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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"

It had not been her
doing, nor yet Theobald's. They had not sought it. When water from the
sacred stream was wanted for a sacred infant, the channel had been found
through which it was to flow from far Palestine over land and sea to the
door of the house where the child was lying. Why, it was a miracle! It
was! It was! She saw it all now. The Jordan had left its bed and
flowed into her own house. It was idle to say that this was not a
miracle. No miracle was effected without means of some kind; the
difference between the faithful and the unbeliever consisted in the very
fact that the former could see a miracle where the latter could not. The
Jews could see no miracle even in the raising of Lazarus and the feeding
of the five thousand. The John Pontifexes would see no miracle in this
matter of the water from the Jordan. The essence of a miracle lay not in
the fact that means had been dispensed with, but in the adoption of means
to a great end that had not been available without interference; and no
one would suppose that Dr Jones would have brought the water unless he
had been directed. She would tell this to Theobald, and get him to see
it in the .


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