Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-04-04
-sKEpTICs ANSWERED.
DR.. Talmage on Things That Are
Hard to Understand
The Creation of the World Consistent With
the Theory of Science-Other Marvel
Gus ,c1,ings Spoken of IN the Bible
Fully Explained.

| De Witt Talmage discoursed on Tough
Things in the Bible" and his text was
from Peter iii. Is: ''In which are some
things hard to be understood" DIR. Tai
mage said:
Tue Bible is the most common sense
book in all the world. But there are many
things in it which require explanation. 1t
ali depends on the mood in which you
come TO this grand old book. You may
take hold of the handle of the sword or its
sharp edge. You may employ on its mys-
teres the rule of multiplication or SUBJ
traction. There are things, as my text
suggests hard to be understood, but 1
| shall solve some of them, hoping to leave
upon all honest-minded people the i'm
preston that if four or five of them can be
explained, perhaps they may all be ex-
planned.
Hard thing the first: The Bible says
the world was created in six days, while
geology says it was hundreds of thousands
of years in process OF building I'm the
beginning, God created the heaven and
the EARTH" in the beginning" There
you can roll in 10, 600 900 years if you want
to. There is no particular date given-no
contest between science and revelation.
Though the world may have been in pro-
cess of creation for millions of years, sud-
denly and quickly, and in one week, it
may have been fitted up for mans resi-
dence. Just as great mansion may have
been many years in building. and yet in
one week it may be curtained and chan
deferred and cushioned and upholstered
for a bride and groom.
You are not compelled to believe that
the world was made in our six days. 1t
may not have been day of twenty -four
hours, the day spoken of in the first chap
ter; it may have been Gods day, and a
thousand years with Him are as one day.
"And the evening and the morning were
the first day''-Gnd's day. '.And the
evening and the morning were the second
day"-God's day. "And the evening and
the morning were the sixth day"-God's
day. You and 1 living in the seventh
day, the Sabbath of the world, the day of
gospel redemption, the grandest day of
all the week, in which each day may have
been made up of thousands of years. Can
you tell me how a man can get his mind
and soul into such a blasphemous twist as
to scott at that first chapter of Genesis, its
verses pillows of light surging up from
sapphire seas of glory?
The Bible represents that light was
created on Monday, and the sun was not
created until Thursday. Just think of it
a book declaring that light was created
three days before The sun shone! Why,
don't you know that heat and electricity
emit light Independent of the sun? Besides
that, when the earth was in process of
condensation, it was surrounded by thick
vapors and the discharge of many VOL
canoes in the primary period, and all this
observation may have hindered the light
of the sun from falling on the earth until
that Thursday morning. Besides that,
David Brewster and Herschel, the astron-
omer, and all the modern men of their class,
agree in The fact that the sun is not light;
thatitis an opaque mass; that it is only the
candlestick that holds the light, a phos-
phorescent atmosphere floating around it,
changing and changing, so it is not to be
Mt all wondered at that not until that
Thursday morning its light fell on the
earth. Beside that the rocks in crystalli-
cation emit light. There is light from a
thousand surfaces, the alkalies, for in
stance. The metallic bases emit light.
There was a time in the history of the
world when there were thousands of
miles OF liquid granite flaming with light.
Beside that it has been found that there
DUIHCu Out NOlCdHOeS III ObueT WOTluS
which, when they were in explosion and
activity, must have cast forth an insuffer-
able light, throwing glare all over our
earth. Beside that there are the aurora
borealis and the aurora anchalis.
Another hard thing: The story of the
deluge and Noah's ark. They say that
from the account there it must have rained
Loot nf do in, Nd hot
might be fifteen cubits above the hills.
They say that the ark could not have been
large enough to contain ''two of every
Sort" for there would have been hundreds
of thousands and hundred of thousands of
creatures. They say that these creatures
would have come from all lands and all
zones. They say there was only one small
window in the ark and that would not.
have given fresh air to keep the
animals inside the ark from suffocation.
They say that the ark was finally
landed on a mountain $50 feet high.
They say they do not believe the
story. Neither do l. There is no such
story in the Bible. l will tell you what the
Bible story is. l must say that L have
changed my mind in regard to some mat
tiers which once were to me very myste-
Tious. They are no more mysterious.
This is the koy to the facts. This is the
story of an eve witness, Noah, his story
Incorporated afterward by Moses in the
account. Noah described the scene just as
it appeared to him. He saw the flood and
he fathomed its depth. A far as eye could
reach every thing was covered up, from
horizon to horizon. or. as it says, under
the whole heaven" He did not refer to
the Sierra Nevadas, or to Mount Washing
ton, for America had not been discovered.
or, if it had been discovered, he could not
see as far off, He is giving the testimony
of an eyewitness. God speaks after the |
manner OF men when he says every thing |
went under, and Noah speaks after the |
manner of men when he says every thing |
did go under. An eyewitness. There is |
no need of thinking that the kangaroo |
leaped the ocean or that the polar bear |
came down from the ice. Why did the |
de uge come? 1t came for the purpose of |
destroying the outrageous inhabitants of |
the then thinly populated earth. nearly all |
the population, probably very near the |
ark before it was launched. What would |
have been the use of submarging North |
and South America, or Europe, or Africa, |
when they were not inhabited?
And as TO the skeptical suggestion that |
in order to have the water as deep as the |
BIB g states, it must have rained 800 feet |
every day, l reply, the Bible distinctly |
declares that the most of the food rose
instead of falling. Before the account |
where it says 'the windows of heaven
were opened, it says, ''all the fountains |
of the great deep were broken up" All
biologists agree in saying that there are
caverns in the earth filled with water, and |
they rushed forth, and all the lakes and
rivers forsook their bed. The fountains /