purpose of enforcing the great rule of the Mosaic law. The disobedience
of the Jews might, if God had so pleased, have been invariably punished
by the instrumentality of the ordinary course of events, shaped by the
secret hand of Divine Providence so as to execute His will, just as
now we find that certain sins inevitably bring on their own temporal
punishment by the operation of the laws of nature. And so, in the vast
majority of instances in which the Jews were rewarded and punished,
we find that the Divine promises and threats were fulfilled by the
occurrence of events in the natural order of things. But yet frequently
miracles confirmed and aided the work of chastisement and blessing; and
of the numerous wonders which were wrought from the giving of the law
to the coming of Christ, we find that nearly all bore this peculiar
character. For many centuries also a constant miraculous guidance was
granted to the people in the "Urim and Thummim," by which they were
enabled, when they chose to remain faithful, to escape all national
calamities and enjoy the fullest blessings of the promised land.

Under the Christian dispensation, again, a new character is imprinted
upon the supernatural history of the Church, which is, in fact, the
impression of the Cross of Christ. While the characteristics of the
Patriarchal and Jewish miracles are not wholly obliterated, an element,
which if not entirely new, is new in the intensity of its operation, is
introduced into the miraculous life of the children of Christ, which
life is really the prolongation of the supernatural life of Jesus Christ
Himself. It is accompanied also with a partial restoration of that
peculiar power which was possessed by man before he fell, when his
body became a veil to hide the world of spirits from his soul. While
prophecies of future events have not wholly ceased in the Christian
Church, and miracles are frequently wrought for the conferring of some
temporal blessings, yet these other wonderful features distinguish the