The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-31
EDEN AND THE BIG FLOOD.
BISHOP KEENER SAYS NOAH's ARK
WAS BUILT NEAR CHARLESTON.

The Garden of Eden, He Thinks, Was
Somewhere Around There - The
Bishops Graphic Description of
the Landing of the Ark-The Phos-
phate Beds of south Carolina From
the Bones of the Animals That
Didn't Get in - Savannah Might
Have Been in the Edge of the
Garden.
Rev. ]. c. Keener of New Orleans, q
superannuated bishop of \the M. e.
Church South, has recently written
book called 1.-THE Garden of Eden and the
Flood" which because Of its radical
views on the subject is receiving great
deal of attention. The bishop thinks that
the site Of the Garden was at or near
Charleston and also that it was in the
immediate vicinity of that city that
Noah's Ark was built and foated.
Rev Ed. B. Cook, pastor of Wesley
Monumental Church, was asked his opin-
ion of the book and of the value of the
bishops deductions. He said that he
found the work undoubtedly interesting,
and that while he was not conversant
with all of the works previously written
on the probable site of the Garden of
Eden, and, therefore, did not know what
arguments had been advanced in favor of
other sites, he thought that Bishop Keen
er had advanced more evidence in favor
of his hypothesis than could be brought
against it; in other words the preponder-
ance of evidence so far as he knew was
in favor of the bishops theory.
The work is a new one and thus has
moi hno oil cor II
some of the other ministers were unable
to express themselves in regard to it.
| The book is reviewed in the American
| Illustrated Methodist Magazine as fol-
lows:
Bishop ]. c. Keener, in his recently
published treatise, 1.-THE Garden of Eden
and the Flood" is truer to Christian ira
| dition when he locates the sacred garden
| in the west
Agreeing with Luther and Milton in the
obliteration of the Garden of Pleasure,
he would yet, with Columbus, find its or
| lginal site in our Western Hemisphere
| Some relics of its ancient glories may
! still remain. 1T is no great stretch" he
asserts, at the opening of his fifth chap
ter, entitled Eden and Charleston" TO
suppose that among the beautiful groves
of Eden-land there were grottoes and ca
thedrals built by God such as the Luray
|
ed columns, its high Gothic arches, and
even its organ pipes. The white phos-
| plate of lime on the Ashley river would
have presented the material for such re-
| treats of sufficient strength. In the hour
of their alarm, men and beasts would
have sought such shelter. Its vauled
chambers would have held their floating
bodies free from the action of the flood
until its subsistence. When, at the end
Sf n-&l. tn
strata, and all nature disposed by God so
as to throw over man a deeper shadow
and shorter life, then the electric pull
| sations which visited Eden might break
into pieces these remains of Paradise, and
mingIe the bones of domestic animals and
| man with the mastadon and the saurian."
1t will be seen that Bishop Keener in
dulges in a hypothesis which many may
not see fit to allow. He supposes that
| Noah lived at or near the Garden of
Eden, and that our clew to its location is
\ to be found in the collection of animals
| that gathered from all quarters at the
| time of the flood, in order to find a place
| of refuge in the stalls of the great ark
| he gives a dramatic account of this
| reconcentrado movement: 1.-THE buffalo
slowly started it's long lines of movement
and came in thousands to the appointed
place Of rendezvous The huge bulls and
cows of the elephant took up their state
| ly march as to a funeral; the elk of vast
| strength and width of antler; the light
| footed deer; the lion, with lordly gait
erect, one of Gods police; the cautious,
soft-stepping tiger, his rage for blood hid
| den beneath the beauty of his skin: and
| the lesser tribes of creatures-the boar
| with foam upon his tusks; the furtive
wolf, now walking meekly in line with
fiocks of f1eecy sheep; the bearded goat.
the port of dynasties unborn; last of all,
| the horse, with quivering life restrained
| all these, and many more, as if by pre-
concerted signal, conveyed to the one
center Why not? They were about to
leave their bones, at the bidding of their
| Maker, upon the plains of EARTH or else
| to contribute the noblest of their kind to
world that should come after"
Eat this period of the worlds history
the bishop supposes Charleston and its
neighborhood to have been an extended
| plain, possibly ten thousand feet above
the sea. Earthquakes and other cata-
| clysms, however, so changed the whole
face of the western hemisphere that the
plateau sank down TO sea-evel and finally
assumed Its present shape. But the rev.
| erened author is convinced that the fossil
beds of the Ashley river, with their as
tonishing aggregation of varied life now
extinct provide us with ample proof that
I here was gathered together, before The
catastrophe of the flood, the whole ami
NAL creation OF the West
by the first day of November of the
| year 2549 B. c. began the lading OF the
great vessel Doubtless" proceeds the
bishop, numerous parties of armed
herdsmen, mechanics and thousands M
others, came from the neighboring port
to see this marvellous gathering of beasts
and birds, who saw the inspired process
sion of life, wild and tame, as it moved
In majestic tread and order self-segre
gated, and self-divided into bands of sly
teens and tours; the great males in front
and the females following, and lowing for
their young. now left behind forever"
AT length the great ship, equal in size
to modern liner, moved off, and the
catastrophe began which shattered the
existing constitution of things organic
and inorganic. But the devoted vessel
guided by Providence, followed the drift
of the Gulf stream and was finally borne
westward to Armenia. where II grounded
upon Mount Ararat.
Bishop Keener agrees in the main with
the poet Dante in supposing Paradise
in the western hemisphere. Unlike
Dante, he places II north of the equator
supposes it to have been part of a huge
continent, and considers that the catas-
trophe of the flood was associated with
earthquakes which changed 1t from q
high plateau into a plain, almost level
with the ocean. As we have seen Dante