Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1913 — THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DELUGE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DELUGE

Jesus and the Apostles, History and Science, Support the Genesis Record. The Deluge Philosophically Attested by Hiatory and Geology—Paator Rusaall Dafonda Biblical Account—Higher Critics Hold Responsible For Approaching Anarohy. , ...

Brooklyn, February 2. Pastor Russell today addressed the Brooklyn Congregation now generally known as “The Bible Students.” His text was, “As It was in the days of Noah, so also shall It be in tbe days of the Son of Man.”—Luke 17:26. The address

opened with a scathing arraignment of Higher Critics. Our richly endowed colleges, he declared, are undermining faith in the Bible, which means faith in a personal God, and substituting a scant recognition of the laws of Nature, devoid of sympathy or mercy. Practically every minister graduated during the last twelve years has been a believer in human evolution. Disbelief in the Bible account of man’s creation in God’s image, means disbelief in a fall from that image, disbelief in the need of redemption and reconciliation, and disbelief in the necessity for the Restitution to be accomplished by Messiah’s Kingdom. Pastor Russell said that he does not question the sincerity of Higher Critics. His own experiences along the same line forty years ago give him great sympathy for them. He insisted, however, that it is. not honorable for those who have abandoned the creeds to pose before the public as supporters 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 a course dishonest and dishonorable. The Deluge Corroborated by History. The speaker held that Higher Critics approach every Bible topic from tbe standpoint of unbelief, and declared that if they would reverse their position and seek for corroborations of the Bible, their success would be better. These critics, exploring the ruins of Babylon, found clay tablets rudely picturing the ark and containing a few words about a general deluge. Instead of saying that this confirms the Bible thought, they declare that the Israelites in Babylon drew their story of the Deluge from Babylonian legends. How silly to suppose that the beautiful Genesis account came from a few words recorded by Babylonians! 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 hundreds of newspapers, those desiring might continue with him the study of the subject Geology Confirms the Mosaio Deluge. The great difficulty heretofore has been to harmonize the story of the Delage with the shape of the earth. This has now been met. The Vaiilan theory respecting creation shows that when the earth was in a 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 tbe earth, similar to those of Saturn and Jupiter. As the earth cooled, these rings acquired separate motions, because of their distance, but gravitated slowly toward the earth, the atmosphere preventing immediate precipitation. Gradually each would spread ont as a great canopy, gravitating toward the poles, because of centrifugal force. Finally the accumulation at the poles would overcome the resistance of the atmosphere, and cause precipitation. Many such deluges occurred before man was created, and from these cams mineral deposits." The last of these rings consisted of pure water, and spread out as a canopy when man waa created. Frozen In Bolid Ice. Recently, in Siberia, a mammoth was found with grass between Its teeth, frozen solid In thick Ice. Similarly, a deer was found in polar regions with undigested grass in its stomach. Evidently the catastrophe which produced these results was sudden—such as would occur, according to tbe Vailian theory, said the Pastor. The breaking of tbe canopy sent a great flood of water suddenly from the polee to tbe equator. Then came tbe glacial period, when Icebergs floating down from polar regions cut deep valleys, etc. Am tbe cold at the poles was extreme; so was the beat at the equator. Oceen currents soon set In, which have gradually modified the arctic regions and brought tbe polar ice as great Icebergs toward tbe equator. We naturally Inquire. Where was.the ark? How was it kept safe? Faith answers that God undoubtedly protected it Add now Professor Wright tells us that the region about Ararat contains unusually deep alluvial deposlta, aa If It had been a settling basin far tbe muddy waters of long ago.