218 LIGHTS OF THE CHUKCH AND SCIENCE vi 



found the following judicial and judicious deliver- 

 ance, the skilful wording of which may adorn, 

 but does not hide, the completeness of the sur- 

 render of the old teaching : 



"Without pronouncing too hastily on any fair inferences from 

 the words of Scripture, we may reasonably say that their most 

 natural interpretation is, that the whole race of man had be- 

 come grievously corrupted since the faithful had intermingled 

 with the ungodly ; that the inhabited world was consequently 

 filled with violence, and that God had decreed -to destroy all 

 mankind except one single family ; that, therefore, all that 

 portion of the earth, perhaps as yet a very small portion, into 

 which mankind had spread was overwhelmed with water. The 

 ark was ordained to save one faithful family ; and lest that 

 family, on the subsidence of the waters, should find the whole 

 country round them a desert, a pair of all the beasts of the land 

 and of the fowls of the air were preserved along with them, and 

 along with them went forth to replenish the now desolated 

 continent. The words of Scripture (confirmed as they are by 

 universal tradition) appear at least to mean as much as this. 

 They do not necessarily mean more. 1 



In the third edition of Kitto's " Cyclopedia of 

 Biblical Literature" (1876), the article "Deluge/' 

 written by my friend, the present distinguished 

 head of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, ex- 

 tinguishes the universality doctrine as thoroughly 

 as might be expected from its authorship ; and, 

 since the writer of the article " Noah " refers his 

 readers to that entitled "Deluge," it is to be 

 supposed, notwithstanding his generally orthodox 

 tone, that he does not dissent from its conclusions. 

 Again, the writers in Herzog's "Real-Encyclopadie" 

 1 Commentary on Genesis, by the Bishop of Ely 3 p. 77. 



