The Washington herald., 1907-07-29
The Bible and the World.


Editor The Washington Herald:
In the Washington Herald Of last Monday
Mr.. David Eccles made many improved
statements which show that he has great
faith in everything called geology or sci
ence. Among other things, he states
that geology attests that death. thorns.
thistles. and crawling serpents existed on
this earth millions of years before the
advent of man. This much may be true,
but the kind Of geology which many have
faith in as a proof that the Bible is
not of God is wholly unreliable. One
among many illustration5 that might be
given, showing how erroneous are the
calculations Cf many scientists $50 called
was presented by an able Bible student
as follows:
The length of time since the creation
of man is variously estimated. Among
those who accept the Bible record. there
can be but little difference Of opinion. but
among those who reject it the differences
are enormous, varying all the way from
ten thousand 10 hundreds Of thousands of
years. These suggestions are based upon
facts which afford but slight ground for
such eXtravagant and reckless conclu-
sions. For instance, the finding Of
flint aTrow-heads in the peat boys of
Switzerland and Ireland, at a consid-
cradle depth below the surface. is taken
ually grew up around and above them:
and the time necessary for such
growth is calculated from the present
rate Of growth per century, which is
very slight. If their premises were true.
OF course It would prove that man had
lived hundreds Of thousands Of years
ago. But other biologists will show. and
with good reason, that these peat boys
We're once so soft that a flint arrowhead
might easily sink to great depth grad
Ually during a few centuries.
Another instance We quote: In max
ing sOundings in the Shiny soil Of the
Nile valley two baked bricks were DIS
covered, one at depth of twenty. the
other Of twenty-four yards If we esti-
mate the thickness Of the annual deposit
formed by the river at eight inches a
century, we must assign~tO the first Of
these bricks an age Of 1900 years and
TO the second that Of 1900 BY means
OF analogous calculations. Burmeister "a
celebrated geologisD suppOses -. 900 years
to have elapsed since the first appearance
of man upon the soil of Egypt: and ORA
per (another noted geolOglsD attributes
TO the European man who witnessed the
last glacial epoch an antiquity OF more
than 29o,WO years prof n Jolly, in
Man Before Metals page 1S)
OF course II We estimate. Just as these
great men do We should reach the same
great conclusions. Bot some Of us are
Unscientific enough to inquire whether It
is not more than probable that the slime
deposits Of the Nile River have been very
irregular, as Of other rivers, which some
times shift their beds and wash away
their banks wonderfully in single
freshet. Again, we remember the flood
OF Noah's day. not only particularly men
toned in the Bible. but preserved in the
Oldest traditions Of the heather nations
and We wonder how much slime and de-
bris that caused, over and above the
eight inches a century We wonder too
why it has not occurred TO these great
minds, as 1t naturally does to some not
too great, that two bricks thrown into
that Shiny soil, at q time when il was
covered with water and very soft, would
sink quite a distance by their own weight.
being so much more dense than the Shiny
soil As for the difference in depth of
the two bricks, it would seem TO an IN
scientific mind much more reasonable to
suppose that the one fell into the slime
edgewise. while the other. falling fat.
would sink more slowly. than 20 suppose
that men living two thousand years apart
made two bricks exactly alike.
IT IS not many years since the skele-
ton OF man was found In a former bed