St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-01-22
GEOLOGY OF TIE BIBLE.
Rev. DIR. Talmage Discourses on
God Among the Rocks"


/ leTeSt 10 ALI nc OeOlOKy u Tic Di-
Bile. or. God Among the Rocks" 1t is
based ON the text:
l And when they came to Nachon's thr eshing
| foor Uzzah put forth his hand ID the ark OF
| God and took hold OF it; for the oxen shook it.
| And the anger of the Lord was kindled against
! Czzah. and God smote him there for his error;
| and there he died by the ark Of Coil Sam
| uei, vi, 81. %E
A band of music is coming down the
road, comets blown, tim brels struck,
harps thrummed. and cymbals clapped,
all led on by David, who was himself a
musician. They are ahead of q wagon
on which is the sacred box called the
Ark" The yoke of oxen drawing til G
wagon imperiled it Some critics say
that the oxen kicked. being struck
with the drivers goad, but my knowl-
edge of oxen leads me to say that il on
a hot day they see shadow OF tree
or wall, they are apt to suddenly shy
| off to get the GOODNESS OF the shadow.
| l think these oxen SO suddenly turned
| that the sacred box seemed about to
| upset and be thrown to the ground.
| Uzzah rushed forward and laid hold of
the ark to keepit upright. But he had
| no right to do so. A special command
had been given by the Lord that no
one. save the priest, under any circum'
| stances, should touch that box. Nervous
and excited, and irreverent, Uzzah dis
| obeyed when he took hold of the ark,
and he died as consequence. In all
ages, and never more so than in our
own day. there are good people all the
hot he ~ 81
is the sacred ark of our time, will be
upset. and they have been a long while
| afraid that science, and especially ge-
ology, would overthrow it While we
are not forbidden to touch the Holy
Book, and, on the contrary, are urged
to fondle and study it. anyone who is
afraid of the overthrow of the book is
greatly offending the Lord with his
unbelief. The oxen have not yet been
yoked which can upset that ark of the
worlds salvation. Written by the
Lord Almighty. He is going to protect
it until its mission is fulfilled and
there shall be no more need of Bible,
because all its prophecies will have
| been fulfilled aud the human race will
have exchanged worlds.
A trumpet and q violin or very differ
emit instrument, but they may be
played in perfect accord. So the Bible
account of the creation OF the world
and the geological account are differ
ent One story written on parchment
and the other on the rocks, aad yet in
perfect and eternal accord. The word
day., repeated in the first chapter of
Genesis, has thrown into paroxysms OF
criticism many exegetes- The Hebrew
word "yom" of the Bible means some
times what we call a day, and some
times it means ages; it may mean
twenty-four or hundred million
years. The order of creation as writ
| ten inthe Book of Genesis is the order of
creation discovered by biologists crow
bar. Some many Uzzahs have been
nerviously rushing about for fear the
strong oxen of scientific discovery
| would upset the Bible that went
somewhat apprehensively to look into
| the matter, when l found that
the Bible and geology agree in saying
that first were built the rocks; then
the plants greened the earth; then
| marine creatures were created, from
minnow to whale; then the wings and
| Lhroats of aerial choirs were colOred
and turned, and then quadrupeds be-
gan TO bleat, and below, and neigh.
What is all this fuss that has been
filing the church ana the world. con-
| corning fight between Moses aud
Agassiz? There is no fight at all. But
is not the geological Impression that
the world was millions Of years build
ing antagonistic to the theory of one
| weeks creation in Genesis? No. A
great house is to be built. A man
takes years to draw to the spot the
foundation stone and the heavy
timbers. The house is about
done, but it is not finished
for comfortable residence. Sud-
denly the owner calls in upholsterers.
plumbers, gas-itters. paper-hangers.
and in one week it is ready for occu-
pancy. Now, it requires no stretch OF
Imagination to realize that God could
have taken millions of years for the
bringing of the rocks and the timbers
of this world together, yet only one
week more to make it inhabitable and
to furnish it for human residence. Re-
member. also. that all up and down the
Bible the language Of the times was
used-common parlance-and it was
not always TO be taken literally. just
as we say every day that the world is
round, when it is not round. 1t il
spheroidal-hatten at the poles and
protuberant at the equator. Prof.
Smell, with his chain Of triangles, and
Prof. Varin, with the shortened PEN
dulum Of his clock, found it was not
round; but we do not become critical
of anyone who says the world is round.
Let us deal fairly with Moses or Job as
we do with each other.
Butfor many years good people feared
geology, and. without any imploration
on their part apprehended that the
rocks and mountains would fall on
them, until Hugh Miller, the elder of
St Johns Presbyterian church in Edin-
burgh, and parishioner of DIR. Guthrie,
came forth and told the world that
there was no contradiction between
the mountains and the church, and O.
nj. Mitchell, brilliant lecturer before
he became brigadier general, dying ut
Beaufort, S. c.. during our civil war,
took the platform and spread his map
of the strata of rock in the presence of
great audiences, and Prof. Alexander
Winchell. of Michigan university, and
Prof. Taylor Lewis, of Union college.
showed that the without form
and void" of the frst chapter of Gene.
sis was the very chaos ont of which
the world was formulated. the hands
Of God packing together the land, and
tossing up the mountains into great
heights. and fiinging down the seas
into their great depths Before God
gets through with this world there
will hardly be book of the Bible that
will not find confirmation, either in
archaeology or geology. Exhumed
Babylon. Ninevah. Jerusalem, Tyre
aud Egyptian hieroglyphics are crying
out in the cars of the world: 1.-The