News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-04-04
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR TALMAGEs
STERLING AIsCoURSEs.
Subject: "ToughThings in the Bible


to be understood. Ill Peter ill.,, 16.
The Bible is the most common sense hool,
IN ali the world. But there ara many things
IN 1t which require explanation. 1t all de-
ponds on the mood in which you CONS to this
grand old book. You may take hold of tbs
handle OF the sword or its sharp edge. You
may employ on its mysteries the rule of null
Cphcation or subtraction. There are things.
as my text suggests, hard TO be understood
out snail solve some of them, hoping to leave
upon an honest minded psop.e the impression
1naS II tour or tive of them 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. ''In 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-uo
tion. Though the word may have been in
process of creation fer millions of wears.
suddenly and quickly, and in one week. it
may have been fitted up for mans residence.
just as great mansion may have been
many years IN building, and yet in one week
1t may be curtained and chandeliered and
cushioned and upholstered for bride and
groom
Yon are not compelled to believe that the
world was made in our six days. Itmay not
nave been day of twenty-fOur hours the
day spoken of in the first chapter; it may
have been Gods day, and thousand year;
with Him are as one day. 'And the evening
and the morning were the first day'-Godis
day. And the evening and the morning
were the second day'-God's day. "And tbs
evening and the morn ng were the sixth davF
Gods day. You aud living in the seventh
day. the Sa bath of the world. the day OF
Gospel redemption, tina 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 scoff at that
frss chapter OF Genesis its verses pillows OF
hght surgInE uo from sapphire seas of glory2
The Bible represents that light was created
on Monday, and the sun was not crsated
until Thursday. Just think of it booi:
declaring that light was created three DAYS
before the sun shone Why don't you
know that heat and electricity emit light
independent of thu sun. Besides that, when
the earth was in process of condensation
it was surrounded by thick vapors and the
discharge OF many volcanoes in the primary
period, and all this observation NAV have
hindered the light of the sun from falling OF
the earth Until that Thursday morning
Besides that, David Brewster and Hersche
the astronomer, and all the modern men of
their class, agree in the fact that the sun is
not light, that il is an opaque mass that it is
only tee cand,esSick that holds the light a
phosp- crescent atmosphere floating around it.
changing and changing. so it is NOS to be at
all wondered at that not until that Thurs
day morning its light fell on tina earth. Be-
side that, the rocks in crystalizat:on emit
light There is light from thousand sur
faces, the alkalieS, for instance The metal
&c bases emit light There was a time in the
history of the world when there were
thou an1S of miles of LIQUID granite
flaming with light Beside that. 1t 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 insutferable light, throwing a
oaIl rsf1rTr- ar-f ~
are the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora An
chaliS. A 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 toe vessel
In great alarm from an unusual appearance
1t was a starlight night when suddenly tha
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 sen between the two shores and the /
waves, which before had been tranquil, be-
came agitated. Captain Bonaycast,e de- T
scri6es the scene as that of blazing sheet
of awful and most brilliant iyht-a loaS and
vivid line of light that showed the face of
the high froTEing land abreast. The sky be-
came lowering and more intensely obscure.
Long, tortuous lines of light showed
immense numbers of large fish darling about
as If IN CONSERVATION. The topsail yard
and mizzsn boom wsre lighted by the glare,
as If gaSightS had been burned directly be-
low them, and until just before daybreak,
as O'Clock, the most minute objects were
visible" Ny hearers, there are
ten thousand sources of light besides the
light of the sun.
Another hard thing: The story of the
deluge and Ncah's ark. They say that from
the account there must have rained eight
it might be fifteen cubits above the hills /
They say that the ark could rot have been !
large enough to contain two of every /
Sort" for there would have been hun
dreds o. thousands and hundreds of thou /
sands OF creatures. They say that these /
creatures would have come from all lands /
and all zones. They say there was only ona 4
small window III the ark and that would not /
have given fresh air to keep the animals iii I
side the ark from suffocation They say I
that the ark finally landed on a moun.S in
seventeen thoGsaa feet high. They say they
do not believe the story. Neither do l. There
is no sucl story in the Bible. l will tell
you what the Bible story is. must say that
have changed my mind in regard to some
matters which once were to me very myS
ter.ous. They are no more mysterious. This
is the key to the facts This is the story of an
eye witness Noah, his story incorporated
sfterward by Moses in the account. Noah
described the scens just as it appeared to
him. Ee saw the flood and he fathomed
It's depth AS far as eye could reach
everything was covered up, from no
riZon to horizon, or, as it says, g under the
wno.e heaven" He did not refer to the
sler-a Nevaias or to Mount Washington for
America had no. been discovered. or, if it
had been discovered, he could not have seen
20 Tar o.. he IS giving the testimony of an
sye witness Cod speaSs after the manner of
men when he says everything went under,
and Noah SPEAKS after the manner OF men
when he says everything did 60 under. An
rye witness. There is no need of thinking |
hat the kangaroo leapad the ocean Or that
me pslar bear came down from the ice.
W by did the deluge come! 1t came for the
purpose OF destroying the outrageous inhabit-
ants of the then thinly populated earth,
nearly all the population, probably very near
the ark before it was launched. What would
have Lesn the use of submerging North
and South America or Europe. or Africa.
when they We're not inhabited. And
as to tia skept.cal suggestion thai
in order to have the water as deep as the Bible
states, it must have rsined 800 feet every day.
l reply, the Bible distinctly declares that tia
most of tee fool rose instead o. falling. Be
low tR Or s heaven were opsnsd 4 saws avs
"all the fountains OF the great deep
were broken uD." All geoioZiSts agree
IN saying that there are caverns in the earth
lied with water, and they rushed forth, AMI
I'll the lakes aud rivers fors ook their bel
he fountains of the great deep were broken (
~, and then the windows OF heaven were
'psned 10 is 4 strange thing that we should be
'szed to believe in this food of the Bibe.
when geo-ogists tell US tdat again and again
md again the dry earth has been drowned
'ut! just op<n your geology and You will
cad of twenty foods. Is it not strange that
uhdel scientists wanting us to believe in the
Wenty Hoods OF geological discovery, should,
IS soon as We believe in one food of the
5lble. pronounce US non compos mentis2
Wen, then, alosE n thing, in regari to +
ne size Of the ark Instead os being mud
COW, as some of these skeptics wocid have
nearly as large the Great Eastern. three
lines the szs of an ordinary man-of- wIr
At the time in the world when ship
building was unknown God hal this
vessel constructed, which turned out
70 be almost in ths same proportions
thousands of years of experimenting in naval
architecture and in ship carpentry, we have
At last got up to Noah's ark, that ship lead
ng all the fleets of the world Oh all tia
oceans Well. Moan saw the animal crea-
ion going into this ark. Hegave the ac-
count OF an eve witness They wers
he animals from the region where he
lived; for the most Ulrt thev were animals
Isefnl to man, and il noxious insects Or
reptiles went in, it waSonly TO dis
,ipline thu patience AMI to ksso ale 'e thu
generations after the ho,d. He saw them
going in. There were n great mum or OF
mem, and he gives tho account of zu -
witness They went in two and two OF all
fesh.
Years ago / was on a steamer on the rfwur
Tay, and came to Perth, Scotland got
of. and l saw the most wonderful agricul
bural show that have ever witnessed There
we're horses and cattle such as Rosa Bouhsur
never sketcbed. and there were dogs SUCH as
the loving pencil OF Edwin Landsser never
portrayed, and th.re were sheep and fowl
and creatures of all sorts. Suppose