The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-02-22
IN THE INSTINCTS OF TRUTH
R. F. Roberts Takes Exception to DR.. Fay
1or's View of Light"

lors View of Light"
1t seems strange how the old errors
still cling to us, but perhaps it is more
human than strange. Last Sunday I
listened to a sermon on Light. The
text taken was the first part of the
second verse of the 1O4th psalm: "Who
coverest myself with light as with a
garment" The word Light and it's
core1ative, Life, was the definite topic
of the sermon. The speaker said so
many good and beautiful things relat-
ing to light; so many things that were
true and worthy of being treasured up
in the heart, that any criticism of the
sermon would seem harsh.
The speaker took for his first illus
tratiOn part of the second verse of
the first chapter of Genesis: "Let there
be light" He treated the soca11ed
Mosaic narrative as veritable history.
He said before God created the light
all was darkness and waste. After the
light came life, in all it's varied forms,
until the earth was filled with it.
According to the chronology of Bible
legend, light was created about six
thousand years ago. AS a matter of
! fact there are stars shining on this
earth whose light required millions of
years to travel here.
There is so much truth, knowledge,
and light shining on the Genesis nara
tives that we know absolutely they are
not history, but legendary. Changes
have taken place in the earth that it is
known have required long ages to
bring about; hundreds of thousands of
years and perhaps millions. A simple
analysis of the Mosaic narrative of
creation will demonstrate the fact that
it is legend or a11egory or both. 1t
seems prima faCia that the writer never
wrote it for history. A tree of the
knowledge of good and evil is an i'm
possibility. knowledge is an act of
the mind, and does not grow on trees.
The tree of life of which if man had
eaten of it's fruit he would have lived
forever is simply a creation of the
imagination like the fountain of peren-
NAL youth. The creation of a beast of
the field with the power of speech. and
capable of argument, and superior in
knowledge to Adam, who is said to
have been made in Gods likeness is a
horrible monstrosity. The legend
shows, too, that the serpent told Eve
the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth. 1t said, eye shall not
surely die for God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof then your eyes
shall be opened and We shall be as the
gods to know good and evil
The Creator corroborated the truth
of what the serpent told the woman.
After Adam and Eve had eaten of the
fruit of the tree their eyes were opened
and according to the legend God said:
"Beho1d, now the man is become as
one of us to know good and evi1''.
The truth cannot injure the Bible
and really l believe there are very few
persons who want to injure the Bible
or see it injured. Theological teachers
have read into the Bible errors, which
have been believed and taught by the
best men. In these days of light and
knowledge there is certainly no excuse
for longer holding these errors. Truth
in the Bible and truth in nature do not
conflict. There is nothing grander
than truth, nothing more essential.
While there are essential truths borne
between the lines of the narrative of
the creation there is not one historical
fact or truth in it. Man can only be-
come like God by eating of the fruit OF
the knowledge of good and evil In
stead of falling in doing this he ascends,
becomes as the gods.
r. F. ROBERTS.
Woodwork, Wis.