Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1854-03-29
TRADITION OF MA TIONS.

TRADITION OF MA TIONS. POI g
The nations of the earth which have longest
possessed knowledge Of letters, have given to
the world the most distinct tradition OF the great
facts in the Bible history.
The Chaldeans, several hundred years before
the Christian era, talked and wrote about the
food-the destruction thereby of the primitive
race of man-the new peopng of the earth by
the only family that was preserved. They spoke
of the father Of this family as having been warn,
ed in dream, concerning the destruction which
awaited the world, and that he built ship, and
went into it with his family, that when the flood
began to abate, this man, whom they called
Xisnthrus, let out the birds, which at first re-
turned to the ship, finding no resting place
that when the flood was fully abated the ship
rested on a mountain, when he went forth to Of
fer sacrifices and strayed from the rest OF the
company or family, who went and settled in
Babylon. Xsnthrus of the Chaldeans was evil
dently Moses Noah. The Chaldeans, reckon
ten kings before the flood while Moses counts
ten generations.
The Chinese traditions, if they do not abso-
lutely refer to the same person under the name
of Fohi as Moses Noah; are, indeed, most sngu-
lar. They describe their first king as having liv-
ed at time which would make him cotempo-
rary of Noah, or so nearly so, that the difference
is matter of no real moment.
They connect with the life of their first king
Fohi, so much that Moses connects with Noah,
that it appears among the greatest singularities
that two nations so disconnected and so unlike,
should have preserved the same matter of histo-
ry or tradition from the ancient date which they
have if indeed no such peculiar circumstances,
as they relate had taken place.
The Chinese say their first king had no father;
that his mother conceived him encompassed
with n rainbow, which is an evident aluson to
the rainbow's appearing to Noah with other
circumstances similar to the Mosaic account
The Chinese history supposes the residence OF
Fohi to have been in the north west province OF
Ararat, where the ark rested after the abatement
of the waters.
The fact that the Chinese may claim to be de.
scended from Noah, or to have had him for their
first king, by no means initiates against the Mo-
sale accounts inasmuch rs all living have de.
scended from Noah.
The Greeks, in ancient times maintained be-
lief in the fact Of a flood, which had long before
destroyed the human family for its wickedness
with the exception of one man whom they call
ed Deucalion, who on account of his piety wa:
preserved, and became the father Of new race
luel TcpOTteu DcuCuliOll 8cCueS
into which he put his family and numerous beasts
and floated safely on the water, until the floot
was over.
On the first settlement of Mexico by th
Spanish, they were surprised to find in the Mex
! lean Manuscripts, which they obtained, an &C
count of the fall of the mother of mankind, &C
companied by a serpent, together with an ide
of the food, and a single family escaping on
raft. Among them the observance ofevery sev
enth day was maintained.
Familiar traditions have been found amon
other nations where the Scriptures had neve
been known, where the Gospel had never bee
published. Upon what imaginary ground thes
traditions can be accounted for, except upon tn
acknowledgement, that the grand items of Bibl
history had their origin in facts is not known.
The Hindoos and others have like traditions
while the Bible alone gives distinct history
Its credibilty, and the united origin Of the hu
man race, is very strongly sustained by thes
facts of existing traditions.