— Tough Things in the Bible, “In which are some things hard to be un- ferstood.’”” 11 Peter 3:16. The Bible is the most common-sense book in all the world, But there are many things in it which require ex- planation. It all depends on the mood in which you come to this grand old book. You may take hold of the handle of the sword or its sharp edge. You may employ on its mysteries the rule of multiplicatien or substraction. There are things, as my text suggests, hard to be understood, but I shall solve some of them, hoping to leave upon all honest-minded people the impression that if four or five of them can be ex- plained, perhaps they may all be ex- plained. 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 beginning.’’ There you can roll in ten milllon years if you want to. There is no particular date given—no contest between sclence 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 for 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 up- holstered for a bride and groom, You are not compelled to believe that the world was made in our six days. It may not have been a day of twenty-four 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 even- ing 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 redemp- tion, the grandest day of all the week in which each day may have been made up of thousands of years, THE CREATION OF LIGHT. The Bible represents that light was created on Monday, and the 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 light independent of the sun? Beside 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. Beside that, David Brewster and Herschel the as- tronomer, 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 candle- | stick that holds the light, a phos- phorescent 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. Beside that, the rocks in crystallization emit light. There is light from a thousand surfaces, the alkalies, for instance, The metallic bases emit light, There was a time in the history of the world when there were thousands of miles of liquid gran- ite flaming with light. Beside that, it has been found that there are burned- out volcanoes in other worlds which, when they were in explosion and activ- ity, must bave cast forth an insuffer- able light, throwing a glare all over our earth. Beside that, there are the Au- | rora Borealis and the Aurora Anchalis, Another hard thing: THE STORY OF THE DELUGE and Noah's ark. They say that from the account there it must have rained eight hundred feet of water each day in order that it might be fifteen 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 hundreds of thousands | and hundreds of thousands of creatures. They say that these creatures would | have come 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 ani- mals inside the ark from suffocation, They say that the ark finally landed on a mountain seventeen thousand feet high. They say they do not believe the story. Neither do I. There is no such story in the Bible, I will tell you what the Bible story is. I must say that 1 have changed my mind In regard to some matters which once were to me very mysterious. They are no more myste- rious. This is THE KEY TO THE FACTS, This is the story of an eye-witness, Noah, his story incorporated afterward by Moses in the account, Noah des- cribed the scene just as it appeared to him, He saw the flood and he fathom- ed its depth. As far as eye could reach everything was eovered up, from horizon to horizon, or, as it says “under the whole heaven.” He did not refer to the Sierra Nevadas, or to Mount Washingten, for America had not been discovered; or, if it bad been discover- ed, he could not have seen so far off, He is giving the testimony of an eye- witness, God speaks after the manner of men when he says everything went under, and Noah speaks after the man- uer of men when he says everything did go under, An eye-witness, There is no need of thinking that the 100 leaped the ocean or that the po! bear came down from the ice, Why did the deluge come? It came it says ‘*the windows of heaven were opened,” it says, ‘‘all the fountains of the great deep were broken up.” All the geologists agree in saying that there are caverns in the earth filled with water; and they rushed forth, and all the lakes and rivers forsook their bed. 