The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-25
PUZZLES OF THE BIBLE.
UNDERSTANDING OF THE BOOK
DEPENDS ON ONES MOOD.


Noah's Ark Answered.
BROOKLYN, March 24.-At the tabernacle
thus morning, after expounding some pas
sages of scripture in regard to the mys-
tories, the Row. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D.,
gave out the hymn beginning:
| How firm foundation, We saints of the Lord.
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
| The subject Of his sermon was, "Tough
Things in the Bible,n and his text H. Peter
ILL.,, 10: "ln which are some things hard to
be understood" DIR. Talmage said:
The Bible is the most common sense book
in all the world. But there are many things
| In it which require explanation. Il all de-
| ponds On the mood In which you con o to
this grand old book. You m y take hold
OF the handle Of the sword or its arp
edge, You may employ ON its mysteries
the rule of multiplication or subtraction.
| There are things, as my text suggests, hard
| to be understood but shall solve some of
them, hoping to leave upon all honest
minded people the impression that II four
or five Of them can be explained, perhaps
they may all be exclaimed.
Hard thing the first: The Bible says the
world was created in six davs, while geology
SAYS Ii was hundreds OF thousands of years In
process of building. "In the beginning, God
created the heaven and the earth" "in the
| beginning" There you can roll in ten NIL
| lion years II you want to. There is no mar
ttcular date given-no contest between
| science and revelation. Though the world
may have been in process Of creation for
millions of years, suddenly and quickly,
| and in one week it may have been fitted up
for mans residence. Just as a great man
sion may have been many years In building,
and yet in one week it may be curtai Cd
| and chandeiered and cushioned and up
| bnlgtarnI for "a hri1a nd
You are not compelled to believe that the
world was made in our six days IL may
| not have been day Of twenty-four hours.
the day spoken of in the first chapter It
may have boon Gods day, and a thousand
| years with him are as one day. "And the
evening and the morning were the first
| day"-God's day. And the evening and
! the morning were the second day"-God's
| day. "And the evening and the
| morning were the sixth da W
Gods day. You and living in the seventh
day, the Sabbath of the world, the day Of
| gospel redemption, the gran lest 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 a blasphemous twist as to
scott at that first chapter of Genesis, its
verses pillows Of light surging up from sap
phire seas Of gloryi
The Bible represents that light was Gre
|
created until Thursday. Just think OF i'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 whom the earth was in process of con-
densation, It was surrounded by thick
vapors and the discharge of many volcanoes
in the primary period, and all this obscura-
| ton may have hindered the light Of
| the sun from falling on the earth until that
| Thursday morning. Beside that, David
| Brewster and Herschel, the astronomer,
and all the modern men Of their class,
agree in the fact that the sun is not
light, that 1t is an Opaque mass. that it is
only the candlestick that holds the light a
| phosphorescent atmosphere floating around
| 1t, changing and changing, so 1t la not TO be
| at all wondered at that not unti that
| Thursday morning its light fell on the earth.
| Beside that, the rocks in capitalization
emit light There is light
| from thousand surfaces, the
| alkalies, for instance. The metallic bases
| emit light. There was a time in the his
tory OF the world whom there were thou
sands Of miles Of liquid granite flaming with
| light. Beside THAI, il has been found that
| there are burned out volcanoes in other
| worlds which, when they were In explosion
| and activity, must have cast forth an in
suiferabie light, throwing glare ali over
| our earth. Beside that. there are the au-
rora borealis and the aurora australis.
A book on physical science says:
Capt. Bonnycastle coming up the Gulf
OF st. Lawrence on the 18th OF September,
| 1926, was aroused by the mate OF the vessel
in 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 ight, re-
| sembling the aurora. shot ont on the hith-
/ ...l... .s.1r HI 4
! that was so brilliant IL lighted everything
distinctly, even to the masthead. The light
| spread over the whole sea between tho two
| shores, and the waves, which be-
| fore had been tranquil, became
agitated. Capt. Bonnycastle describes the
scene as that OF a blazing sheet of awful
aud most brilliant ight-a long and vivid
line OF light that showed the face of the
| high browning land abreast The sky be-
came lowering and more intensely obscure.
| Long, tor uOus lines Of light showed inn
mense numbers Of large fish darting about
as II Ia CONSERVATION. The topsail yard
and mizzan boom were lighted b. the glare
as II gaslights had been burned directly be-
| low them, and until just before daybl eak,
| at O'Clock, the most minute objects were
| d stinctly visible" My hearers, there are
ton thousand sources Of light besides the
| light OF the sun.
Another hard thing: The story Of the
| ueluR5 anu NDuhh ARK. lDey say InhL from
the account th0re II must have rained eight
hundred feet OF water each day In order
that it might be fifteen cubits above the
| bills. They say that the ark could not have
been large enough 10 contain Two Of every
sort" for there would have been hundreds
Of thousands and hundreds OF thousands of
! creatures They say that these creatures
would have como from all lands and all
zones. They say there was only one small
window in tue ark and that would not
have given fresh air 10 keep the animals
inside tho ark from suifocation. They
say that the ark finally landed on a noun
tain 1900 feet high. They say they do not
believe the story. Neither do |. There is
no such story In the Bible. l will tell you
what tho Bible story -. | must say that
have changed my mind in regard TO some
matters which once were 10 me very
mystic ious. They are no more mysterious.
7 his is the key to tho 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 10 him. Ho
saw the food aud be fathomed It's
depth. As far as eve could reach every
thing was covered up from horizon 10 hori-
z,n, or, as IL says, 'under the whole hea-
ven" He did not refer TO the Sierra Neva-
das, or 10 Mount Washington, for America
had not been discovered, or, II 1t had been