When we grasp the
real genius of man’s progress and the increase in power that naturally
accompanies it, we shall begin to understand the proper relationship of Deity
to nature. The Master at the Cana marriage transformed water into wine—truly a
miracle now as much as then. But who is prepared to say that He used laws “outside
the sphere of nature”? Students of chemistry will remember that the chief
difference between water and wine is the presence of a certain proportion of carbon
in the latter, a material which is everywhere abundant about us, even in the
atmosphere. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to believe that by means of His
advanced intelligence, the Master simply used natural laws to bring about the
change . . . there exists a great system of universal law, natural law. Some of
these laws are higher and more powerful than others. God is familiar with all
of them and master of all of them. He uses them to bring about His purposes. (Frederick
J. Pack, Science and Belief in God: A Discussion of Certain Phases of
Science and their Bearing Upon Belief in the Supreme Being [Salt Lake City:
The Deseret News, 1924], 31, 33)
7.
Miracles are commonly regarded as supernatural occurrences, taking place in
opposition to the laws of nature. Such a conception is plainly erroneous, for
the laws of nature are inviolable. However, as human understanding of these
laws is at best but imperfect, events strictly in accordance with natural law
may appear contrary thereto. The entire constitution of nature is founded on
system and order; the laws of nature, however, are graded as are the laws of
man. The application of a higher law in any particular case does not destroy
the efficacy or validity of an inferior one; the lower law is as fully
applicable as before to the cases for which it was framed. For example, society
has enacted a law, forbidding, on peril of heavy penalties, any man appropriating
the property of another; yet oftentimes officers of the law forcibly seize the
possessions of their fellow-men, against whom judgments may have been rendered;
and such acts are done to satisfy, not to violate justice. Jehovah commanded
"Thou shalt not kill," and mankind has re-enacted the law,
prescribing penalties for violation thereof. Yet sacred history testifies,
that, in certain cases, the Lawgiver, Himself, has directly commanded His
servants to vindicate justice by taking human life. The judge who passes the
extreme sentence upon a convicted murderer, and the executioner who carries
into effect that terrible mandate, act not in opposition of "Thou shalt
not kill," but actually in support of this decree.
8. With
some of the principles upon which the powers of nature operate, we are in a
degree acquainted; and in contemplating them, we are no longer surprised,
though deeper reflection may show that even the commonest occurrence is
wonderful and strange. But any event beyond the ordinary is pronounced
miraculous, supernatural, if not indeed unnatural, and we are more or less
awe-stricken by the same. When the prophet Elisha caused the axe to float in
the river, he brought to his service, through the exercise of the authority of
the priesthood, a power superior to that of gravity. Without doubt, the iron
was heavier than the water; yet by the operation of this higher force it was
supported, suspended, or otherwise sustained at the surface, as if it were held
there by a human hand, or rendered sufficiently buoyant by attached floaters.
9. Wine
ordinarily consists of about four-fifths water, the rest being a variety of
chemical compounds, the elements of which are abundantly present in the air and
soil. The ordinary method,—what we term the natural method—of bringing these
elements into proper combination is by planting the grape, then cultivating the
vine till the fruit is ready to yield its juice in the press. But by the
exercise of a power, not within purely human reach, the Savior, at the marriage
in Cana, called those elements together, and brought about a chemical
transformation within the water-pots of stone, resulting in the production of
pure wine. So, too, when the multitudes were fed, under His priestly touch and
authoritative blessing, the bread and fishes increased in substance, as if the
seasons of years had been consumed in their growth according to what we
consider the natural order. In healing the leprous, the palsied, and the
infirm, the disordered bodily parts were brought again into their normal and
healthful state; the impurities operating as poisons in the tissues were
removed by means more rapid and effectual than those which depend upon the
action of drugs and physic.
10. No
earnest observer, no reasoning mind, can doubt the existence of intelligences
and organisms which the senses of man do not reveal. This world seems but the temporal
embodiment of things spiritual. The Creator has told us that He formed all
things spiritual before they were made temporal. The flowers that flourish and
die on earth are perhaps represented above by imperishable blossoms of
transcendent beauty and entertaining fragrance. Man is shaped after the image
of Deity; his mind, though darkened by custom and weakened by injurious habit,
is still a fallen type of immortal thought and Divine reason; and though the
space separating the human and the Divine in thought, desire, and action, be as
wide as that between sea and sky, for as the stars are above the earth so are
the ways of God above those of man, yet, we cannot doubt a strict analogy
between the spiritual and the temporal. When the eyes of Elisha's servant were
opened, the man saw the hosts of heavenly warriors covering the mountains about
Dothan,—footmen, horsemen, and chariots, armed for fight against the Syrians.
When Israel encompassed Jericho, may we not believe that the Captain of the Lord's
host and his heavenly train were there, and that before their angelic powers,
sustained by the faith and obedience of the mortal army, the walls were
leveled?
11. Some of
the latest and highest achievements of man in the utilization of natural forces
approach the conditions of spiritual operations. To count the ticking of a
watch a hundred miles away; to speak in but an ordinary tone and be heard
across the country; to signal from one hemisphere and be understood on the
other, though oceans roll and roar between; to bring the lightning into our
homes and make it serve as fire and torch;—are not these miracles? The
possibility of such things would not have been received with credence before
their actual accomplishment. The President of the Republic, sitting in his
chair of state at the nation's capital, talks with all parts, even with the
ends of this great country; and if batteries and wire be in order, if operators
and officials be true, he is rightly informed of every movement of importance
anywhere in the land. The orbs of the universe are as truly connected by a
system of inter-communication, surprisingly perfect in its action and
adaptation. These and the other innumerable miracles of creation are accomplished
in strict accordance with the laws of nature, which are the laws of God. But we
must return to a further consideration of the specific manifestations of
spiritual gifts within the Church. (James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith:
A Series of Lectures on the Principle Doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1899], 222-225)
