Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1889 — TALMAGE ON THE BIBLE. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE ON THE BIBLE.

jkKSE tRDHUNABLETO SUBSTANTIATE SCIENTIFIC SLURS. * ••Tough Things in the Bible” Viewed in a Common-Sense Light—The Creation and Flood. * • • - The subject of Dr. Talmage’s sermon last Sunday was, “Tough Things in the Bible,” and his text, IL Peter, iil, 16: “In which are some things hard to be’ understood.” Dr. Talmage said: The Bible is the most common-sense book in all tbe world. But there are many things which require an explanation. It all depends on the mood in which you come to this grand old book. You may take bold of the handle of the sword or its sharp edge. You may employ on its mysteries the rule of multiplication or subtraction. There are things, as my text suggests, hard; to be understood, but I shall solve some of them, hoping to leave upoq all honest-minded people the impression that if fouitor five of them can be explained, perhaps they may all be explained. Hard thing the first! The Bible says the world was created in six days, while geology says it was hundreds of thousands of years in process of building. “In the beginning, *God created the heaven and the earth.” “In the the beginning.” Thtre you can roll in 10,000 years, if you went to. There is no particular date given—no contest between science and revelation. Though the world may have been in process of creation for millions of years, suddenly and quickly, and in one week, it may have been fitted up tor man’s residence. Just as a great mansion may have been many years in building, and yet in one week it may be curtained and chandeliered and cushioned and upholstered for a bride and groom. You are not compelled to believe that the world was made in our six days. It mav not have been a day of twentyfour hours, the day spoken of in the first chapter, it may have been God’s day, and a thousand years with him are as one day. “And the evening and the morning were the first day”—God’s day. “And the evening and the morning were the second day”—God’s day. “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day”—God’s day. You and I living in the seventh day, the Sabbath of the world, the day of Gospel redemption, the grandest day of all the week, in which each day may have been made up of thousands of years. Can you tell me how a man can get his mind and soul into such a blasphemous twist as to scoff at that first chapter of Genesis, its verses billows of light surging up from sapphire seas of glory? The creation of light The Bible represents that light was created on Monday, and tbe sun was not created until Thursday. Just think of it! A book declaring that light was created three days before the sun shone! Why don’t you know that heat and electricity emit heat and light independent of the sun? Besides that, when the earth was in process of condensation, it was surrounded by thick vapors and the discharge of many volcanoes in the primary period, and all this obscuration may have hindered the light of the sun from falling on the earth until that Thursday morning. Besides that, David Brewster and Herschel, the astronomer, and all the modern men of their class, agree in the fact that the sun is not light, that it is an opaque mass, that it is only the candlestick that holds the light, a phosphorescent atmosphere floating around it, changing and changing, so it is not to be at all wondered at that not until that Thursday morning its light fell on the earth.

Another hard -thing: The story of the deluge and Noah’s Ark. They say that from the account there it must have rained 800 feet of water each day in order that it might be 15 cubits above the hills. They say that the ark could not have been large enough to contain “two of every sort,” for there would have been hundred of thousands of creatures. They say that these creatures would from all lands and all zones. They say there was only one small window in the ark, and that would not have given fresh air to keep the animals inside the ark from suffocation. They say that the ark finally landed on a mountain 17,000 feet bight. They say they do not belieie the story. Neither do I. There is no such fitory in the Bible. I will tell you What the Bible story is. I must say that I .have changed my mind in regard to some matters which onpe were to me very mysterious. They ate no more mysteries. This is the key to the facts. This is the story of an eye witness. Noah, hia story incorporated afterward by Moses in the account. Noah described, the scene jlist as it appeared to him. He saw the flood and he fathomed its depth. As far as eye could reach everything was covered up, from horizon, or, as it Bays, “under the whole heaven.” fie did not refer to the’ Sierra Neyadas, or to Mount Washington, for America had not been discovered, or, if it had been discovered, he could not h av ® seen so for off. He is giving the testimony Of ah eye-witness. God speaks af|er the mannifoqf men when he says everything went under;- and Noah, speaks after the manner of men When he says everything did go under. An eyewitness. Tuere is nd uejßd of thinking that the kangaroo leaped the <qcehb or that the polar bear came Jojvn from the ice. Why did the deluge comfe? It carni&; for the purpose of destroying the outrageous inhabitants of the then thinly populated earth, nearly all the population, probably very near the Ark before it was launched, What would have been the use of submerging North and South America, or Europe, or Africa, when they were not inhabited? And as to the skeptical suggestion than in order to have the water as deep as the Bible states, it must have rained 800 feet every day, I feply, the Bible distinctly declares that the most of the flood rose instead of falling. Before the account where it. saya “the windows of heaven were opened.” it says, “all the fountains of the great deep were broken np.” All geologists agree in saving that there are cayernsiu the earth filled with water, and they rushed forth, and all the lakes and rivers forsook their beds. The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and then the windows of heaven were opened. Is it a strange thing that we should be asked to believe in this flood of the Biole, when geologists tell us that again and again and again the

