Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-04-06

The question has often been de-
bated why the wicked are allowed
to live. Wouldn't it be good
thing for the world if all the evil
people IN it could suddenly be cot
rid of. Suppose we could get to-
gethe1 all the drunk3rds and thieves
and liars and ibertines and blasp-
hemers and murderers and big and
little rascaIs of every description
in and out of prison-and could take
them out in leaky boat onto the
Pacific ocean where the water Is
five miles deep and sink them to the
bottom of the sea-should we not at
once have a regenerated earth and
q world equal to paradise? But we
forgot that, that sort of scheme has
been tried once and it didn't work.
There was a great wash day. The
earth was scrubbed and soaked and
disinfected TO get rid of evil and the
ground had not become thoroughly
dry before sin broke out again in a
most unexpected quarter. The fact
is there is so much depravity in the
best of us that not human being
would be left if sin was to be
eliminated by drowning those who
practise it.
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The tree of humanity has been
cut down TO the root but when it
sprouted again it bore the same
fruit. 1t has been settled that
water cannot drown iniquity. Fire
cannot burn it out. Hoofs cannot
trample it out. Hammers cannot
pound it out. Prisons cannot punish
It out. Education cannot grow 1t
out. The millennium never will be
introduced by these methods. Still
If the experiment of the flood had
not been tried there are a lot of
little reformers would have taken
credit for the idea and would have
been prolific of argument to show
the feasibility of it. And there are
q good many people now who don't
believe such a thing ever happened.
And they ask speculative questions
about the size OF the Ark and the
extent of the food and the cargo
and the supplies and who the ship
carpenters were and how Noah
came to be acquainted with marine
architecture and how he embarked
all his miscellaneous cargo and
where they landed and why no
portions of that Great Eastern of
antedeluvian days has ever been
found and a thousand and one
queries that may or may not have
any bearing on the case. And
weakened disciples get frightened
because they cannot answer these
tool questions and begin to talk
about a flood of limited area and
limited depth and end by admitting
that the whole thing may have been
an allegory. Nonsense!
-
Noah faced these same questions
in his day. He was the butt OF ridi-
cule for a century. He lived In a
hornets nest of abuse and derislon.
But he never spent any time adVls-
ing the critics as to how he was
going to do it. His only answer to
their iibes and jeers was the re-
solute whack of his hammer against
the cyprus sides of his ship-gro "
ing by inches before their eyes.
There were people up TO the. day the
flood started who expressed the
opinion that it wasn't going to he
much of shower. But they chang
ed their tune soon afterward. This
Is not the main question. The main
auestiOn is: How is this old world
to be made decent place to live lng
That was the question then and
that is the question now. There
are some people who look upon sin
ss a Wart on the hand that may be
eaten off with sharp acid. They
saw it is only a knot in lite's string
that a child may unite. They re-
gard it as little grit on the smooth
wheel which tissue paper will re-
move. On the contrary it ~ a
gangrene and the limit must be
amputated to save the body from
complete destruction. In Noah's
day it was choice between leaving
the world to be destroyed by a flood
of lust and brutality that was roll
ing on fathoms deep to eXtermina-
ton or cleansing and purifying it
by water. 1t was Gods flood
against mans food.
-
still it is a comforting thing to
know that it will never happen
again. Mere destruction has been
proved a failure. Destruction may
be necessary but it is never an in