st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

"
"
206 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
ments meant. 1
that we see reasons for limiting
If then we at the present time think
the continuance of
such phenomena to the middle of the third century,
or to any given period still later, it will be the result
of a preponderance of evidence, or of our own con
ceptions of the likely and probable. Whatever liberty
we thus claim, we must be prepared to extend to
others ;
and hence we need not judge too severely a
monk of Palestine in the seventh or eighth century,
if he should seem to have no doubts or misgivings
about the existence of miraculous powers in the
Church in his own day. Moreover,
it is in seasons
of great and exciting changes that we find the exercise
of such powers chiefly recorded. The miracles of
the Old Testament, as all are aware, cluster round
the epochs of change and convulsion in Israel s
history. So it was with the second Exodus and with
the greater Joshua. And the days in which the lot
of John of Damascus was cast were undoubtedly
days of convulsion, of a moral upheaving such as
the world had not seen since the foundation of
Christianity. Before the advancing surge of Mahometanism,
what ancient fabric could remain and not
be overthrown? Hence a need of sudden and
visible interposition would be felt, which we in
peaceful times cannot realise. Hence the minds
of men would be predisposed to believe it ;
and
1
See the remarks in Neander, a writer not inclined to the
side of superstition
:
History of the Christian Church
(Bohn s ed.), vol. i., pp. 100-104.