The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-04-04

cred. or II II mad been discovered. II
could not have been so far off. lie is Civ
ing the testimony of an eye witness. Co
speaks after the manner of NTH when Fl
says everything went under, and Noal
speaks after the manner Of men when l.
says everything did go under. An ey
witness. There is no need of thinkin,
that the kangaroo leaped the ocean or tina
the polar bear came down from the ice.
J Why did the deluge come? came TO
J the purpose of destroying the outrageou.
inhabitants of the then thinly populated
earth, nearly all the population. probabl,
very near the ark before it was launched
What would have been the use of submerg
ing North and South America. or Europe
or Africa, when they were not inhabited
/ Well, then, another thing, in regard tt
the size of the ark. Instead of being 9
mud scow, as some of these skeptics
would have US understand. it was 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 stanchest modern vessels.
After thousands of years of experimenting
in naval ar chitecture and in ship carpen.
try, we have at last got up to Noah 8 ark,
that slip leading all the fleets of the world
on all oceans. Well, Noah saw the animal
creation going 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 USE
full to man, and if noxious insects or poi
sonous reptiles went in, it was only to
discipline the patience and to keep alert
the generations after the flood. He saw
them going in. There we're great num-
Der 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?" ask infidel scientists. "How could
they be INDUCED to 60 into the ark, 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
she,t from the storm? However, nothing
necessary.
Then infidels say that the ark landed on
a mountain $1,000 feet high, and that, of
course, as soon as the animals came forth
they would all be frozen in the ice. That
is geographical ignOranceI Ararat is not
merely the name of the mountain, but for
a billy district, and 1t may have been hill
100 feet high. 500. or thousand feet high
on which the ark allghted. Noah measured
the depth of the water above the hill. and
it is fifteen cubits. or twsnty-seven feet.
We are not dependent upon the Bible
for the story of the flood, entirely. All
ages and all literatures have traditions,
broken traditions, indistinct traditions,
but still traditions. The old books of the
Persians tell about the food at the time
of Ahriman, which polluted the earth
that it had to be washed by great storm.
The traditions of the Chaldeans say that
in the time when Aisuthrus was king there
was great food, and he put his family
and his friends in large vessel ana all
outside of them were destroyed. and after
a while the birds went forth and they
came back and their claws were tinged
with mud. Lucian and Ovid, celebrated
writer's, WHO had never seen the Bible,
described flood in the time of pepealion.
| He took his friends into boat, and the
animals came running to him in pairs. So
all lands. and all ages, and all literatures.
seem to have broken and indistinpt ira
dition of a calamity which Moses, here in
cooperating Noah's account, so grandly,
so beautifully, so accurately, so solemnly
records.
Another hard thing to be unde rstood !:
The story that the sun and moon stood
still to allow Joshua to complete his vic.
tory. In6del scientists declare that an
impossibility. But if man have brain and
strength enough to make clock, can he
not start and stop it, and start it again
and stop it again If machinist have
strength and brain enough to make corn
thresher can he not start 1t and stop it.,
and start it again and stop it again? If
God have strength and wisdom to make
the clock Of the universe, the great ma
| chinery of the worlds. has he not strength
enough and wisdom enough to start it and
stop it, and start it again and stop it
again? Or stop one wheel. or stop twenty
wheels, or stop all the wheels Is the
clock stronger than the clock maker !?
Does tho corn thresher know more than
the machinist Is the universe mightier
than its God,P But people ask how could
the moon have been seen to stop in the
daytime? Well, if you have never seen
the moon in the daytime it is because you
have not been a very diligent observer Of
| the heavens. Besides that it was not
necessary for the world literally to stop.
By unusual refraction of the sun 8 rays the
day might have been prolonged. So that,
while the earth continued on it's path in
the heavens, it fguratively stopped. You
| must remember that these Bible authors
used the vernacular of their own day, just
as you and say the sun went down. The
sun never goes down. Wesimply describe
what appears to the human eye.
Then there is the Bible statement that
whale swallowed j onah and elected him
upon the dry ground in three days. If
you will 60 to the museum at Nantucket.
Mass, you will find the skeleton of whale
large enough to swallow man. / said to
the janitor, while was standing in the
museum, why. it does not seem from
!! the looks of this skeleton that that story
in the Book of Jonah is so very improba-
BILE, does it?' "Oh, no,'' he replied lit
does not.'' There Is cavity in the mouth
of the common whale large enough for a
man to live in. There have been sharks
found again and again with an eLtire
human body in them. Beside that, the
Bible says nothing about whale. II says,
THE Lord prepared great hsh.'' and
there are scientists who tell us that there
were sea monsters in other days that make
the modern whale seem very insignificant.
! know in one place in tie New Tesla
ment it speaks of the whale as appearing
in the occurrence | have just mentioned
but the word may just as well be trans.