Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-07-27

you gave without note or comment an extracl
from" The art of prelonging life, which un-
dertakes to show show the ancients lived, " and
to prore that they did not live as long as the
Bible says they did. 1t assumes that the Holy
Book does not mean what it says; and that
much of its teaching is disproved and set aside
by the more advanced philosophy of the present
day 1t refuses to admit that man ever did, or
could, attain to 80 great an age as Moses has
assigned to Methuselah Noah, and the other
patriarchs of the primeval ages. 1t does not
assign the shadow of reason for doubling the
sacred record, in this respect, except that some
persons have been SO foolish as to believe that
the patriarchs were as remarkable for size and
strength as for years, that Adam, for exam
pie, was nine hundred cubts high. If Moses
had made this statement, and it could be in any
way satisfactorily dsproved, it would have some
wight in the argument. But, to make the alb
surd fancy of some ignorant or infdel Bedlamite,
the ground of objection to q historical record,
which not only does not intimate any such thing,
but everywhere implies the contrary, is no less
dishonest than it is illogical.
If such writer's would openly reject the Bible
and say so, they would do but little harm, ex-
ccpt to themselves, and it would not be neces-
sary to refute, or notice them. Why not man
fully deny the whole Mosaic record, and blot it
out, or make it over anew TO shake our con-
fdcnce in any part, is to vitiate the whole, as
an authority. And herein lies the mischief of
this modern skepticism. While processing re-
gard for the sacred hook, as a whole, it insidi-
ously seeks to undermine its authority, and les
sen its influence. beg leave to correct, 80 fur
as the readers of the Eclectic are concerned, the
impression designed to be made by the extract
to which have referred.
In the opinion of the author of that extract,
IIensler has satisfactorily proved that the year
of the patriarchal age, down to the birth of
Abraham, consisted Of only three months, and
consequently that the patriarchs lived only one
fourth Us long as we in our reliance upon Mo-
ses, have been accustomed to suppose. Now it
is perfectly manifest that neither Hensler, nor
his cndorser, has read, much less studied, the
record which he thus misrepresents. He would
doubtless be ashamed, if, having attcmptd the
refutation of the most indifferent newspaper
article, he should be found to have betrayed
the same ignorance of the facts stated, and the
opinions maintained, by his antagonist, as he
has done in this case.
Moses not only does not give us the slightest
intimation Of using the word "year" at one
time in one sense, and another at another, but
his record clearly and incontrovertibly shows
that he did not so use it. In the very beginning
of his record, Gen. l, II, he distinctly marks
the divisions of time, as they are constituted
and measured by the revolutions Of the flights
in the armament of the heavens" which were
to be g for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
and for years." He then goes on with his mar
rativc, in the most natural language, and with
inimitable conciseness and breyity, recording
tho wonderful outlines of the antediluvian ages.
In this he has given us scarcely more than II
gcnealogy of the family of Seth. Of the other
/" sons and daughters which we are told Gen.
5, 4) Adam begat, not word is said, beyond
the brief tragedy of Cain and Abel.
This genealogy is continued, in the same la
comic style, after the food, to the birth of Abra-
ham, The word "year =" is used throughout
in precisely the same manner, and without the
smallest hint or intimation that it has not,
throughout, one uniform and unchangeable
meaning. If, in any part of the record, it
means three months, or eight months, or any
number less than twelve, how are we to know
it, and who is competent to decide when the
change shall be made! If it means three months
in the post-deluvian period, all the way down
to Abraham, as he suggests, then Asphaxad
WAS married and had children at nine years Of
age, Salah at seuen, Eben, Peleg, and many
Others at eight, and all these, instead of being
superior to us in longevity, were rather short
lived Their '' suns went down while it was
threescore and ten. Even in the antediluviar
period, we shall find Mahuleal and Enoch be-
coming fathers of families at sixteen, which ii
at variance with patriarchal usage. Isaac wa
not married till he was forty, nor Jacob till HI
was seventy. And, moreover the lives of tn
first patriarchs, if so measured, are not remark
able for length, as the author would have u
believe.
But there is another proof of the falsity O
his position, so clear and palpable, that there
no shadow of an excuse for overlooking it. |
well illustrates the old adage-'' There are non
80 blind as those who won't see." Noah wa
3 one of the antediluvians, and his life stretche
, out through nine and half centuries. Heap
, pears not to have married young. Atany rate
! he had no children till he was five hundred yeal
old. He is said by the inspired historian,
! have been six hundred gears old, when the foo
7 came. Now that this period, called year, wa
a vcritable period of twelve months, is as mani
fest as language and facts can make it. 81
, the six hundreth year of Noah's life, In tn
e second month"; in the seventeenth day OF tn
4 month, the same day were the fountains OF til
G great deep broken up" &c.-Gen. 7, IL. " An
e the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundre
Q and fifty ."--24th rerse. According I
!. Hensler's computition, Moses should have sal
h the waters prevailed one year and third. Blu
IS with strange persistence in his own way
u reckoning, Moses goes on to say that =" the ar
e rested in the seventh month, in the seventeent
y day of the month. "--S, 4. And the watel
4 decrease continually until the tenth month, =
De 8, 5-when the tops of the mountains WEI
W first seen. "And it came to pass, in the 81
hundred and frat war in tho frat month