"--(IV. p. 135.)
These are grave assertions, but they are least likely to be challenged
by those who have made it their business to weigh evidence and to give
their decision under a due sense of the moral responsibility which they
incur in so doing.
It is probable that few persons who proclaim their belief in miracles
have considered what would be necessary to justify that belief in the
case of a professed modern miracle-worker. Suppose, for example, it is
affirmed that A.B. died and that C.D. brought him to life again. Let it
be granted that A.B. and C.D. are persons of unimpeachable honour and
veracity; that C.D. is the next heir to A.B.'s estate, and therefore had
a strong motive for not bringing him to life again; and that all A.B.'s
relations, respectable persons who bore him a strong affection, or had
otherwise an interest in his being alive, declared that they saw him
die. Furthermore, let A.B. be seen after his recovery by all his friends
and neighbours, and let his and their depositions, that he is now alive,
be taken down before a magistrate of known integrity and acuteness:
would all this constitute even presumptive evidence that C.D. had worked
a miracle? Unquestionably not. For the most important link in the whole
chain of evidence is wanting, and that is the proof that A.B. was really
dead. The evidence of ordinary observers on such a point as this is
absolutely worthless. And, even medical evidence, unless the physician
is a person of unusual knowledge and skill, may have little more value.
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