Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-04-12
PALMAGE'S SERMON.
TIE Weakly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: 'sFOugh Things Ina the
Bible.''

TEXT: IN lcafch are some hiaqs hard
to be understood. VII Peter iii., 16
The Bible is the most common sense book
in all the world. But there are many things
in it which require explanation. 1t all de-
ponds 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 null
tiplication or subtraction. There are things,
as my text suggests, hard to be understood
but shall solve some of them, hoping to leave
upon Gll honest minded people the impression
that if four or Eve of thsm 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
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 ten million years if you want to.
There is no particular date given-no
contest between science and rsvela.
ton. Though the word may have been in
process of creation for millions of years,
suddenly and quickly, and in ons week, It
may have been fitted up for mans residence.
just as a great mansion may have been
many years in building, and yet in one week
it may be curtaiued and chandeliers1 and
cushioned and upholstered for a bride and
groom.
You are not compelled to believe that the
world was made in our six days. Itmay not
have been day of twenty-four hours, the
day spoken of in the first chapter; it may
have been Gods day, and thousand years
with Him are eS one day. And the evening
and the morning wore the first day'-God's
day. And the evsaing and the morning
were the second dayh-God'S day. "And the
evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Gods 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 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 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 lighi was created
on Monday, and the sun was not created
until Thursday Just think OF It'll 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 sum- Besides that, when
the earth was in process of condensation,
it was surrounded by thick vapors and tbs
discharge of many volcanoes in the primary
period, and all this observation may have
hindered the light of the sun FIR I'm falling on
the earth until that Thursday morning.
Besides that, David Brewster and Herschel,
the astronomer, and all the mo lern men of
their class, agree in the fact that the sun is
not light, that it is an opaque mass, that it is
only the candiestick that holds the light, a
pHOSDuOTeSC6VbhIIu IOdJlllH AROUND
changing and changing, so it is not to be at
all wondered at that not until that Thurs
day morning its light fell on the earth. Be-
side that, the rocks in crystalizaton emit
light. There is light from a thousand sur
faces, the alkalies, for instance The metal
ic 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 are burned out vol
canoes 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 Besides that, there
are the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora An
chalis. book on physical science says
Captain Bonnycastle, coming up the Gulf
of St Lawrence on the 18th Of September,
1896 was aroused by the mate of the vessel
III great alarm from an unusual appearance.
1t was starlight night when suddenly the
sky became overcast In the direction Of
the high land of CORVALLIS County an in.
Simultaneous and intensely vivid light, re-
sembling the aurora, shot out on
the hitherto gloomy and dark sea
on the lee bow that was so brill.
liant it lighted everything distinctly, even
to the masthead. The light spread over the
whole sea between the two shores, and the
waves, which before had been tranquil, be-
came agitated. Captain Bonnycastle de-
scribes the scene as that of blazing sheet
of awful and most brilliant Ii ght-a long and
vivid line Of light that showed the face of
the high frowning land abreast. The sky b.
came lowering and more intensely obscure.
Long, tortuous lines of light showed
immense numbers of large fish darling about
as il in CONSERVATION. The topsail yard
and mizzen boom were lighted by the glare,
as if gaslights had been burned directly be-
low them, and until just before daybreak,
at O'Clock, the most minute objects were
distinctly visible" Ny hearers, thsre are
ten thousand sources of light besides the
light of the sun.
Another hard thing: The story Of thu
deluge and Noah's ark. They say that from
the account there must have rainsd eight
hundred feet of water each day in order thai
it might be fifteen cubits above the hills
They say that the ark could not have beer
large enough to contain two of every
Sort" for there would have been hun
dreds of thousands and hundreds OF thou
sands of creatures. They say that thos
creatures would have come from all land
and all zones. They say there was only on
small window i'll the ark, and that would no
have given fresh air to keep the animals i'll
side the ark from suffocation. They sa,
that the ark finally landed on a mountai
seventeen thousand feet high. Thay say the
do not believe the story. Neither do l. Ther
is no such story in the Bible. | will tel
you what the Bible story is. | must say tina
have changed my mind in regard to som
matters which once were to me very myi
FERROUS. They are no more mysterious. Til
is the key to the facts This is the story of a
eye witness, Noah his story incorporate
afterward by Moses in the account. Noa
described the scene just as it appeared
him. He saw the flood and he fathoms
its depth. As far as eye could reac
everything was covered up, from h
rizon to horizon, or as it says, under IL
whole heaven" He did not refer to tt
sierra Nevaias or to Mount Washington, fc
America had not been discovered, or, if
had been discovered, he could not have see
80 far off. He is giving the testimony Of a
eye witness. God speaks after the manner
men when he says everything went undo
and Noah speaks after the manner of me
when he says everything did go under. A
eye witness. There is no need of thinkir
that the kangaroo leaped the ocean or TIL
the pslar bear came down from the ice.
Why did the deluge come 1t came for I'll
purpose of destroying the outrageous inhabi
ants of the then thinly populated sart
nearly all the population, probably very ne
the ark before it was launched. What won
have been the uss of submerging Nor
and South America, or Europe, or Afric
as to the skeptica suggestion tn
in order to have the water as deep as the Biz
states, it must have rained 500 feet every da
/ reply, the Bible distinctly declares that Il
most of the hoof rose instea Of falling. T
Gore tbs, account where it saws. ''the wi
''all the fountains of the great de
were broken up" All biologists agr
in saying that there are caverns in the ear
filed with water, and they rushed forth, a
all the lakes and rivers forsook their be
The fountains of the great deep were brok
up and then the windows of heaven we
opened 1t is strange thing that we should
asked to believe in this food of the Bib
when biologists tell us that again and aga
and again the dry earth has been drown
Itot o,,1 IN
read of twenty floods Is it not strange tt
infidal scientists wanting liz TO haiaYa in I