And, in order to prove this, we have only to draw attention to the inaccuracy which underlies the use of the term “law” by the author of “Supernatural Religion,” and those who think as he does.  The author of “Supernatural Religion” strives to bring odium on the miracles of the Gospel by calling them “violations of law,” and by asserting that it is a false conception of the Supreme Being to suppose that He should have made an Universe with such elements of disorder within it that it should require such things as the violation, or even suspension, of laws to restore it to order, and that our highest and truest idea of God is that of One Who never can even so much as make Himself known except through the action of the immutable laws by which this visible state of things is governed.

Now what is a law?  The laws with which in this discussion we are given to understand we have to do, are strictly speaking limitations—­the limitations of forces or powers which, in conception at least, must themselves be prior to the limitations.

Take the most universal of all so-called “laws,” the law of gravitation.  The law of gravitation is the limitation imposed upon that mysterious force which appears to reside in all matter, that it should attract all other matter.  This power of attraction is called gravitation; but instead of acting at random, as it were, it acts according to certain well-known rules which only are properly the “laws” of gravitation.

Now the very existence of our world depends upon the force of attraction being counteracted.  If, from a certain moment, gravitation were to become the only force in the solar system, the earth would fall upon the surface of the sun, and be annihilated; but the earth continues in existence because of the action of another force—­the projectile force—­which so far counteracts the force of the sun’s attraction, that the earth revolves around the sun instead of falling upon its surface.  In this case the law of gravitation is not violated, or even suspended, but the force of gravitation is counteracted or modified by another force.

Again, the blood circulates through our bodies by means of another power or force counteracting the force of gravitation, and this is the vital power or force.

But why do we lift up our feet from the ground to go about some daily duty?  Here comes another force—­the force of will, which directs the action of some of the vital forces, but not that of others.

But, again, two courses of action are open to us, and we deliberately choose the one because we think that it is our duty, though it may entail danger or pain, or even death.  Here is a still deeper force or power, the force of conscience—­the moral power which is clearly the highest power within us, for it governs the very will, and sits in judgment upon the whole man, and acquits or condemns him according to its rule of right and wrong.

Here, then, are several gradations of power or force—­any one of them as real as the others; each one making itself felt by counteracting and modifying the action of the one below it.