The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-19

EVIDENCE OF DESIGN.
"Six centuries ago the Cathedral of Co
logne was begun. Periods of toll were sue
ceeded by longer periods of rest. The
work was often interrupted sometimes by
famine. sometimes by war. sometimes by
plaques but after these six hundred years
had passed, islands lost and continents dis
covered, new races born and others passed
to ancient historys page, eighteen genera
tions of workmen having come and gone.
this matchless piece of frozen music stands
to-day like poem in stone How did they
ever happen to hit it so correctly? What
foolish question, yet the same that is
daily asked concerning the Bible. 1t needs
but tyro to reply that workmen, build
ing better than they knew simply followed
the plans OF the architect. But grander
than poems in stone, though cut in the
rock of ages, the Bible, like a building
block by block rose on, not for six but for
sixteen, yea, perhaps twenty centuries, yet
not a niche unfinished and not stone mis-
placed. There is but one answer: Holy
men of old spoke they were moved by
the Master Builder, the Holy Ghost. 1t is
not sufficient to say, We do not under
stand it, so must reject it. How little We
understand of all that we see in Ire 10
you understand why these two little
threads so delicate and light have power
over the air? This first one is the optic
nerve, the nerve of sight; the second one
the auditory nerve the nerve of hearing.
One graSpS a set of vibrations in the ar
with firmest grip and brings them to the
tympanum of the ear where they become
sound, sometimes of sweetest harmony
and sometimes of widest dscord. The
other takes no cognizance OF these put
grasps a set more delicate and paints upon
the retina of the eye the varied panorama
of nature. An infidel once replied: l can
explain it. 1t is a different arrangement
of its molecules | laughingly replied: You
have given about as much information
the Wag physician gave the old woman
when she asked why a certain medicine
Cl Fpnllp6 because
it's soporifc qualities, madam The high
est magifying power of the microscope re-
veals no difference in their anatomical or
Molecular construction. The fact is we
understand but little of the most common
phenomenon witnessed in nature we re-
ceive most things on faith because they
while historically the Book has never
been found in error, each fresh turn IiG or
fresh evidences of it's historical accuracy.
The stones by the wayside have yielded IN
children of Israel during their wilderness
wanderngs and they corroborate the Scrip
ture account. Around the antiquity of man
much discussion has conferred Anthropol-
ogists have estimated all the way from
90 900 to 100 900 900 years for mans existence
on earth, but the proofs and demonStra-
tons have scattered to the winds as have
most other similar proofs for historical
facts controverting Scripture. Now, IN the
first place, there is no such thing as an
"A similar history is connected with the
skeleton of Gaudaloupe and the conglom-
crate fossil rock of Derbyshire; the fossil
human bones of Natchez Tenn, and the
skeleton found near New Orleans, all
passed through similar experiences ana
were at last reegated to the common bone
yards of recent dates A certain scientist
calculated that it would require 10000 years
for the building of the coral reefs on
Florida but another of as reliable author
ity says that in the Indian ocean twenty
seven feet were formed in one year, While
the estimate of Huxley on the age of Mag
a changed
from Buffalo to Nashville These are but
half a dozen instances taken at random
from numberless similar experiences.
1.-The Metropolis or city OF t.1e dead IN
ancient Egypt has yielded to the archae-
ologist a rare find in the vast number OF
mummeS of young persons in one section,
hastily embalmed and slowed away like
cordwood. DIR. Frank De Haas says: For
scientific purposes we examined many OF
these remains and to our surprise, found
them mostly young persons, with heads
thickly coated with straight black hair. all
their teeth sound, their bodies well proper
toned and full of habit as if they had died
suddenly. They also appear to have been
embalmed hastily, simply wrapped in
swathing bands and dipped in common
pitch or bitumen. AS it was here, or near
this, that Moses wrought his miracles be-
fore Pharaoh and as this was the Necrop~
oils for all Egypt may not some OF these
be the victims of divine wrath who persisted
on that awful night, when the destroying
the first born the flower and hope of the
family in every Egyptian household?
Crank De Haas, D. D., in Buried Cities
"The tombs of the Pharaohs have yielded
long unbroken lines of mummies, with one
exception. namely, the Pharoah Of the
Exodus In the Bulaq Museum, at Cairo,
his place is a vacancy, for his mummy is
missing, while on his monument his eX-
ploits are chronicled, and something is said
concerning his ancestors but the record
breaks off abruptly with, and then and
there it stops. He has no tomb. The chron-
ology which we find in our Old Testaments,
II IS
man-made like the chapters and verses,
and is the work of Archbishop Usher. If
man should be satisfactorily proven to
have existed 900 years (Which there is
little chance of 1T need not shake our
faith in the Bible.
FALLACIES OF SCIENTISTS
"In the year 1851 Mr. Leonard Horner
was deputed by the Royal Society of Lon
don to make some interesting investiga-
tions in the valley of the Nile. Assisted by
many workmen, he sunk shafts across the
valley from east to west, made deep bor
ings and brought to light vases, pottery,
burnt brick, etc. Then, of course. fol-
lowed estimates. So far down, 1900 years;
next stage 10000; next, $4,000, and so on.
When mans antiquity in the Nile valley
had been established for several more thou
sands of years, and might have gone on
indefinitely. 10, they suddenly came upon a
broken statue of RameSeS IL, then the
stamp OF the Greclan noneySucKIe ana otner
things showing that the very Oldest relics
eXcaVated did not antedate Alexander the
Great, who was crowned king Is. G. 1876.
Prof Henry BrugSch, the Psychologist,
published a book on the seven years tam
inc in Egypt 1t contains an account of in
scriptions on the rock near the first cata-
quences under one of the Pharaohs. The
volume contains not only the translation
but the text. and from the ancient hero
ord. One of the most interesting among
recent discoveries was made in the long
lost treasure city of PithOm. Under the
Greek name Bu-BaStiS 1t was not identified
with tho city of Joseph for many centuries
but excavations brought to light inScrip-
tons which proved it to be the Pa-Tum of
the Egyptians and the Pi-Thom of the He
brewS. Here, among other interesting dis
coveries, Miss Edwards mentions the find
ing of the three varieties of brick, as fol-
lows Now, it is an interesting fact that
the Pithom bricks are of three qualities.
In the lower corners of those massive cellar
walls they are mixed with chopped straw
higher up. where the straw may be sup
posed to have given out, the clay is found
to be mixed with reeds-the same kind of
reeds which grow to this day in the bed of
the Pharaonic canal, and which are trans
lated as Stubble in the Bible; finally when
the last reeds were used up, the bricks of
the uppermost courses consist of mere Nile
mud, and with no binding substance what
ever. SO. here we have the whole pathetic
Bible narrative Surviving in solid evidence
up to the present time. We go down to the
bottom of one Of these cellars, we see the
good bricks for which the straw was pro-
vided. Some few feet higher we see those
for which the wretched Hebrews had to
seek reeds or stubble; We hear them cry
straw?" Lastly, we see the bricks which
they had to make and did make without
straw while their hands were bleeding and
their hearts breaking. Shakespeare tells us