There are men who are willing to believe in the occurrence of miracles, provided they are not too miraculous. They can believe that Jesus healed the sick, and that possibly he stilled the tempest on the lake; that is, if the wind was not blowing too hard; but when it comes to causing the sun and moon to stand still, which we now know involved the suspension of the earth's rotary motion, it is too much for their frail credulity. And why? If they would only stop to reason about it, they could see that it is as easy for Almighty power to work one miracle as another--as easy for it to stop the earth in its revolution on its axis as to stop a fever by a word, or to stop the wind from blowing--a little easier than for a boy spinning a top to stop the top. The only way to make a miracle appear incredible is to show that there was no suitable occasion for one. There is true theology in the representation of God as one [155]

      Many are the devices by which men who do not believe that the sun and moon stood still at the command of Joshua, and who yet do not like to say that the story is a downright falsehood, have adopted to explain the passage which records it. The most common of these is to say that the author of the Book of Joshua quotes the Book of Jasher as his authority for the story, without vouching for it himself. If he does this, then we ought to be informed whether the story was false as found in the Book of Jasher; and if it was, somebody ought to find an excuse for the author of Joshua in quoting a story that was false and absurd. To take up a false report and pass it on, is the next thing to originating it.

[SEBC 155-156]