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 Bible, 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 believe in the twenty floods of geological discovery, should, a8 soon 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 these sceptics would have us understand, it was a magnifi- cent ship, nearly as large as the Great Eastern, three times the size of an ordinary man-of-war, At the time in the world when ship-buildiog was unknown, God had this vesssl constructed, which turned out to be almost in the same proportions as our stanchest modern vessel, After thou- sands of years of experimenting in naval architecture and in ship-car- pentry, we have at last got up to Noah’s ark, that ship leading all the fleets of the world on all the oceans. creation going into this ark. He gave the ac. count of an eye-witness, They were the animals from the region where he lived; for the most part they were ani- sects 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 AN EYE-WITNESS, They went in two and two of all flesh, Years ago I was on a steamer on the river Tay, and 1 came to Perth, Scot- land. I got off, and I saw the most wonderful agricultural show that I had ever witnessed. There were horses and cattle such as Rosa Bosheur never sketched, and there dogs such as the loving pencil of Edwin Landseer never portrayed, and there were sheep fowl, and creatures of all sorts. Suppose that “two and two" of all the creatures of that agricultural show were put upon the Tay steamer to be transported to Dundee, and the next day I should be writing home to America and giving an account of the would have usel the phraseology that Noah regard to the embarkation of same general in have said that they went in two and I would not have meant six hundred thousand. A com- mon sense man myself, I would sup- “But how could you get them into “How He would have to pick them out Could not the same God who gave 1- INSTINCT the TO SEEK FOR SHELTER storm? However, nothing ordinary animal Instinct hander seen the affrighted fowl go upon the at noouday, and heard the dog and cat calling at the And are world, when there were fewer places of dumb beasts, at and rumbling and flash- and quaking and darkening an approaching deluge, the ani- creation came moaning and the sloping embankment ing have owned sheep or a dog that was so stupid it did it mained, And then, that one window in the ark which afforded so poor ventila- tion to the creatures there assembled— that small window in the ark which excites so much mirthfulness on the If they knew as much Hebrew as you could put on your little finger-nail they would have known that that word translated window there means window-course. Those IGNORANT INFIDELS do not know a window-pane from twenty windows, So If there is any criticism of the ark, there seems to be too much window for such a long storm. And as to the other charge, that the windows of the ark must have been kept shut, and consequently all inside would have perished from suf- focation, I have to say that thers are people in this house to-day who, all the way from Liverpool to Barnegat light. house, and for two weeks, were kept under deck, the hatches battened down because of the storm. Some of you, in the old-time sailing vessels, were kept nearly a month with the hatches down because of some long storm, Then infidels say that the ark landed on a mountain seventeen thousand feet high, and that, of course, as soon as the animals came forth they would all be frozen in the ice. That is geo. graphical ignorance! Ararat is not merely the name for a mountain, but for a hilly district, and It may have been & hill one hundred feet high, or five hundred, or a thousand feet high on which the ark alighted, Noah measured the depth of the water above the hill, mnd it is Afteen cubits, or twenty-seven feet. for the ages, and all literatures and his friends In a large vessel, and all outside of them were de- stroyed, and after a while the birds went forth, and they came back, and their claws were tinged with mud, Lucian and Ovid, celebrated writers, who had never seen the Bible, de- scribed a flood mm the time of Deuce lon. He took his friends into a boat, and the animals came running to him in pairs. So all lands, and all ages, and all Nteratures, seem to have a broken and indistinet tradition of a calamity which Moses, here incorporating Noah's account, so grandly, so beautl- fully, so accurately, so solemnly records, JOSHUA'S MIRACLE. 