between me and my God" may express an excellent form of theism; but it is certainly not a saying that expresses the mind of the first Christians either before or after the New Testament period. For Christianity is a fellowship of men and women in Christ, a Communion of Saints, in which power is handed on, as one torch is lit from another; and when any holy man or woman helps a brother though it be by a bit of cloth craved from his raiment it is God who has wrought the special power by his hands. For God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.

CHAPTER XX

THE RESERVE OF THE DISCIPLES

Reserve as to Christ's Works; Reasons for this Reticence; Reserve as to the Works of the Church; The Eucharist and Health; Gifts of Healing.

WHEN we turn from the Acts to the Epistles we are struck with the rarity of allusions to any kind of miracle. In the Gospels and the Acts a certain number are related because they are an inseparable part of the history that is there told; but when we pass from facts to philosophy and read how the Disciples presented the theology of the Christian religion, we find in their teaching, as we have already found in the teaching of our Lord, that signs and powers form hardly any part of the evidences to which they appeal. They are to be found occasionally; but distinctly they are "signs that follow" rather than signs that cause belief. To appreciate the force of this we have but to contrast the Apostolic arguments with those of modern writers, even the greatest. Butler says that the distinct particular reason for miracles is "to afford mankind instruction additional to that of nature, and to attest the truth of it "; Mozley,2 that "miracles are

1 Analogy, Pt. II, chap. 2.

2 Eight Lectures on Miracles (Bampton Lectures, 1865), 1883, I, p. 5.

necessary as the guarantee and voucher for revelation"; Newman,1 calls them "the most striking and conclusive evidence," and declares that "the peculiar object of a miracle is to evidence a message from God."

The Reserve as to Christ's Works

The late Bishop Arthur Lyttleton in an interesting chapter 2 has drawn attention to this reticence of the Disciples, and has summarised all the instances that he could find of plain appeals to miracles as evidence in their speeches and writings: his list consists of John 2 11, 20 30, Acts 2 22, 10 38, Heb. 2a. This is all; yet even of these few instances, as he shows, some come to very little, while one (No. B), as I have pointed out on p. 172, refers solely to the manifestations of Christ after the Resurrection. It may be convenient to give these in tabular form

A John 211

B John 20 30

"This beginning of his signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.'

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"Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name."

1 Two Essays on the Scripture Miracles and on Ecclesiastical, 1870, I, pp. 7, 10.

2 The Place of Miracles, pp. 55, ff.

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This is connected by the therefore' with the appearance to St. Thomas which precedes it, and refers to the manifestation of the risen Christ to his disciples.1

"Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by powers and wonders and signs."

"How that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."

Here the healing works are mentioned as part of Christianity, but no stress is laid on their evidential character.

"God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will."

This, Lyttleton remarks, resembles the passage in the Marcan Appendix (No. 44A): "The Lord working with them, and confirming the word by signs following."

Considering how large a part the healing miracles formed of our Lord's ministry, and how frequently they are mentioned in that of his Apostles, there could hardly be less mention of them as having evidential character. We can hardy conclude that the Apostles deliberately minimised this aspect.

1 See p. 172.

Reasons for this Reticence.

The reasons for this are, I think, plain, and their lesson most valuable at the present time. Works of healing followed inevitably as part of the Apostolic faith and grace; they were found in the train of the Disciples just as other works of charity were. "I was sick, and ye visited me," formed one of the cardinal demands of the Master; the Disciples did as they were bidden, and were not surprised that works of healing followed. Such miracles abounded, and they formed part of the general picture of love and mercy which Christendom presented to the world. But the evidence of Christendom was Christ: the magnet for men was his person: the persuasive powers of the Apostolic mission lay in the teaching of the Christian faith; and wonders would not win those who were blind to its natural beauty, for "souls naturally Christian" would be drawn by the Gospel of love, and not caught or coerced by its mightiest miracles. Nor were they as a matter of fact caught by them: 2 the Pharisees met the argument from miracles by a simple reference to Beelzebub; 3 and Herod, when he heard of Christ's power, said, “John, whom I beheaded, he is risen" - and went and went on being Herod. When our Lord's enemies asked for a convincing sign, he said, "There shall no sign be given unto this generation "; 5 and when his friends

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1 Harnack's chapter on The Gospel of Love and Charity" in the early Church may well be read in this connection. Expansion of Christianity, II, 3.

2 Jn. 12 37. 3 Mt. 934,

4 Mk. 6 16.

Mk, 812,