The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-03-29

teen 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 hun,
dreds of thousands and hundreds 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 in.
side the ark from suffocation. They
say that the ark finally landed on q
mountain seventeen thousand 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 must
say that I have changed my mind in
regard to some matters which once
were to me very mysterious They
are no more mysterious. This is the
key to the facts. This is the story
of an eye 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. As far as eye could reach
everything was covered up, from ho-
rizon to horizon, or, as it says, under
the whole heaven" He did not refer
to the Sierra Nevadas, or to Mount
Washington, for America had not been
discovered, or, if it had been discov-
cred, he could not have seen SO far Oft.
He is giving the testimony of an eye
witness. God speaks after the manner
Of men when he says everything went
under, and Noah speaks after the man
ner Of men when he says everything
did 60 under An eye witness. There
is no need Of thinking that the kanga-
roo leaped the ocean or that the polar
bear came down from the ice.
Why did the deluge Gomez Hcame
for the purpose of destroying the out
rageous inhabitants Of the then thinly
populated earth, nearly all the popula-
ton, probably very near the ark
before it was launched. What would
have been the use Of submerging North
and South America, or Europe, or
Africa, when they were not inhabited9
And as to the skeptical suggestion that
in order to have the water as deep as
the Bible states, it must have rained
800 feet every day, I reply, the Bible
distinctly declares that the most of the
flood rose instead of falling. Before
the account where it says 'the win
dows 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 of the great deep were
broken up, and then the windows of
heaven were opened. Is it a strange
thing that we should be asked to be-
lieve in this flood of the Bible, when
biologists tell us that again and again
and again the dry earth has been
drowned out9 Just open your geol-
ogy and you will read of twenty
floods Is it not strange that infidel
wanting us to believe in the
twenty floods of geological discovery,
should, as soon as we believe in one
food Of the Bible, pronounce us non
compoSmentis9
TIE HEAsTs ON THE ARK OF NOAH.
Z Well, then, another thing, in re-
gard to the size of the ark. Instead of
being mud scow, as some of these
'keptics would have us understand,
t was magnificent ship, nearly as
arge as the Great Eastern, three times
he size Of an ordinary man-of-war.
At the time in the world when ship
was unknown, God had this
vessel constructed, which turned out
% be almost in the same proportions
IS our stanchest modern vessels. After
thousands of years of experimenting
n naval architecture and in ship car
oentery, we have at last got up to
Noah's ark, that ship leading all the
1eets OF the world on all the oceans.
Well, Noah saw the animal creation
going into this ark. He gave the &C
count Of an eye witness. They were
he animals from the region where he
lived; for the most part they were ami
mails useful to man, and if noxious in
sects or poisonous 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 were great number of them,
and he gives the account of an eye wit
ness They went in two and two of
all flesh.
Years ago I was on steamer on the
river Tay, and came to Perth, Scot
land. I got off, and l saw the most
agricultural show that I
had ever witnessed There were horses
and cattle such as Rosa Bonheur never
sketched, and there were dogs such as
The loving pencil of Edwin Landseer
never portrayed, and there were sheep
and fowl and creatures of all sorts.
Suppose that two and two" of all the
creatures of that agricultural show
were put upon the Tay steamer to be
transported to Dundee, and the next
lay ! should be writing home to
America and giving an account of the
l would have used the
same general phraseology that Noah
used in regard to the embafkation of
5he brute creation in the ark-I would |
nave said that they went in two and
,wo OF every sort l would not have
meant six hundred thousand. A COM
non sense man myself, l would sup
pose that the people who read the let
er were common sense peOple.