Note 34 — Chapter VIII

Dr. Dick, to whom I have frequently referred, and whose writings I have freely consulted, expresses in a note a sentiment in which I fully concur. "It would be unfair," says he, "to infer, from any expression here used, that the author denies the possibility of supernatural visions and appearances. We are assured from the records of sacred history that beings of an order superior to the human race have 'at sundry times and in divers manners' made their appearance to men. But there is the most marked difference between vulgar apparitions and the celestial messengers to which the records of revelation refer. They appeared not to old women and clowns, but to patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. They appeared not to frighten the timid and to create unnecessary alarm, but to declare 'tidings of great joy.' They appeared not to reveal such paltry secrets as the place where a pot of gold or silver is concealed, or where a lost ring may be found, but to communicate intelligence worthy of a God to reveal, and of the utmost importance for man to receive. In these and many other respects, there is the most striking contrast between popular ghosts and the supernatural communications and appearances recorded in Scripture."