The national leader., 1889-04-13

nearly a month with the matches down
because of some 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 geo.
graphical ignorancel Ararat is not
merely the name for mountain, but
for hilly district, and 1t may have
been a hill one hundred feet high, or
five hundred, or a thousand feet high
on which the ark alighted. Noah
measured the depth of the water above
the hill, and it is fifteen cubits, or
twenty-seven feet.
We are not dependent upon the Bible
for the story of the flood, entirely. ALL
ages, and all literatures 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 pol
luted the earth that 1t had to be
washed by great storm. The tradi-
tions of the Chaldeans say that in the
time when Xisuthrus was king. there
was great flood, and he put his family
and his friends In large vessel,
and all outside Of them were de-
stroyed, and after while the birds
went forth, and they came back, and
their claws were tinged with mud.
LucIan and Ovid, celebrated writer's,
who had never seen the Bible, de-
scribed a flood In the time of Deuca-
L
and the animals came running to him
in pairs. So all lands, and all ages, and
all literatures, seem to have broken
and indlstinct tradition of calamity
which Moses. here Incorporating
Noah's account. so grandly, so beauti-
fully, so accurately, so sOlemnly
records.
JOSHUA'S MIRACLE.
Another hard thing to be understood:
The story that the sun and moon stood
still to allow Joshua to complete his
victory. Infidel scientists declare that
an impossibility. But if a man have
brain and strength enough to make
clock. can he not start it and stop it,
and start 1t again and stop it againp If
a machinist have strength and brain
enough to make corn-thresher, can
he not start 1t and stop it, and start it
again and stop it again? 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 wheels2 Is the clock stronger
than the clocKmaker2 Does the corn
thresher know more than the machin-
istp Is the universe mightier than its
God? But people ask how could the
moon have been seen to stop in the
daytlmeP 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. Besides that, 1t
was not necessary for the world literally
to stop. BY unusual refraction of the
SUMS rays the day might have been
prolonged. So that, while the earth
continued on its path in the heavens, 1t
fguratively stopped. You must re-
member that these Bible authors used
THE vERNACULAR OF THEIR DAY.
just as you and [ say the sun went
down. The sun never goes down. We
simply describe what appears to the
eye. Within a short space of time,
astronomers tell us, thirteen worlds
have burned down. From their obser-
vatory they notice first that the worlds
look like other worlds, then they be-
came deep red, showing they were on
fire; then they became ashen, showing
they were burned down; then they
disappeared, showing that even the
ashes were scattered. Now, 1 say. if
God can start a world. and swing
world, and destroy world, He could
stop one or two of them without
great deal of exertion. or He could by
unusual refraction of the SUMS rays
continue the illumination
But infidel scientists say 1t would
have been bellttling for other worlds to
stop on account of such battle. Why,
sirs, what Yorktown was for revOlu-
tIonary times, and what Gettysburg
was in our civil contest, and what
Sedan was In the Franco-German war,
and what Waterloo was in the Ma
poleonic destiny-that was this battle
of Joshua against the five armies
of Gideon. 1t was thas battle that
changed the entire course of history.
1t was a battle to Joshua as impor-
tant as though a battle now should
occur in which England and the
United States and France and Germany
and Italy and Turkey and Russia
should fight for victory or annihilation.
However much any other world, solar.
lunar, or stellar, might be fastened in
its errand of light, 1t would be excusa-
BILE If it fingered in the heavens for
little while. and put down It's sheaf of
beams, and gazed on such an Ar
mageddon.
In the early part of this century