The Russellville Democrat., 1889-04-04

| outl Just open your geology anu you
will read of twenty foods. Is it not
strange that inhdel scientists, wanting us
to believe in the twenty floods of geolog-
ical discovery, should, as soon as we be-
lieve in one food Of the Bible, pronounce
us non compos mentis.
| Well, then, another thing, in regard to
the size Of the ark. Instead OF being q
mud scow, as some of those skeptics
would have us understand, it was a mag
nificent ship, nearly as large as the Great
Eastern, three times the size Of an ordi-
nary man Of war. At the time in the
world when ship building was unknown,
God had this vessel constructed, which
| turned out to be almost In the same pro-
! portions as our staunchest modern ves-
| sells. After thousands of years Of expe-
rimenting in naval architecture and in
| ship carpentery, we have at last got up
to Noah's ark, that ship leading all the
! fleets Of the world on all the oceans.
Well, Noah saw the animal creation go
ing into this ark. He gave the account of
an eye witness. They were the animals
from the region where he lived; for the
most part they were animals useful TO
man, and If noNious insects or poisonous
reptiles went in it was only to discipline
the patience and to keep alert the gener-
ations after the food. He saw them 60
ing in. There was great number OF
them, and he gives the account Of an eye
witness. They went in two and two of all
| flesh.
But how could you get them into the
ark" asked infidel scientists. "How
could they be induced to go into the ark2
He would have to pick them out and drive
| them in, and coax them In" Could not
the same God who gave instinct to the
animal inspire that instinct to seek for
| shelter from the storm? However, moth
/ ing more than ordinary animal instinct
was necessary. Have you never been in
| the country when an August thunder
storm was coming up and heard the cattle
moan at the bars to get IMP and seen the
! affrighted fowl go upon the perch at noon
day, and heard the affrighted dog and cat
| calling at the door, supplicating entranceY
| And are you surprised that in that age Of
the world, when there were fewer places
Of shelter for dumb beasts, at the mutter-
ing and rumbling and flashing and quak-
| ing and darkening of an approaching del
uge, the animal creation came moaning
and bleating to the sloping embankment
reaching up to the ancient Great Eastern
and passed in? l have owned horses and
! Cdktlc anu SuCtD anu Jugs, Dhb lIc WI AthNa
horse or a COW or sheep or dog that
was so stupid it did not know enough to
come in when it raiued. 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 excites so much mirthful-
ness 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 window there
means window course, whole range for
| lights. Those ignorant infidels do not
know a window pane from twenty win
dows. So if there is any criticism of the
ark, there seems to be too much window
for such long storm. And as to the other
charge that the windows of the ark must
have been kept shut, and consequently all
inside would have persisted from suffoca-
ton, have to say that there are people
in this house to-day 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 sail
ing vessels, were kept nearly month
with the matches down because OF some
long storm.
Then infidels say that the ark landed on
a mountain seventeen thousand feet high,
and that, of course, AS soon as the animals
came forth they would all be frozen in the
ice. That is geographical ignorancel Ar
arat Is not merely the name Of mount
ain, but for hilly district, and it may
have been hill one hundred feet high, or
five hundred or one thousand feet high on
which the ark alighted. Noah meaaGrad
the depth of the water above the hill, and
| it is fifteen G. dts, or twenty seven feet.
All my friends, this story of the ark is no
more incredible than if you should say
to me: "Last summer l was among the
hills of New England, and there came on
the most terrible storm l 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 af-
trighted 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 food, entirely. All
ages and all literatures have traditions,
broken traditions, indistinct traditions,
but still traditions. The old books OF the
Persians tell about the foods at the time
OF Abraham, who so polluted the earth
that 1t had to be washed by great storm.
The traditions of the Chaldeans say that
in the time when Xisuthrus was King
there was a great food, and he put his
family and his friends in a large vessel,
and all outside of them were destroyed,
and after awhile the birds went forth
and they came back and their claws were
tinged with mud. Lucian and Ovid, cele-
brated writers, who had never seen the
Bible, described a food in the time Of
Deucalion. He took his friends into q
boat, and the animals came running to
him in pairs. SO all lands and all ages
and all literatures seem to have broken
and indistinct tradition of a calamity
which Moses, here incorporating Noah's
account, so grandly, so beautifully, so ac-
curately. so solemnly records.
My prayer is that the God who created
the world may create us anew in Christ
Jesus; and that the God who made light
three days before the sun shone may
kindle in our hearts a light that will burn
on long after the sun has expired; aud
that the God who ordered the ark built
and kept open more than one hundred
years that the antediluvans might enter
it for shelter, may graciously incline US
to accept the invitation which this morn
ing rose in music from the throne, say,
ing: "Come thou and all thy house into
the ark"
Another hard thing to be understood:
The story that the sun and moon stood
still to allow Joshua to complete his vic
tory Tnhdel scientists declare that an
impossibillty, But II man have brain
and strength enough to make a clock, can
he not start it again and stop it again2 II
machinist have strength and brain
enough TO make crop thresher, can he
not start it and stop it, and start 1t again
and stop 1t again. n God have strength
and wisdom to make the clock Of the uni
verse, the great machinery Of the worlds,
has He not strength enough and wisdom
enough to start it and stop it.
and start il again and stop it
again. Or stop one wheel, or stop twenty
Wheels or stop all the wheelsY Is the
clock stronger than the clock makeri