Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-04-05
ages and all literatures have traditions,

ages and all literatures have traditions,
broken traditions, indistinct traditions,
put still traditions. The old books of
me Persians tell about the flood at the
time of Ahriman, who SO polluted the
earth that it had to be washed by great
storm. The traditions of the Chaldeans
say that in the time when Xisuthrus was
King there was great food, and he put
MS family and his friends in large
vessel and all outside of them were de-
stroyed, and after a while the birds went
we're tlnged with mud. Lucian and
Ovid, celebrated writer's, who had never
seen the Bible, described food in the
time of Deucalion. He took his friends
into boat, and the animals came run
nlng to him in pairs. So all lands, and
oil ages, and all literatures, seem to
nave broken and indistinct tradition
OF calamity which Moses, here in
cooperating Noahs account, so grandly,
SO beautifully, SO accurately, SO solemnly
records.
My prayer is that the God who created
the world may create us anew in Christ
Jesus; and that the God who made light
three days before the sun shone
that will burn on long after the
sun has expired; and that the
God who ordered the ark built and
Kept open more than one hundred years
that the antediluvians might enter it
Tor shelter, may graciously incline us to
accept the invitation which this morn
ing rose in music from the throne, say
ing: Come thou and all thy house into
the ark"
Another hard thing to be understood:
The story that the sun and moon stood
still to allow Joshua to complete his
victory. Infidel scientists delare that
an lmpossibility. But if man have
brain and strength enough to make o
clock, can he not start and stop it, and
start it again and stop it again? If a
machinist have strength and brain
enough to make corn-thresher, can he
not start it and stop it, and start it again
and stop itegain? If God have strength
and wisdom to make the clock of the
universe, the great machinery 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
the -thresher know more than the
machinist? Is the universe mightier
than its God? But people ask how could
daytime? Well, if you have never seen
the moon in the daytime, it is because
you have not been very diligent OBJ
server of the Heavens. Beside that, it
was not necessary for the world literally
to stop. By unusual refraction of the
suns rays the day might have been pro-
longed. So that, while the earth con-
tinued on its path in the Heavens, it
fguratively stopped. You must remem-
Der 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. We simply describe
what appears to the human eye. Be-
sides that, the world, our world, could
have literally stopped without throwing
the universe out of balance. Our world
has two motions-the one around the
sun and the other on it's own axis. 1t
might have stopped on its own axis,
while at the same time it kept on its
path through the Heavens. So there
was no need of stellar confusion be-
cause our world slackened its speed
or entirely stopped in its revolu-
ton on it's own axis. That is none of
the business of Jupiter, or Mars, or Mer-
curry, or Saturn. or the Dipper. Besides
that, within the memory of man there
have been worlds that were born and
that died. A few years ago astrono-
mers telegraphed, through the Associ-
ated Press, to all the world-the astron-
omers from the city of Washington
Within comparatively short space of
time, astronomers tell us, thirteen
worlds have burned down. From their
observatory they notice first that the
worlds look like other worlds, then they
became deep red, showing they were
on fire; then they became ashen, show
ing they were burned down; then they
entirely disappeared, showing that even
the ashes were scattered. Now, I say,
if God can start world, and swing
world, and destroy a world, He could
stop one or two of them without o great
deal of exertion, or He could by unusual
refraction of the suns rays continue the
illumination. But infdel scientists say
it would have been belittling for other
worlds to stop on account of such bat
tie. Why, sirs, what Yorktown was for
revolutionary times, and what Gettys-
burg was in our civil contest, and what
Sedan was in the Franco-German war,
and what Waterloo was in the Napoleonic
destiny-that was this battle of Joshua
against the five allied armies of Gideon.
It was that battle that changed tho en-
tire course of history. 1t was battle to
Joshua as important as though battle
now should occur in which England and
the United States and France and Ger
many and Italy and Turkey and Russia
should fight for victory or humiliation.
However much any other world, solar,
lunar, or stellar, might belhastened limits
errand of light, it would be excusable if
it fingered in the heavens for little
while and put down it's sheaf of beams
and gazed OF such an Armageddon.
In the early part of this century there
was what was called the Dark Day.
Some of these aged men perhaps may
remember it. It is known in history as
the Dark Day." Workmen at noon went
other homes, and courts and legisla-
lures adjourned. No astronomers have
ever been able to explain that dark day.
Now, if God can advance the night ear
lier than its time, can he not adjourn
the night until after its time? often
used to hear my father describe night
4 think he said it was in 1S33-when
his neighbors aroused him in great
alarm. All the Heavenly bodies seemed
to be in motion. People thought our
aorth was coming tO ifs dastrn cti on