The Holy War — Page 113
Proceedings—Debate 27 May 1893 113 present, they considered any special faculty as a Divine gift and declared that some could do this while others could do that, yet nobody was deprived of miracles. But the Divine Word has declared in 1 Corinthians 13:2,8: ‘And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. ’ ‘Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. ’ And in the last verse it is written, ‘And now abi- deth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. ’ Because when faith becomes a reality, it remains as faith, when hope is fulfilled, it reaches its completion, but love never reaches its end. And it should also be remembered that love is the special name of God because God is love. The conclusion that we can draw from all these matters is that just as miracles have not been promised for- ever, similarly they do not have the highest rank regarding salva- tion. But at one time when the new teaching was given, the miracles were granted for the establishment and evidence of that teaching. If miracles happened every day, they would lose their effect. Summing up, the verse that you have used to construe a general promise, we have explained that it is dependent on those through whom these Signs were to be shown and those are wholly specific. And after looking at the contents of Mark 16, you will not be able to consider this statement to be wrong in any way at all. Six— You say, sir, the Messiah also refused to show any ‘at will’ miracles. You do injustice, sir. Where did he refuse? After people had already seen the heavenly Signs, and as a jest they asked to be shown more heavenly Signs, it was declared that ‘this evil and adul- terous’ group will not be shown any Sign. Now, sir, in all fairness does refusing to show a Sign mean not being able to show a Sign? If