dry earth has been drowned out! Just open your geology and you will read of twenty floods. Is it not strange that infidel scientists wanting us to belieye in the twenty floods of geological discovery, should as sosn as we believe in one flood of the Bible, pronounce us non compos mentis. Well, then, another thing, in regard to the size of the ark. Instead of being a mud scow, as some of those skeptics would have us understand, it was a magnificent ship, nearly as large as the Great Eastern, three times tbe size of an ordinary man-of-war. At the ti ne in ‘the world when ship building was unknown, God had this vessel constructed, which turned out to be almost in the same proportions as our staunchest mo fom vessels. After thousands of years of experimenting in naval architecture and ship carpentry, we have at last got up to Noah’s ark, that ship leading all the fleets of the world on all the oceans. Well, Noah saw the animal creation going into this ark. He gave the account of an eye witness. They were the animals from the region where he lived; for the most part they were animals useful to man, and if noxious insects or poisonous reptiles went in it was only to discipline the patience and to keep alert the generations after' the flood. He saw them going in. There were a great number of them, and he gives the account of ah eye-witness. They went/to two and two of all flesn. Phen infidels say that the ark landed on a mountain 17,000 feet high, and that, of course, as soOn as the animals came forth, they would all be frozen in* the ice. That is geographical ignorance! Ararat is not merely the name for a mountain, but,for a hilly district* japd it may have been a hill 100 feet high,. or 500; or 1,000 feet high oh which the ark alighted. * Noah measured the depth Of the water above the hifoand it is. 15 cubits, or 27 feet. Ahl iny friends, thia, story of the ark is no more incredible than if you should say to me: “Lati; summer I was among the hills oi New England, and there came on the most terrific storm I ever saw, anfl the whole country was flooded. The waters came up over the hills, and to save our lives we got in a boat on the river, and even the dumb creatures weje so affrighted they egme moaning and bleating until we lefthem in the same boat.”

My prayer is that the God. who created the world may create us anew in Christ Jesus; and that the God who made the light three days before the sun shone may kindle in our hearts a light that will burn on long after the aun has expired; and that the God who ordered the ark built and kept it open morejthan 10J years that the antediluvians might enter it for shelter, may graciously incline us to accept the invitation which this morning rose from the throne, saying: “Come thou and all thy house into the ark.” Another hard thing to be understood: The story that the sun and moon stood still to allow Joshua to complete his victory. Infidel scientists declare that an impossibility. But if a man have brain and strength enough to make a clock, can he not start it and stop it, and start it again and stop it again? Is a world greater than its God? But, people ask, how could the moon have been seen to stop in the daytime? Well, if you have never seen the moon in the daytime, it is because you have not been a very diligent observer of the heavens. Besides that, it was not necessary for the world literally to stop. Bv unusual refraction of the sun’s rays the day might have been prolonged. 8o that, while the earth continued on its path in the heavens, it figuratively stopped. You must remember that these Bible authors used the

■vernacular of their own day, just as you and I say the sun went down. The sun never goes down. We simply describe what appears to the human eye. Besides that, the world, our world,* could have literally stopped without throwing the universe out of balance. Our world has two motions-the one around the sun and tne other on its own axis. It might have stooped on its own axis, while at the same time it kept on its path through the heavens. So there was no need of stellar confusion because our world slackened its speed or entirely stopped in its revolution on its own axis.

