Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-03-25
HARD TOUNDERSTAND
SOME OF TIE LESSER MYSTERIES OF TIE
SCRIPTURES.
The Creation Of the Earth in Six Days-The Great
Deluge and NOah's Ark-SOry Of Jonah
and the Whals-The Rev. Dr.
Talmages Sermon.
Special Telegram to he Register.

Special Telegram 10 he Register.
BROOKLYN, March 24.-At the Taberns-
Gle this morning, after expOunding some
passages of Sculpture in regard to the mys-
teries, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmsge. D.
D., gave out the hymn beginning:
How firm foundston. ye saints OF the Loud,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word.
The subject of his sermon was, "TOugb
Things in the Bible,n and his text, II
Peter iii, Is: 'In which are some things
hard to be understood" DR.. Talmsge
said:
The Bible is the most common sense
book in ell the world. But there are
many things in il which require explana-
ton. 1t all 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
mysteries the rule of multiplication or
subtraction. There are things, as my
text suggests, hard to be understood, but
shall solve some of them, hoping to leave
upon all honest minded people the impress
sion that If four or five Of them can be ex-
planned, perhaps they may all be ex-
planned.
Hard thing the first: The Bible says the
world was created in SIX days, while geol-
ogy saws it was hundreds of thousands Of
years in process Of building. In the be-
ginning, God created the heaven au1 the
earth. - "In the beginning" There you
can roll in ten million years if you want to.
There is no particular date given-no con
test between science and revelation.
Though the world may have been in pro.
cess of creation for millions of yearH, sud
denly and quickly, and in one week, 1t
msv have been fitted mp for mans resi-
dence. Just as q great mansion may have
been many years in building, aud yet 10
one week it may be curtained and chan
deliered and cushioned and upholstered
for bride and groom.
You are not compelled to believe that
the world was made in our six days Ii
NAV not have been a day of twenty-four
hours, the day spoken of in the first chap.
Ter. il NAV have been Gods day, ana
Thousand years with him are rs one day.
"Aud the evening and the morning were
the first dsy"-God's day. And the
evening and the mornirg were the secoud
day"-God's day. "Aud the evening and
the morning we're the sixth dsy" Gods
dsy. You aud living in the seventh day,
the Sabbath of the world, the day of Cos
pel redemp ion, the graudest day Of ali the
we k. in which each day may have been
made up of thousands Of years. Can you
tell me how man can get his mind and
soul into such blasphemous twist s9 70
scoff At that first chapter Of Genesis, lts
verses bllows Of light surgilg up from
sapphire seas Of glory? ?
THE DELUGE AND NOAH's ARK.
Another hard thipg: the story of the
deluge and Noah's ark. They say thst
from the account there il must have rain
ed eight hundred fset Of water each day
in order that it might he fifteen cubits
above the hills. They say that The ark
could not have been large enough to con-
tain two of every SOFT" for there would
have been hundreds Of thousands snd hun
dreds 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 i'll the ark,
and that would not have given flesh air 10
keep the animals inside the ark rom suli;-
cation They ssy that the srk finally
landed on q mountain seventeen Thousand
feet high. They say they do not believe
the story. Neither do L There Is no
srch story in the Bible. ! will tell you
what the Bible story is. must cay thst
1 have changed my mind IN regard to some
matters which once were 10 me very myste
rious. They are no more my sterious. Inis
Is the kew TO the facts This IS the story oil an
ave witnesses Noah, his story incorporated
alter ward by Moses in the account. Noah
described the scene just as it appeared to
him. He saw the food and he iathomeo
its deptb. As far as eye could reach every
tbing was covered up, from horizon TO
boriz,p or. az il says, lander the whole
heaven - He did not refer to the Sierra
Nevadss or TO Mount Washington Tor
America had rot been discovered, CT II II
had been discovered, he could not have
rean so far of. He is giving the testimony
Of AN eve witness. 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
Aid 90 under. An eye witness. Tlere Is
M need of thinking that the kangaroo
leaned the ocean or that the polar Dear
came dewn from the ice.
Isit strange thing that we should Dc
asked 70 believe in this fiCod OF the Bible,
when geoloeists tell us that egain and
again and again the dry earth has oee1
drowned out? Just open your geology and
Won will resd Of twenty floods. ls 1t not
strange that infiel scientists wanting us
% believe in the twenty floods of geologic
al discovery, should, as soon as we believe
in one flood of the Bible, pronounce u
non compOs mentis?
VENTILATION FOR THE CREATURES.
Weu then. arother thing, IN regard to