The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-02-07


lMs| 1888 $685. days of the Son OF
IlpAST(9R RlJSSEll)I Man"-Luke 17:26.
The ad Ire S S
opened with scathing arrangement OF
Higher Critics. Our richly endowed
colleges, he declared. are undermining
faith in the Bible. which means falth
in personal God, and substituting
scant recognition of the laws or Ma
ture, devoid of sympathy or mercy.
Practically every minister graduated
during the last twelve years has been
believer in human evolution. Dis
belief in the Bible account OF mans
creation in Gods image. means dlsbe-
lief in fall from that image. disbe-
lief in the need Of redemption and rec
oncilia ton. and disbelief in the neces-
sity for the Restitution to be accom-
plished by Messiah's Kingdom.
Pastor Russell said that he does not
question the sincerity Of Higher Crit
les. His own experiences along the
same line forty years ago give him
great sympathy for them. He insist
ed however, that it is not honorable
for those who have abandoned the
creeds to- pose before the public as sup
porters of those creedS. and to draw
salaries and receive honorary titles for
undermining the faith of the people,
while posing as representatives of
Christ and the Bible. He declared such
course dishonest and dishonorable.
The DeIuge Corroborated by History.
The speaker held that Higher Critics
approach every Bible topic from the
standpoint Of unbelief, and declared
that if they would reverse their posi-
lstion and seek for cOrroboratiOns of the
Bible. their success would be better.
These critics, exploring the ruins of
Babylon, found clay tablets rudely pic
turing the ark and containing a few
words about general deluge Instead
of saying that this confirms the Bible
thought. they declare that the Israel
ties in Babylon drew their story of the
De1uge from Babylonian legends. How
silly to suppose that the beautiful Gen
esis account came from few words
lcCOlucU ny I)dOt lOLlduS.
Pastor Russell promised that next
Sunday he would take up the moral
reasons justifying the destruction of
humanity with the Deluge. Through
his sermons, printed weekly in hun
dreds of newspapers, those desiring
might continue with him the study of
the subject.
Geology Confirms the Mosaic DeIuge.
The great difficulty heretofore has
been to harmonic the story of the Del
uge with the shape of the earth. This
has now been met. The Vailian theory
respecting creation shows that when
the earth was in molten state it
threw off minerals in the form of
gases. which on cooling, separated
more or less. according to density, and
must have constituted great rings or
bands about the earth similar to those
of Saturn and Jupiter.
AS the earth cooled, these rings ac-
quired separate motions. because of
their distance, but gravitated slowly
toward the earth. the atmosphere pre-
venting immediate precipitation Grad
ually each would spread out as a great
canopy, gravitating toward the poles,
because of centrifugal force. Finally
the accumulation at the poles would
overcome the resistance of the atmos-
phere, and cause Precipitation.
Many such deluges occurred before
man was created, and from these came
mineral deposits. The last Of these
rings consisted of pure water, and
spread out as canopy when man was
created.
Frozen In Solid Ice.
Recently, in Siberia. mammoth was
found with grass between it's teeth.
frozen solid in thick ice. Similarly. a
deer was found in polar regions with
undigested grass in its stomach. Evil
IDENTIFY the catastrophe which produced
these results was sudden-such as
would occur, according to the Vailian
theory. said the Pastor.
The breaking of the canopy sent a
great food of5water suddenly from the
poles to the equator. Then came the
glacial period. when icebergs floating
down from polar regions cut deep val
leys. ETC.
AS the cold at the poles was extreme,
so was the heat at the equator. Ocean
currents soon set in. which have gradu-
ally modified the arctic regions and
brought the polar ice as great icebergs
toward the equator.
We naturally inquire, Where was the
ark? How was it kept safe? Faith
answers that God undoubtedly protect
ed it. And now Professor Wright tells
us that the region about Ararat con-
tains unusually deep alluvial deposits,
as if it had been settling basin for
the muddy waters of long ago.