The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-30

not been discovered, or, if it had been DIS
covered, he could not have seen so far OFF.
He is giving the testimony of an eye-wit-
ness. God speaks after the manner OF
men when He says every thing went I'M
der, and Noah speaks after the manner of
men when he says every thing did go I'M
der. 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.
Well, then, another thing, in regard to
the size of the ark. Instead of being
mud scow, as some of those skeptlcs
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 staunchest modern YES
sells. After thousands of years OF expe-
rimenting in naval architecture and ii
ship carpentery, we have at last got up
to Noah's ark, that ship leading all the
fleets of the world on all the oceans.
Well, Noah saw the animal creation go
ing into this ark. He gave the account OF
an eyewitness. They were the animals
from the region where he lived; for the
most part they were animals useful to
man, and if noxious insects or poisonous
reptiles went in it was only to discipline
the patience and to keep alert the gener-
ations after the food. He saw them 60
ing in. There was great number 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?" asked infidel scientists. Chow
could they be induced to go 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
shelter from the storm? However, moth
ing more than ordinary animal instinct
was necessary. Have you never been in
| the country when an August thunder
storm was coming up and heard the cattle
moan at the bars to get in? and seen the
afrighted fowl go upon the perch at noon
day, and heard the affrighted dog and cat
calling at the door, supplicating entrance?
| And are you surprised that in that age OF
the world, when there were fewer places
of shelter for dumb beasts, at the mutter-
| ing and rumbling and flashing and quak-
/
uge, the animal creation came moaning
and bleating to the sloping embankment
reaching up to the ancient Great Eastern
4 and passed in? | have owned horses and
cattle and sheep and dogs, but l never had
| a horse or COW or a sheep or dog that
was so stupid it did not know enough to
come in when it rained. And then, that
one window in the ark which afforded
such poor ventilation to the creatures
there assembled-that small window in
the ark which excites so much mirthful-
ness on the part of infdels. If they knew
as much Hebrew as you could put on your
little finger nail they would have known
that that word translated window there
means window course, a whole range for
lights. Those ignorant infdels do not
know window pane from twenty win
dows. So if there is any criticism of the
ark, there seems to be too much window
for such long storm. And as to the other
charge that the windows of the ark must
have been kept shut, and consequently all
inside would have persisted from suffoca-
ton, have to say that there are people
in this house to-day who, all the way
from Liverpool to Barnegat lighthouse,
and for two weeks, were kept under deck,
the matches battened down because of the
storm. Some of you, in the old-time sail
ing vessels, were kept nearly a month
with the matches down because of some
long storm.
Another hard thing to be understood:
The story that the sun and moon stood
still to allow Joshua to complete his vic
tory. Infdel scientists declare that an
impossibility. But if man have brain
!. | an 6CtT 10Th ncrh fn 10 oIn
he not start it again and stop it again? Ii
machinist have strength and brain
enough to make crop thresher, can he
not start it and stop it, and start it again
} and stop it again? If God have strength
and wisdom to make the clock of the uni
verse, the great machinery of the worlds
has He not strength enough and wisdom
: enough to start it and stop it
| and start ii again and stop il
agains Or stop one wheel, or stop twenty
wheels, or stop all the wheels? Is the
, clock stronger than the clock maker
Does the corn thresher know more thar
the machinist? Is the universe mightiel
than its God? But people ask how
, could the moon have been seen to stol
in the daytime? Well, if you hav,
never seen the moon in the daytime
: it is because you have not been
very diligent observer of the heavens
: Besides that, it was not necessary for tn
t world literally to stop. By unusual re
! fraction Of the SUMS rays the day migh
| have been prolonged. So that, while thu
, earth continued on it's path in the heavens
} it iguratively stopped. You must remem
: Der that these Bible authors used the yer
J nacular of their own day, just as you ant
I say the sun went down. The sun neYe
f goes down. We simply describe what ap
4 pears to the human eye. Besides that
e the world, our world, could have LITERAL!
i. stopped without throwing the univers
: out of balance. Our world has two mo
g tions-the one around the sun and tn
l other on its own axis. 1t might hav
y stopped on its own axis, while at the sam
l time it kept on its path through the heav
9 ems. So there was no need of stellar con
: fusion because our world slackened it
y speed or entirely stopped in its revolution
S on its own axis. That is none of the bus
mess Of Jupiter, or Mars, or Mercury, O
Q Saturn, or the Dipper.
t Besides that, within the memory of ma
g there have been worlds that were Dor
h and that died. A few years ago astrono
S mers telegraphed, through the Associate