best. Thousands ask to be protected from the devil; some, like David,
pray for revenge, and some implore, even God, not to lead them into
temptation. All these prayers rest upon, and are produced by the idea
that some power not only can, but probably will, change the order of the
universe. This belief has been among the great majority of tribes and
nations. All sacred books are filled with the accounts of such
interferences, and our own bible is no exception to this rule.

If we believe in a power superior to nature, it is perfectly natural to
suppose that such power can and will interfere in the affairs of this
world. If there is no interference, of what practical use can such
power be? The scriptures give us the most wonderful accounts of divine
interference: Animals talk like men; springs gurgle from dry bones;
the sun and moon stop in the heavens in order that General Joshua may
have more time to murder; the shadow on a dial goes back ten degrees to
convince a petty king of a barbarous people that he is not going to die
of a boil; fire refused to burn; water positively declined to seek its
level, but stands up like a wall; grains of sand become lice; common
walking-sticks, to gratify a mere freak, twist themselves into serpents,
and then swallow each other by way of exercise; murmuring streams,
laughing at the attraction of gravitation, run up hill for years,
following wandering tribes from a pure love of frolic; prophecy becomes
altogether easier than history; the sons of God become enamored of the
world's girls; women are changed into salt for the purpose of keeping a
great event fresh in the minds of man; an excellent article of
brimstone is imported from heaven free of duty; clothes refuse to wear
out for forty years, birds keep restaurants and feed wandering prophets
free of expense; bears tear children in pieces for laughing at old men
without wigs; muscular development depends upon the length of one's
hair; dead people come to life, simply to get a joke on their enemies