, Besides that, within the memory of man, there have been worlds that were born and that died. A few years ago astronomers telegraphed, through the Associated Press, to a l the world—the astronomers from the city of Washington—that another world had been discovered. Within a comparatively short spafle of time, astronomers tell us, thirteen worlds have burned down. From their observatory they notice first that the Worlds look like other,worlds, then they became a deep-red, showing that they were on fire; then they became ashen, showing that they were burned down; then they entirely disappeared, showing that even the ashes were scattered. Now, I say, if God can start a world, and swing a world, and destroy a world, he could stop ope or two of them without a great deal of exertion, or he could by unusual refraction of the suh*S rays continue the illumination. But infidel scientists say it would ha Vo been belittling for other worlds to stop on account of such a battle. Why, sirs, what Yorktown was for Revolutionary times, and what Gettysburg was in our civil contest,,and what Sedan wasinthe Franco-German war, and what Waterloo was in the Napoleonic destiny—that was this battle of Joshua against the five allied armies of Gibeom It was that battle that changed the entire course of history. It was'.A battle to Joshua as important as though a battle now should occur in Whie ' England and the United States and France and Germany and Italy and Turkdy and Russia should fight for victory or annihilation. However much any other world, solar, lunar or stellar, nqight be hastened !n its errand of light, it would be excushbteif tt lingered in the Keavens for a little while anfl put down its sheaf of beams and gazed on such an Armageddon. Then there is the Bible statement that a whale swallowed Jonah and ejected him upon the dry ground in three days. If you will go to the museum at Nantucket, Maas., you will find the skeleton of a whale’large enough to ’swallow a man. I said to the janitor, while I was standing in the museum, “Why, it does not seem from the looks bf this .skeleton that that story in the Book of Jonah is so very improbable, does it?” “Oh, no,” he replied, “It doeb not” There is a cavity in the month of the common whale large enough for a man to live in. There have been sharkes found again and again with an efitire human body in them. Besides that, the Bible save nothing about a whale.

• It says, “The Lord prepared a great fish;” and there are scientists who tell us - that there were sea monsters in other days that make the modern whale seem Very insignificant I know in one place .in the New Teatament it speaks of the whale as appearing in the occurrence I have just mentioned, but the word may just as well be translated “sea monster” —any kind of a sea monster. Procopius says, in the rear 532, a sea monster was slain which had for fifty years destroyed ships. — ■ I suppose this sea monster that took care of Jonah may have been one of the great sea monsters that could have easily taken down a prophet, and Ke could have lived there three days if he had kept in motion so as to keep the gastric juices from taking hold of him and destroying him, and at the end of three days the monster would naturally be sick enough to regurgitate Jonah. Besides that, my friends, there is one word wnich explains the whole thing. It save: “The Lord prepared a great fish.” So all the strange thipgs in the Bible can be explained if you wish to have them explained. And you can bujld them into a beautiful and healthful fire for your hearth, or you can with them put your immortal interests into conflagration. But you had better decide about the veracity of the Bible very soon. I want this morning to caution J ou against putting off making up your find about this book. Ever since 1772 there has been great discussion as to who was the author of Junius’ Letters, those letters so full of sarcasm and virtuperaiion And power. The whole English nation stirred up with it. More than 100 volumes written to discuss that question, .“.Who was Junius?” “Who wrote the letters of Junius?” Well, it is an interesting question to discuss, but still, after all, it makes but little practical difference to you and to me who Junius was, whether Sir Philip Francis, or Lord Chatham, or John Horne Tooka or Horace Walpole, or Henry Grattan, or any one of the forty-four men who were, seripusly charged with the authorship; But it is an absorbing question, it is a practical question, it is an overwhelming question to you and to me, the authorsbio of this Holy Bible—whether the Lord God ot Heaven and earth or a pack of dupes, scoundrels or impostors. We can not afford to adjourn that question a week or a day or an hour. Would God that there might be some one to-day who would go forth and bring in these souls that are drifting. In this assemblage, how many a score shall I say, or a hundred, ora thousand?—not quite certain about the truth of the Bible, not certain about anything. Drifting, drifting, drifting. Ob, how I would like to tow them in. I throw you this cable. Lay hold of that cable of the Gospel. Lay hold of it. 1 invite you all in. The harbor is wide enough, large enough for all the shipping. Come in, oh you wanderers on the deep. Drift no more, drift no more. Come into the harbor. See the glorious lighthouse of the Gospel, “Peace on earth, good will to men.’’