nature? Not so! There are no laws OF nature. God is a law TO
nature. It is his WILL that things so should be; and when it is his
will they will not be so, but otherwise.

Not LAWS of nature, but the SPIRIT of God, as the Psalms truly say,
gives life and breath to all things. Of him and by him is all. As
the greatest chemist of our time says, 'Causes are the acts of God--
creation is the will of God.'

And he that is wise and strong enough to create frogs in one way in
every ditch at this moment, is he not wise and strong enough to
create frogs by some other way, if he should choose, whether in
Egypt of old, or now, here, this very day?

Whatsoever means, or no means at all, God used to produce those
vermin, the miracle remains the same. He sent them to do a work,
and they did it. He sent them to teach Egyptian and Israelite alike
that he was the Maker, and Lord, and Ruler of the world, and all
that therein is; that he would have his way, and that he COULD have
his way.

Intensely painful and disgusting these plagues must have been to the
Egyptians, for this reason, that they were the most cleanly of all
people. They had a dislike of dirt, which had become quite a
superstition to them. Their priests (magicians as the Bible calls
them) never wore any garments but linen, for fear of their
harbouring vermin of any kind. And this extreme cleanliness of
theirs the next plague struck at; they were covered with boils and
diseases of skin, and the magicians could not stand before Pharaoh
by reason of the boils. They became unclean and unfit for their