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 braln and strength enough to make a clock, can he not start it and stop it, and start 1t again and stop it again? If a machinist have strength and brain enough to make a corn-thresher, can he not start it and stop it, and start it again and stop it again? If God have strength and wisdom to make the clock of the universe, the great machinery of the worlds, has _He pot strength enough and wisdom enough to start it and stop It, and start it again and stop it again? Or stop one wheel, or stop twenty wheels, or stop all the wheels? Is the clock stronger than the clockmaker? Does the corn- thresher know more than the machin- Is the universe mightier than its But people ask how could the have been seen to stop in daytime? Well, if you have never seen the moon in ths daytime, it is because you have not been a very diligent ob- server of the heavens, God? to stop. By uuusual refraction of the sun’s rays the day might have been prolonged, So that, winle the earth figuratively stopped. You must re- THE VERNACULAR OF THEIR DAY, just as you and I say the sun went The sun never goes down, We simply describe what appears to the eye. Within a short space of time, astronomers tell us, thirteen worlds have burned down. From thelr obser- vatory they notice first that the worlds look like other worlds, then they be. came a deep red, showing they were on burned then &£Yen Now, I say, down; the were scattered, if can start stop one or two of them without a But infidel scientists say it would Why, sirs, what Yorktown and what Gettysburg in our civil contest, and what Sedan was In the Franco-German war, Waterloo was in the Na- waa of Joshua the of Gideon. against five armies It was that battle that entire course of history. battle to Joshua as impor. tant as though a battle now should occur in which England and United States and France and Germany and Italy and Tarkey and Russia its errand of light, 1t would be excusa- beams, and gazed on such an Ar- In the early part of this century THE DARK DAY. It is known in history as the “Dark Day.” Workmen at noon went to their homes, and courts No astron- until my father describe at night—I think he All the People thought our earth was its destruction. Teus of thousands of stars shooting. No as- tronomers have ever been able to ex. plain that star-shooting. Now, does not your common sense teach you that if God could start and stop tens of thousands of worlds or meteors, Lie could start and stop two worlds? JONAH AND THE WHALE. 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 mu- seum at Nantucket, Mass., 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 of this skeleton that that story In the Book of Jonah is so very improbable, does it?’ “Oh, no,” he replied, “it does not. There is a cavity in the mouth ef the common whale large enough for a man to live in It. There have been sharks found again and again, with an entire human body in them. Besides that, the Bible says nothing about a whale, It says, “The Lord prepared a great ish} nd there are scientists who that there were sea monsters in other days that make the modern whale seem very ificant, I know in one place in the Now ‘Les tament it speaks of the whale as ap CSR CH HL SNE SL, Besides that, my friends, there 18 one word which explains the whole thing. It says, “The Lord prepared a great fish,” If a ship carpenter prepare a vessel to carry Texan beeves to Glas- gow, I suppose It can carry Texan beeves; if a ship carpenter prepare a vessel to carry coal to one of the north. ern ports, I suppose it can carry coal; if a ship-carpenter prepare a vessel to carry passengers to Liverpool, I sup- pose it can carry passengers to Liver- pool; and if the Lord prepared a fish to carry one passenger, I suppose it could enrry a passenger, and the venti- lation have been all right. Bo all the strange things 1n the Bible can be explained if you wish them ex- plained, And you can bulld 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 you against putting off making up your mind about this book. Ever since 1772 there has been great discus. sion as to who was the author of Junius’ Letters, those letters so full of sarcasm and vituperation and power, The whole English nation stirred up with it, More than a hundred volumes written to discuss that quastion: “Who was Junius?” “Who wrote the letters of Junius?” Well, it is an interesting question to discuss; but still, after all, it makes but hittle practical difference to you and to me who Junius was, whether Sir