me of their death, showing the number
of verified cases to be so large as to exclude the supposition of chance
hallucination (see _Proceedings_, August, 1894). Or could it have been a
material body suddenly becoming visible in a closed room, as narrated by
Luke and John? First-class evidence, if there can be any such for such
occurrences, has been exhibited for such phenomena as the passage of
solid substances through intervening doors and walls--easy enough, say
mathematicians, for a being familiar with the "fourth dimension"--and of
the levitation of heavy bodies without physical support. (See
_Proceedings_, January, 1894, and March, 1895.) As to such things
scepticism is doubtless in order, but dogmatic contradiction is not.
_Sub judice lis est._

[47] Professor Borden P. Bowne has thus exhibited this great mistake and
its grievous consequence:--

"In popular thought, religious and irreligious alike, the natural is
supposed to be something that runs itself without any internal guidance
or external interference. The supernatural, on the other hand, if there
be any such thing, is not supposed to manifest itself through the
natural, but by means of portents, prodigies, interpositions, departures
from, or infractions of, natural law in general. The realm of law
belongs to the natural, and the natural runs itself. Hence, if we are to
find anything supernatural, we must look for it in the abnormal, the
chaotic, the lawless, or that which defies all reduction to order that
may be depended on. This notion underlies the traditional debate between
naturalism and supernaturalism.... This unhappy misconception of the
relation of the natural to the supernatural has practically led the
great body of uncritical thinkers into the grotesque inversion of all
reason--the more law and order, the less God."--_Zion's Herald_, August
22, 1900.

VIII

VIII

SYNOPSIS.--The cardinal point in the present discussion, the reality
not of miracles but of the supernatural.--Fallacy of pointing to
physical events as essential characteristics of supernatural
Revelation.--The character of a revelation determined not by its
circumstances, but by its contents.--Moral nature supernatural to
physical.--Nature a hierarchy of natures.--Supernatural Religion
historically attested by the moral development it
generates.--Transfer of its distinctive note from moral ideals to
physical marvels a costly error.