One of the favorite excuses with which the powers of evil seek to reinforce unbelief in Christ, is the assertion that there is no such thing as a miracle performed in His Name. Even to those who profess a belief in Him, the things they reject quickest as unworthy of belief, are those of which they know little. We may not be able to explain the metaphysics of what we call miracles, nor can we explain how God answer prayer-itself a miracle-but nevertheless, we know He does. It is no more difficult for the believer in a kind and wise Providence to accept as facts, the miracles recorded in Christ's ministry than the Miracle of Life, the evidences of which we see all about us.
To reject a truth because we do not understand it, is foreign to the principles of every science. It is unscientific. It is ignorance. As an example: will someone explain to us how it is that two plants placed side by side in a field, each produce, the one wheat and the other barley. Their roots intermingle in the same coarse sand; the same raindrops refresh the parched earth in which they grow; the same sunbeams warm the delicate leaves of both. Yet one produces wheat, the other barley. How is it? We do not know. But we would think him deranged, who would refuse to eat the beautiful white loaf, because, forsooth, he does not understand why that plant should in the end make a wheat loaf instead of a barley cake. However, that is just what the Anti-Christs would have us do. They would have us reject Christ and all good which comes in Him, because we cannot explain in detail the beauties and the glories of His works.
To complement the words of Mormon, give ear to Jacob, the brother of the Prophet Nephi and the son of Lehi: "Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the Name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea. Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by His grace, and His great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things. Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of Him; and it is impossible that man should find out all His ways. And no man knoweth of His ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God. For behold, by the power of His word man came upon the face of the Earth, which Earth was created by the power of His word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the Earth, or the workmanship of His hands upon the face of it, according to His will and pleasure?" (Jacob 4:7-9) And still further Jacob says: "Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from His hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that He counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all His works." (Ibid., 4:10)
Someone has said: "There is a wisdom we cannot fathom, and an omnipotence upon which we can lean, but cannot grasp," and we can leave to that day, when the things we know not now, we shall know hereafter. What, here below, we call miracles and surround them with mysticism really do not deviate from natural law. They constitute part of the science of God's relationship to man. Angels from the Courts of Glory instruct men in its findings. It is the heavenly science of Good Works. The working of miracles is done by the faithful in the Name of Christ, the great Scientist of the Universe; all His works are good.
The Lord in speaking to Moroni as is shown in our comments on verse 16, further said: "And in that day they (the Gentiles) shall exercise faith in Me...even as the Brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in Me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the Brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all My revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the Heavens and of the Earth, and all things that in them are. And he that will contend against the word of the Lord, let him be accursed; and he that shall deny these things, let him be accursed; for unto them will I show no greater things, saith Jesus Christ; for I am He Who speaketh. And at My command the Heavens are opened and are shut; and at My word the Earth shall shake; and at My command the inhabitants thereof shall pass away, even as by fire." (Ether 4:7-9)