Philip Francis or Lord or of the forty-four men who charged with the any one 18 AN OVERWHELMING QUESTION Holy Bible—whether the Lord dupes, scoundrels or impostors. cannot afford to adjourn that than a sea~captain can afford to say: this is a shore, In the morning the vessel bs on the rocks and the beach with the white faces Oh, wy friends, 1 you to understand that in our delibera tion, about this Bible we are not at calm anchorage, toward the it shipwreck, 1 was so glad to read in the papers of the fact that the steamship Edam had harbor. A week be- find out.” might strewn must Kn harbor or coast, and I in golng to be hundred signals of distress, and found the Narrows, § miles out, saw the was THE STEAMSHIP “"'EDAM." She had two hundred passengers on board, The merciful captain of the Persian Mon- ire endeavored to bring her in, but the tow-line broke. Ile fastened again, but Then the the merciful of the Persian Monarch lay thinking nn the morning he give rescue to the passengers. came, but daring Edam had and captain se} 1 i i i $ saying how sad he telt because he could not give complete rescue to that lost her sut when 1 saw Lhe steamship Edam, drifting, 1 do where, but with no rudder, harbor, no help, that know light. not no And then when of the Persian anchored in harbor, I said: “THAT IS A CHRISTIAN, that is a man who does all be can on voyage into the harbor, there safe and Would God that there go forth and bring in these souls that In this assemblage, how about anything. Drifting, drifting, drifting. Oh, how I would like to tow them in! 1 throw you this cable, Lay hold of that cable of the Gospel! Lay hold of it! I lavite you all in, The harbor 18 wide enough, large enough for all the shipping. Come in, O you wanderers of the deep, Drift no more, drift no more. Come into the harbor, See the glorious light house of the Gospel. ‘‘Peace on earth, good will to men.” Come into the har- bor, God grant that it may be said of all of you who are now drifting in your unbelief as It might have been said of the passengers of the steamship Edam, and as it was said centuries ago of the wiecked corn-ship of Alexandria, “It came to pass that they all escaped safe to land.” Church Titles, An archbishop is & high bishop, and is the chief of the clergy of a province, A vicar general 1s an assistant to an archbishop or bishop. A ‘‘vicar” is chaplain of the pope 1s called monsig- nor; this 18 a sort of brevet title, I means literally, ‘My Jord.” Just as: attendan sovereign ts are lords ana ladies, 80 the are made lords by Table mats made of seine Hine a1 well, two sets of them will last almost a life time, If your rough, rub them flat-irons are with fine malt, it will make smooth, | Ra SUNDAY SCHOO! LESSON. BupaAy Arnin 14, 1839. The Rejected Son, LESSON TEXT. Mark 12: 1-12. Memory verses, 6.8. LESSON PLAN, Toric or THE Finishing Hus Work. Jesus QUARTER: GOLDEN TEXT FOR THE QUARTER: I have glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.—John 17 : 4. Lesson Toric: Deprecating a Res { 1. The Servants Rejected, va, 1-5, 2 The Bon Bejoctod, va, 6-5, 2. The Doom Tnourred, va, 9-12 GOLDEN Tex? : He came unto his own, and his received him not.— John 1:11. Day HoME READINGS: M.—Mark 12 1-12. ing a rejection, T.—Matt, 21 : 33 - 40. narrative, : 9-190, Lesson Outline: own parallel W.—Luke lel narrative, Acts 14-52. 20 Crond’ t g ded 1 It fell: and great was the fall thereof (Matt, 7: 27) He will miserably destroy those miser- able men (Matt, 21 : 41). These shall go away into eternal punish. ment (Matt, 25 : 46), 2. “He will come and husbandmen, (1) 1 proach; (2) Deserved The terrific coming; plete destruction, . “The stone which the builders jected,” ( he wt (2) The builders: destroy the ndignant ap- penalty .- 1) (2) The com- és He } s rejection, J. “The same was made the head of the corner.’ (1) Rejected of men; (2) Exalted of God. LESSON BIBLE READING, JESUS REJECTED. Rejection foretold (Psa. 2 : bs * 3). tejection recorded (Jolin 1 John 5 : 43), Hlustrated {Mark 10 : 14; John © Acts 2 : 23 Hustrated in his (Matt, 10 : 14 17 : 32, 33: { Penalty o in Jus 21 iG. . Ot. 1 :e tA: 1] ’ yas “td je personal Luke 9 : 30. 