Article November 26, 1910 Issue

As to the question of a denial of the miracles, there may...

Campbell MacCulloch

New York (N. Y.) Tribune

As to the question of a denial of the miracles, there may be much which is dependent upon an exact definition of the word. If by miracle is meant a positive violation of an established natural law, then Christian Science does deny the miracles, or, rather, that interpretation of them. If, on the other hand, miracle is to be defined as "a wonder," in accordance with its meaning in the original Greek, then Christian Science does not deny the miracles. Upon this point Mrs. Eddy has said, "Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural" (Science and Health, Preface, p. xi). To Christian Scientists a miracle is only a natural marvel, and, to quote Huxley along this line: "If a thing has ever happened, it happened in accordance with some law or principle—even if unknown or misunderstood—and can happen again."

Thus Christian Scientists do not deny the miracles, if by those miracles are meant such marvels as the raising of Lazarus from the dead or the healing of the sick; but, on the contrary, they are daily proving in many hundreds of instances that these wonders are indeed not supernatural and far off, but supremely natural, and the result, as Mrs. Eddy writes, of "a divine influence ever present in human consciousness" (Ibid.).

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