Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-12-28


full of sulphur and birthstone that it
stings your tongue, and for hours you
can not get rid of the nauseating drop
the scientist then digging down and
flnding sulphur on top of sulphur,
birthstone on top of birthstone, Wac
all round there are jets, and crags, and
peaks of salt, and if one of them did
not become the sarcophagus of Lots
wife, they show you how human be-
Ing might in that tempest have been
matted and packed into a white monu-
ment that would defy the ages.
But now, you do not really believe
that New Testament story about the
earthquake at the time Christ was cru
Gifted, do you? Geology digs down
into Mount Calvary and finds the rocks
ruptured and aslant, showing the work
or an especial earthquake for that
mountain, and an earthquake which
did not touch the surrounding region.
Go and look for yourself, and see there
a dip and cleavage of rocks as nowhere
else on the planet, Geology thus an
nouncing an especial earthquake for
the greatest tragedy of all the CEN
turies-the assination of the Son Of
God.
If anything in the history or condi-
ton of the earth seems for the time
contradictory of anything in geology,
you must remember that geology is
and more coming to harmonization
with the great Book. In the last century
the French Scientific Association"
printed list of eighty theories of ge-
ology which had been adopted and
afterward rejected. Lyell, the scient-
list, announced fifty theories Of geol
ogy that had been believed in and aft
erwards thrown overheard. Mean
while the story of the Bible has not
changed at all, and il geology has
cast out between one and two hundred
theories which it once considered es-
tablished. we can afford to wait until
the last theory of geology antagoniz-
ing divine revelation shall have been
given up. Now, in this discourse up
on the geology Of the Bible. or God
among the Rocks, charge all agitat-
ed and affrighted Uzzahs to calm their
pulses about the upsetting Of the Scrip
lures. Let me see! For several hun
dred years the oxen have been jerking
the ark this way and that, and pulling
it over rough places and trying to stick
1t in the mud Of derision, and kicking
with all the power Of their hoofs
against the sharp goads, and trying
to pull it into the cool shade away from
the heats Of retribution from God
who will by no means clear the gull
ty." Yet have you not noticed that
the Book has never been upset? The
only changes made in it were by its
learned friends in the revision of the
Scriptures. The book of Genesis has
been Numbered against by the might
lest batteries, yet you cannot today
find in all the earth copy Of the BIZ
BILE which has not the fifty chapters
of the first copy Of the book of Gene
sis ever printed, starting with the
.,
closing with Joseph's coffin. Fierce
attack on the book of Exodus has been
made because they said it was cruel
to drown Pharaoh, and the story Of
Mount Sinai was improbable. But
the book of Exodus remains intact,
and not one Of us. considering the
cruelties which he would have con-
tinued among the brick kilns Of Egypt,
would have thrown Pharaoh plank if
we had seen him drowning. And Mount
Sinai Is today pile of tossed and
tumbled basalt, recalling the cataclysm
of that mountain when the law was
given. And, as to those Ten Com
mandments, all Roman law. all Ger
man law, all English law. all American
law worth anything are squarely
founded on them. So mighty assault
for centuries has been made on the
Book of Joshua. 1t was said that the
story of the detained sun and moon
is an insult to modern astronomy; but
that Book of Joshua may be found to-
day in the chapel Of every university
IN America, III uSudlCc VI any t6leScOpe
projected from the roof of that univer-
sity. The Book OF Jonah has been the
target Of ridicule for the small wit Of
ages; but there 1t stands. with its four
chapters inviolate, while Geology puts
ND in its museums remains of sea mon
sters capable Of doing more than the
one which swallowed the recreant
prophet. There stand the one thou
sand and eighty-nine chapters Of the
Bible, Notwithstanding all the attacks
of ages. and there they will stand until
they shrivel up in the final fires. which
biologists say are already kindled and
glow hotter than the furnaces of an
ocean steamer as 1t puts out from New
York Narrows for Hamburg or South
ampton. | should not wonder If from
the crypt of ancient cities the inspired
manuscripts Of Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John, in their own chirography,
would be taken. and the epistles which
Paul dictated to his amanuensis, as
we'll as the one in the apostles own
handwriting. At the same ratio OF
archaeological and geological confirma-
ton of the Scriptures, the time will
come when the truth of the Bible will
no more be doubted than the common
almanac, which tells you the days and