Milford chronicle., 1889-03-29


that we should be asked to believe in this
tlood Of the Bible, when geologists tell US
that again and again and again the dry earth
has been drowned outi Just open your
geology and you will read Of twenty nOods
Is it not strange that iuiidel scientists want
ing US to believe in the twenty foods of
geological discovery should, as soon as we
believe in the one flood OF the Bible. pro
nounce us non compos mentisi
THE BEASTS ON THE ARH OF NOAH
Well, then, another thing in regard TO the
size Of the ark Instead of being mud scow,
as some Of these skeptics would have us un-
derstand, it was a magnificent ship, nearly as
large as our Great Eastern three times the
size Of an ordinary man-of-war. At the time
in the world when ship building was un-
known God had this vessel constructed, which
turned out to be almost in the same pro
portions as our stauchest modern vessels.
After thousands of years Of experimenting in
naval architecture and in shipcarpentery, we
have at last got up to Noah's ark, that ship
leading all the feets Of the world on all the
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 useful to man, and if nox-
ious insects or poisonous reptiles went in it
was only to discipline the patience and to
keep alert the generations after the hooA he
saw them going III. There we're n great num-
Der Of them, and he gives the account Of an
eye witness. They went in two and two Of
all flesh.
Years ago | was on a steamer ON the river
Tay, and came to Perth, Scotland ! got
Off and saw the most wonderful agricultural
show that had ever witnessed. There were
horses aud cattle such as Rosa Bonheur never
sketched and there were dogs such as the
loving pencil of Edwin Landseer never por-
trayed, 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 day
should be writing home TO America and Civ
ing an account Of the occurrence, l would
have used the same general phraseology that
Noah used in regard to the emharkation Of
the brute creation in the ark would have
said that they went in two and two Of every
sort would not have meant six hundred
thousand. A common sense man myself, /
would suppose that the people who read the
letter were common sense people.
"But how could you get them into the
be induced to go into the ark He would
have to pick them out and drive them in and
coax them i'm Could not the same God who
gave instinct to the animal inspire that in
stinct TO seek for shelter from the storml
However, nothing more than ordinary ami
NAL instinct was necessary. Have you never
been in the country when an August thunder
storm was coming up, and heard the cattle
nt hn IN oct in "a r
frighted fowl go upon the perch at monday,
and heard the affrighted dog and cat calling
at the door, supplicating entrancel And are
you surprised that in that age of the world,
when there were fewer places of shelter for
dumb beasts, at the muttermg and rumbling
and flashing and quaking and darlsening of
an approaching deluge, the animal creation
came moaning and bleating to the sloping
embankment reaching up to the ancient
Great Eastern, and passed inf have owned
horses and cattle and sheep and dogs, but |
never had a horse or a COW or a sheep or a
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
ssembled-that small window in the ark
which excites so much mirthfulness on the
part Of infdels. If they knew as much He
brew 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 of lights. Those ignor-
ant infdels do not know window pane from
twenty windows. So, if there is any criti-
cism Of the ark, there seems to be too much
window for such a long storm. And as to
the other charge that the windows Of the
ark must have been kept shut, and conse-
quently all inside would have perished from
suffocation, have to say that there are peo-
pie in this house today who, all tho 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 sailing vessels, were
kept nearly month with the matches down
because Of .ome long storm.
Then infidels say that the ark landed on a
mountain seventeen thousand feet high, and
that, of course, as soon as the animals came
forth they would all be frozen in the ice
That is geographical ignorancel Ararat is
not merely the name for a mountain, but for
a hilly district and it may have been a hill
one hundred feet high, or five hundred, or a
thousand feet high on which the ark alight-
ed. Noah measured the depth Of the water
above the hill, and it is fifteen cubits or
twenty-seven feet
Ahl my friends, this story of the ark is nc
more incredible than if you should say to me-
"Last summer l was among the hills Of New
England and there came on the most terrific
storm ever saw, and the whole country was
flooded. The waters came up over the hills
and to save our lives we got in boat ON the
river, and even the dumb creatures were Sc
affrighted they came moaning and bleating
until we let them in the same boat"
We are not dependent on the Bible for the
story Of the food, entirely. All ages and ali
Gteratures have traditions, broken traditions,
indistinct traditions, but still traditions The
old books Of the Persians tell about the flood
at the time of Ahriman, who so polluted tho
earth that it had to be washed by great
storm. The traditions Of the Ghaldeans say
that in the time when Xisuthrus was king
there was a great flood, and he put his family
and his friends in large vessel and all out
side 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 writers, who had never
seen tho Bible, described flood in the time
/ Of Deucalion. etook his friends into boat
and the animals came running to him in
pairs So all lands, and all ages and all lit
tinct tradition Of a calamity which Moses
here Incorporating Noah's account, SC
grandly, 50 beautifully, 50 accurately, 50
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, may kindle in our souls
a light that viii burn on long after the sun
Y II
the ark bailt and kept open more than one
hundred years that the antediluvians might
enter it for shelter, may graciously incline us
/ to accept the invitation which this morning
rose in music from the Throne, saying; Come
4 thou and all thy house into the ark"
AN EXPLANATION OF ANOTHER OLD TESLA
MENT WONDER
/ Another hard thing to be understood; The
story that the sun and moon stood still to
! allow Joshua to complete his victory. lnfidel
scientists declare that an impossibility. But