The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-03-29

Gent Great Eastern and passed ing
have owned horses and cattle and
sheep and dogs, but ! never had a
horse or COW or q sheep or dog
that was SO stupid it did not know
enough to come in when il rained.
And then, that one window in the ark
which afforded such poor ventilation
to the creatures there assembled-that
small window in the ark which ex-
cites so much mirthfulness on the
part of infidels. II they knew as
much Hebrew as you could put on
your little finger nail they would have
known that that word translated win
dow there means window course. a
whole range Of lights. Those igno-
rant inHdels do not know window
pane from twenty windows. So if
there is any criticism of the ark, there
seems TO be too much window for such
a long storm. And as to the other
charge that the windows of the ark
must have been kept shut and conse-
quently all inside would have persisted
from suffocation, / have to say that
there are people in this house today
who, all the way from Liverpool to
Barnegat lighthouse, and for two
weeks, were kept under deck, the
matches battened down because of the
storm. Some of you, in the old time
sailing vessels, were kept nearly a
month with the matches down be-
cause of some long storm.
Then infidels say that the ark land
nI n foI ~,
feet high, and that, of course, as soon
as the animals came forth they would
all be frozen in the ice. That iageo.
graphical ignorancel Ararat is not
merely the name for mountain, but
for a billy district, and it may have
been hill one hundred feet high, or
five hundred, or thousand feet high
on which the ark alighted. Noah
measured the depth of the water above
the hill, and it is fifteen cubits, or
twenty-seven feet.
Ali my friends, this story of the
ark is no more incredible than if you
should say to me: "Last summer was
among the hills of New England, and
there came on the most terrific storm
I ever saw, and the whole country was
flooded. The waters came up over the
hills, and to save our lives we got in a
boat on the river, and even the dumb
creatures were SO affrighted they came
moaning and bleating until we let
them in the same boat"
We are not dependent upon the
Bible for the story of the flood, en-
tirely All ages and all literatures
have traditions, broken traditions in
distinct traditions, but still traditions.
The old books of the Persians tell
about the food at the time of Ahri-
man, who so polluted the earth that it
had to be washed by great storm.
The traditions of the Chaldeans say
that in the time when Xisuthrus was
king there was great flood, and he
put his family and his friends in
large vessel and all outside of them were
destroyed, and after while the birds
went forth and they came back and
their claws were tinged with mud.
Lucian and Ovid, celebrated writers,
who had never seen the Bible, de-
scribed flood in the time Of Deu-
Gallon. He took his friends into
boat, and the animals came n \pjng
to him in pairs. So all lands, and all
ages, and all literatures, seem to have
a broken and indistinct tradition of
which Moses, here incorpo-
rating Noah's account, SO grandly, so
beautifully, so accurately, SO solemnly
records.
My prayer is that the God who Gre
ated the world may create us anew in
Christ Jesus; and that the God who
made light three days before the sun
,hone may kindle in our hearts light
hat will burn on long after the sun
has expired; and that the God who
ordered the ark built and kept open
more than one hundred years that the
might enter it for shell
;er, may graciously incline us to ac-
,ept the invitation which this morn
ny rose in music from the Throne,
saying: Come thou and all thy house
nto the ark"
AN EXPLANATION OF ANOTHER OLD
TESTAMENT WONDER.
Another hard thing to be under.
stood: The story that the sun and
moon stood still to allow Joshua to
complete his victory. Infidel scien-
lists declare that an impossibility.
But if a man have brain and strength
enough to make a clock, can he not
start it and stop it, and start it again
and stop it again2 If a machinist
have strength and brain enough to
make corn thresher, can he not start
it and stop it, and start it again and
stop it againa If God have strength
and wisdom to make the clock of the
universe, the great machinery OF the
worlds, has he not strength enough
and wisdom enough to start it and
stop it, and start it again and stop it
againa Or stop one wheel, or stop
twenty wheels, or stop all the wheels9
Is the clock stronger than the clock
maker9 Does the corn thresher know
more than the machinist2 Is the
universe mightier than its Code
But people ask how could the
moon have been seen to stop in
The daytime9 Well, if you have
never seen the moon in the daytime,
t is because you have not been very
1iligent observer of the heavens. Be-
,ide that, it was not necessary for
he world literally to stop. By unu-
,ual refraction of the suns rays the
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