Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-25
SOME TOUGH THINGS
In the Bible, the Most Common Sense
Book in all the World.
SOME FACTS ABOUT KOAH'S ARK.
The Deluge Described by an Eyewitness
as it Appeared to Him.
THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE HOLY BIBLE
ESPECIAL rrLreRAM TO THE DISPATCH,

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.I
BROOKLYN, March 24.-At the Taber-
nacle this morning, after expounding some
passages of Scripture in regard to the mys-
teries, the Rev. T. De Witt Taimage gave
out the hymn beginning:
How firm foundation. We saints Of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word.
The subject of his sermon was, Tough
Things in the Bible,' and his text, IL
Peter, Iii, 16: 'Tn which are some things
hard to be understood" DR.. Talmage said:
The Bible is the most common sense book
in the world. But there are many things in
it which require explanation. 1t all depends
on the mood in which you come to this
grand old book. You MAJ take hold of The
handle of the sword or its sharp edge. You
may employ on its mysteries the rule of
multiplication or subtraction. There are
thinrs, as my text suggests, hard to be un-
derstood, but shall solve some of them, hoping
10 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 explained.
Hard thing the first: The Bible says the
world was created in SIX days. while geology
saws it was hundreds of thousands of years in
process of building. "In the beginning, God
created the heaven and the EARTH" I'm the
beginning" There you can roll in ten million
years if you want to. There is no particular
date given-no contest between science and
revelation. Though the world may have been
in process of creation tor millions of years,
suddenly and quickly, and in one week, it may
have been fitted up fer mans residence. Just
as great mansion may have been many years
in building, and yet in one week it may be cur
tanned and chandeliered and cushioned and
upholstered for
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 a hours, the day spoken of
in the first chapter; it may have been Gods
day, and thousand years with Him are as one
day. "And the evening and the morning were
the first day"-Godis day. "And the evening
and morning were the second day''-God's day
And the evening and the morning were the
sixth day''-God's day. You and 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 NAV have been
made up of thousands of years. Can you tell
me how man can get his mind and soul into
such blasphemous twist as to scott at that
first chapter of Genesis its verses billOws 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
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?
Beside that, when the earth was in process of
condensation, it was surrounded by thick
vapors and the discharge of many volcanoes in
the primary period. and all this observations
may have hindered the light of the sun from
falling on the earth until that Thursday morn
ing Beside that, David Brewster and Herschel,
the astronomer, and all the modern men of
their class, agree in the fact that the sun is
1an~ew kn.uee - 81, -
only the candlestick that holds the light. a
phOsphorescent atmosphere floating around it,
changing and changing, so it is not to be at all
wondered at that not until that Thursday
morning its light fell on the earth. Beside
that. the rocks in crystaliZation emit light.
There is light from a Thousand surfaces the
alkalies. for instance. The metallic bases emit
light. There was 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 are burned out
volcanoes in other worlds which, when they
were in explosion and activity must have cast
forth an insufferable light. throwing a glare
all over our earth. Beside that. there are the
Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Anchalis. A
book on Physical Science" says:
A WONDERFUL DISPLAY.
Captain Donnycastle, coming up the Gulf
of st. Lawrence on the 18th of September, 1876,
was aroused by the mate of the vessel in great
alarm from an unusual appearance. 1t was
starlight night, when suddenly the sky became
overcast In the direction of the hign land of
CORVALLIS county an instantaneous a nd in
tensely vivid light, resembling the aurora, shot
out on the hitherto gloomy and dark sea on the
lee bow that was so brilliant it lighted every
thing distinctly, even to the masthead. The
light spread over the whole sea between the
two shores, and the waves. which before had
been tranquil, became agitated. Captain Bon
nycastle describes the scene as that of a blazing
sheet of awful and most brilliant light-a long
and vivid line of light that showed the face of
the high frowning land abreast The sky be-
came lowering and more intensely obscure
Long, tortuous lines of light showed immense
numbers of large fish darting about as if in
CONSERVATION. The topsail yard and mizzen
boom were lighted by the glare as if gaslights
had been burned directly below them. and un-
til just before daybreak, at O'Clock, the most
minute objects were distinctly visible" NV
hearers, there are 10000 sources of light besides
the light of the sun.
Another hard thing: The story of the deluge
and Noahs ark. They say that from the ac-
count there it must have rained 800 feet of
water each day IN order that it might be Is
cubits above the hills. Tney 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 hundreds of thou
sands 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 the ark finally
landed ON a mountain 1900 feet high. Thev
say they do not believe the story. Neither do 1.
There is no such story in the Bible. will tell
you what the Bible story is. must say that
have changed my mind in regard to some mat
teTs which once were to me very mysterious.
They are no more mysterious. This is the key
10 the facts. This is the story of an eye-wit-
ness, Noah, his story incorporated afterward by
Moses in the account
so FAR AS HE KNEW
Noah described the scene just as it appeared
TO him. He saw the flood and he fathomed its
depth. As far as eye could reach everything
was covered up, from horizon to horizon, or as
it says, sunder the whole heaven" He did not
refer to the Sierra Nevadas OF to Mount Wash
ingUon, for America had not been discovered
orr if it had been discovered, he could not have
seen so far OF. He is giving the testimony of
an eyewitness God speaks after the manner
of men when he says everything went under
and Noah speaks after the manner of men
when he says everything did go under. An eye
witness. 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 deluge come? Iucame for the
purpose of destroying the outrageous inhab-
itants 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 submerging North and
South America, OF Europe, or Africa, when
they were not inhabited? And as to the skep-
fical suggestion that in order to have the water
as deep as the Bible states. 1t must have rained
500 feet every day, reply, the Bible distinctly
of falling. Before the account where it saws
''the windows of heaven are opened" it saws,
"An the fountains of the great deep were
broken up" All geologists 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 of
the great deep were broken up and then the 4
windows of heavens were opened Is il a
strange thing that we should be asked to be-
leve in this flood of the Bible, when geologists
tell US that again and again and again the dry
earth hnpn drowned
geology and you will read of % foods Is it
not strange that infidel scientists wanting us to
believe in the 20 floods of geological discovery
should as soon as we believe in one food of the
Bible, pronounce us non compos mentis?
THE SIZE OF THE ARK.
Well then, another thing, in regard to the
size Of the ark. Instead Of being a mud scow,
as some of the skeptics would have us under
stand, it was magnificent ship, nearly as large
The L1raa- Eastar,, tl,.aa tirnns size