40; (x01; ANALYSIS, REJECTED. LESSON THE SERVANTS he Vineyard: Ian planted i (Mark 11 i Ing hosanna { the morning o other night spen the incident | Matthew coml | two mornings { the entrance nto thirdl dav $1 Dart word Wind) cay, Liere began a series The Messengers: He sent. ...th i he might rec What man The Rejection: I. § HE BON I. The Beloved Son He had vet one, He seu them al : 37 1 will 20 : 13). He gave his 3 : 16). God, sending his « sin (Rom, 8 : 3). IL. The Murderous Plot: 1 his £1 is 3 a Ix 1 unio Wi Son... condemns heir: come, let us suffer many things be killed (Matt, 16 : That they might take and kill him { Matt, 26 : 4), Thi gaght the more to kill him (Join & : 18). Is not this he whom they seek to kill? {John 7 : 251. IL The Crowning Crime: They took hb and killed him, and 1 “hd le 1 Jesus by sul Jews 8 im, {®). They. ...cast him forth, and killed him { Matt, 21 : 30). There they crucified him {Luke 23 : ..¥e....did crucify and . “nd. yey ord le slay Acts 2 : Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree {Acts 5: 30), 1. “He had vet one, a beloved son: he sent him.” (1) The rejected ser- vants; (2) The remaining son; (3) The final appeal, 9. “Come, let us kill him.” A mur- derous plot (1) Devised; (2) An- nounced; (3) Executed.-—-{(1} The plot in the vineyard; (2) The plot at Calvary. 3. “They took him, and killed him, and cast him forth,” {1) The son captured; (2) The son killed; (3) The son cast out. IL THE DOOM INCURRED, I Fear: They feared the multitude:....and they left him (12), When your fear cometh as a storm {Prov. 1: 27). The wicked flee when no man pursueth (Prov. 28 : 1), For fear of him the watchers did quake (Matt, 28 : 4). A certain fearful ex tion of judg- ment (Heb, 10 : 27), IL Defeat: The stone. .. rejected, .... was made the head of the corner (10). The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you (Matt, 21 : 43), ; He will ive the vineyard unto others (Luke 20 : 16). Til he hath Saka his enemies under his feet (1 «16 : 25). In tho name of Jesus every knee should bow (Phil. 2 : 10), IL Destruction, Ha Jill comand destroy the husband. : [ { part, The rulers asking our Lor referring to t temple, This assault a counler-question | i sin The i the cavilers his Matthew $3 tw vie $ | JOBS inat challenge i 10 the Then comes the The place was the 12th Nisan, A. D. 30. Parallel passages: Matthew 46; Luke 20 : 9-19. hm A Picture of Married Life. in Life at domestic Dr, Aikman, a picture of the Home § pug £3 £ Hn wile or a mo- engross his M- perplexed down by he ex- home at night, and en- imagining that anylling could iex and trouble from his work shop or oflice perhaps, by some bad bargain, annoyed by stupid workmen, or unreasonable employer, or morose from s ill-spoken word, and | expects to be received with It matlers not how surly his looks may { be, he expects his wife to be, in dress, in countenance, in word, all sweetness and amibility, He may have no pleas- { ant word, may take his place moodily at the table, but Lis wife's words he expects to be affectionate and ber iooks full only of gladness. “What can my wife bave to trouble her, all these household affairs are but trivial | matters, compared with men’s business | affairs.” During thissame day the poor | little wife has gone through a long and weary routine of arduous and annoying household duties, She has been tolls | ing with family work and vexatious care Lill her heads aching and feet and hand and heart are sore with the | worry. The tea is dispatched silently, | very likely with sombre complaints over the trials he has had during the day, or the badness of the times, and { then the evening paper is taken in hand | and read over and over until the very | advertisements are devoured, or the ! readers face is bowed upon the erum- | pled page in sleep, Or, if he be not | weary enough for that he seizes his hat { and rushes for the Reading Room, or | more probably for the lounging place | where such as he do congregate; there, with fragment of cigar in his band and desultory talk from his lips, he lingers till the noise of the closing shutters warns him to leave. He goes at last howe again, because he can go nowhere else. Meanwhile the wife has, with a heavy heart and tired step, got the little ones into bed and, as best she could, has worn away the long hours of the evening in loneliness, Should a thought of his selfishness or injustice cross the mind of the husband, he responds, with ready self compla- tention. him and when the weight o HE is, when he to have his couragement, RIT ty sympathy aurnug Have occurred his wife, He the ss GAY TT perp wun « Boured, or miles =a LES,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers