of disease was wrought. What kind it is not for us to judge; but there are two kinds of miracles in the world. There are those wrought by the power of God, which Jesus declares would "follow them that believe." Mark 16:17, 18. There are also miracles wrought by the power of Satan; for the Scriptures declare that he shall work "with all power and signs and lying wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9); and of one of his agents the word declares he shall deceive "by the means of those miracles which he had power to do" (Rev. 13:14). Therefore of itself, as conclusive evidence, a miracle or sign is nothing. Satan can cause disease, and did in Christ's day, through the influence of his angels, or evil spirits. He cannot heal where creation is demanded, but he may be able to restore functional disorders which he has caused, by removing the cause. Why not? 2. There is but one test upon which to depend, and that is the word of God. "To the law and to the testimony" (Isa. 8:20) is forever the test of the true and the false, the counterfeit and the genuine. It was so in Christ's day. Those who demanded signs did not believe, though miracles were continually before them, while those who longed to know and do God's will found sufficient evidence without any miracles. And so it will be and is in the last days; those who are deceived by the miracles wrought by Satanic power will be those who "receive not the love of the truth;" and it is "for this cause" that the strong delusions sweep them away. See 2 Thess. 2:9-12. The words of Christ are applicable here: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." 3. Miracles, signs, wonders, are all nothing as showing the credentials of heaven, for they are all counterfeited by Satan. But God's word, the gospel of his grace, the mystery of godliness, the selfish heart taken away and a new heart given by divine grace, the fruits of the Spirit of God manifest in the life, which are always in harmony with God's word,—these are the divine credentials. Satan has his signs and lying wonders, God has his miracles; Satan's tend to exalt man, and what is of man, while those of God work increased786humility in the man and tend always to glorify God. The word of Jehovah will show the source of each; that word as it is in Christ Jesus is the one and only test.